Square Mile Centric - Top lunch hotspots

Anonymous

From the SCR thread, I've just moved from Cannon Street to Leadenhall so looking at new lunch spots.

I don't like to spend a fortune on lunches so tend to look around the £4-£6 mark, with a strong preference for the lower end. Places which pop up every now and then I haven't mentioned. The below are all open every day.

Top 7 places for me are, in no particular order

- The Nusa Kitchen (not Nusa Kitchen). In Adam's court, between Threadneedle and Old Broad Street - spicy soups with rice.
- Assenheim's 56 - chicken and green and veg. Huge portions. The one by Tower Hill has the biggest seating areas, but I think they have 3 branches now
- Burrito Joe's - not the cheapest but good flavour and they also sell Rio Tropical. Hot sauce is too hot for me.
- Petticoat lane market - specifically the falafel/chicken escalope wrap place. Wrap with all the trimmings, good chilli sauce. £4 including water. Ridiculously good and filling. Add £1 for extra falafel.
- Porterford Butchers (Watling Street). Rolls a bit dry but fillings amazing and their barbecue'd ribs, chops and chicken legs are amazing. They often have a deal on for uncooked stuff on Friday's as well.
- Bep Haus - (opposite butchers above) - hidden in plain sight, an absolute gem which does the most incredible pork belly sandwiches on the softest bread I have ever eaten. Top end of my tightwad budget but exceptionally good.
- Tortilla inside Leadenhall isn't bad either. More of a fajita than a burrito but pretty good nonetheless and filling.

Kontador and Cook (foot of the Gherkin) is excellent but about £12 per head so I only go there when I have a freebie.

hopkinb

- City Caphe - best Vietnamese in the square mile - queues out of the door every day. Pho and bun hue, plus spring rolls, summer rolls, banh mi etc.
- Burrito Joes as per coriordan above - except I do have the hot sauce, with a chicken and pulled pork mixed burrito.
- Porterfords, not the rolls, but chicken thighs, ribs etc with hot spuds. Sausage baguette in the morning is a treat too.
- Kurumaya sushi on Watling St I suppose expensive, but a rare treat
- various street food curry stalls either Whitecross street, or 1 new change, depending on how far I want to walk, or which day it is.
- the Athenian, kind of behind burrito joes, greek flatbreads or souvlaki and salad in a box

I've always ignored bep haus, due to City Caphe, but I do love a pork belly sandwich, so might try that today. I'm starving - experimenting with no breakfast, then holding on until lunch.

Anonymous

Bep haus will not disappoint. Worst case scenario you could say the portions could be bigger, but they are not measly.

dhope

Top thread timing.
Just moved from Canary Wharf to St Pauls and been disappointed at most of what's nearby.

itboffin

whitecross market - that is all

off there now in fact

BobMcbob

Work canteen, best in the city

hopkinb

BobMcbob wrote:

Work canteen, best in the city

We used to have one of those.

Anonymous

ITB - check out petticoat lane. Although quite far east so may be a bit of a slog.

Anonymous

Around St Pauls there is a good sandwich place opposite Haz. Haz itself is quite good as well if you have a good excuse for a work lunch.

iPete

dhope wrote:

Top thread timing.
Just moved from Canary Wharf to St Pauls and been disappointed at most of what's nearby.

Whilst I hardly lunch out now, here are the best per essential food group..

Pilpel for falafel
Pixxa for err pizza
Poncho 8 for Burritos

dhope

At the risk of ridicule. Anywhere that does a decent, cheap, salad. Not just lettuce leaves.

I will obviously buy a dead animal separately to eat with it.

MrSweary

+1 for Nusa Kitchen and Pilpel.

I still hold a place in my heart for Kossoff's cheese and tom rolls or cream cheese bagels.

As I said looking forward to leaving the lunch desert that is Mayfair.*

*although I make my own lunch most days.

hopkinb

Fridays in 1 New Change there's a woman who does a big slice of quiche and a choice of 2 salads from potato & spinach/bulgur wheat & stuff/greek salad. That's a fiver or it was a couple fo months ago. Otherwise there's the expensive joints called things like Pure! VITAL etc or M&S do 2 little pots of various salads for £3.

keyser__soze

dhope wrote:

Top thread timing.
Just moved from Canary Wharf to St Pauls and been disappointed at most of what's nearby.

FML it must be slim picking, I find the Wharf diabolical, all overpriced chain crap. Much preferred it when I worked on the Strand, Chequers on Bedford St was top notch a decade ago.

asprilla

coriordan wrote:

Kontador and Cook (foot of the Gherkin) is excellent but about £12 per head so I only go there when I have a freebie.

Not as good as the one behind Waterloo East. Their Boston Brownies are amazing.

wolfsbane2k

I sodding hate you all.
<cries into his lunch of smoked mackerel and leaves>
Absolutely nothing near me that's not a grease burger.

keef66

Why I'm choosing to read this thread is a complete mystery to me.

I don't work in London. And today's a fast day. To make matters worse some bugger brought a cake in and left it conspicuously in my line of sight...

Must be strong. Just back from 3 days of sitting / eating / drinking in Germany at the company's expense...

itboffin

Donuts this morning, then a chicken curry and rice from the market, lovely stuff.

Got some leftover chilli at home to have before dinner, nom nom nom

Friday treats at work tomorrow is sandwiches, i've gone for the sausage egg and bacon on white bread.

Slurp

Quins

Loving this thread! I miss the city so much. I'm in Vauxhall barren in comparison but the competition for the lunch has noticeably increased, great cafes, sandwich bars, Korean just opened , the obligatory Portuguese deli/bar and a good curry ( Coriander, plus Hot Stuff is a schlep but doable). Stir fry Friday, take out from Tasty House ( letters have fallen off so it's just "asty ouse") , large Singapore noodles extra spicy, just love watching the old boy cook it, such moves. Plenty of ghetto chicken joints selling unlucky fried kitten to the school kids .Eeeuuww.

hopkinb

I forgot fish and chips at Fish Central. On central street. I suppose it's nudging Islington/Shoreditch, but we always walk up from by Guildhall. It's less than a tenner for lovely fresh fish and chips.

rick_chasey

peticoat lane ftw. The Malaysian curry and the katsu wrap are outrageous VFM.

Earl's off Fenchurch street is an excellent sandwich shop who are actually comfortable with specific requests. It's no Pavarotti's (RIP) but a good approximation.

But I'm a burrito man, and round where I am, I'm a 10 minute walk from 3 (down from 4) different shops, so all good.

There's a new assenheims on london wall, but it does nail you for the rest of the afternoon. Also, they replaced the tabasco with an inferior chili sauce so the office scramble for the tabasco has become a PITA.

whatleytom

Just had the Pork Belly from Bep based on the recommendations, was not disappointed.

cjcp

It's not in the City, but Sapori's on Horseferry Road (the one leading off Lambeth Bridge roundabout on the north side of the river) serves up a roast dinner in a sandwich, my preference being for focaccia e.g. pork, stuffing, crackling, roast potatoes, roast vegetables.

It's the greatest lunchtime sandwich I've ever had in London. It was life-changing.

kleinstroker

Jealous. Who gets a lunch break anymore?

rick_chasey

Alright Gordon Gecko. Calm down :P

itboffin

kleinstroker wrote:

Jealous. Who gets a lunch break anymore?

erm everyone :roll:

kleinstroker

itboffin wrote:

kleinstroker wrote:

Jealous. Who gets a lunch break anymore?

erm everyone :roll:

I've not had a structured lunch break or lunch away from my place of work for the past 16 years.

I am a prole though.

itboffin

eh WTF is that?

now then let me tell you this, its doesnt matter how senior or junior you are or how much you feel like there's not enough time for lunch / coffee / etc you much take breaks not just legally but because those gaps in work calm you and allow you to be more productive, i now block work from my private life but back in the day used to have my best epiphanies either in dreams or when not at work i even used to wake up in the night with solutions to complex technical problems, I don't do that anymore.

Now i'm paid to come up with solutions to technicals problems and i'm very very happy.

take a lunch break, think about what you just did, was it the very best thing you could have done? Since i started doing this i'm so god damn chilled out

dhope

^ this

People just don't work efficiently without breaks and time to rest and refocus. The badge of honour working without breaks and/or only needing a few hours sleep a night is outdated and a recipe for unproductive and uncreative work.

What job do you do?

rick_chasey

Though I'd suggest the chicken escalope with melted cheese, pizza sauce, in a bap about the size of my head, with all the salads isn't necessarily conducive to the most productive afternoon....

cjcp

dhope wrote:

^ this

People just don't work efficiently without breaks and time to rest and refocus. The badge of honour working without breaks and/or only needing a few hours sleep a night is outdated and a recipe for unproductive and uncreative work.

What job do you do?

You know that Boffin doesn't actually work, right?

He's either on a train, riding into a headwind (through the snow and fog), on holiday, eating or buying coffee.

Holidays seem to be the single, largest part of the above.