LDNGuide
Our 20 Favourite Spots For A Solo Meal (Right Now)
photo credit: Aleksandra Boruch
Eating out on your own has to be the biggest restaurant-related stigma there is. The judgy looks from bored couples. The pointedly worded pie 'for 2-3'. The crushing realisation that it’s just you and your interior monologue... again. But it shouldn’t have to be like this. Because dining solo is a lovely thing to do. So choose one of these spots for some quality (and delicious) you time.
CENTRAL
photo credit: Karolina Wiercigroch
This vaguely signposted Chinese spot in Covent Garden is home to some of London’s best made-to-order noodles. The stripped-back space is utilitarian and the same goes for the service. Plop yourself down on one of the shared tables up or downstairs and attempt to get someone’s attention as soon as possible. Noodles la mian (hand-pulled) or dao xiao mian (knife-cut) are your choices. The former are round and slippery, the latter flat and chewy. Both are top-tier and the broth for soups, depending on the day, can be good too.
photo credit: Karolina Wiercigroch
Stools snake around Sweetings’ 130-something-year-old dining room, along the bar where oysters sit, and also facing the windows that look out onto The City. This stalwart British seafood institution isn’t just full of trust funds, it's completely trusted too. Comforting fish pies and pints, followed by sticky toffee pudding and a pool of custard. Considering it’s only open in the daytime, in the week, it’s one of London’s most unique solo meals.
photo credit: Kiln
The pros of Kiln are genuinely fantastic Thai food with the downside, like most hyped Soho restaurants, that the queue makes it a logistical ball-ache. Especially if your friends don’t do the ‘give us your number and we’ll call you when your table’s ready’ thing. Eating here by yourself is a good way to get around it, as it’s much easier to grab a seat at the bar. As well as being able to watch your food being made, the portions are perfect for solo diners (get the lamb skewer and crab noodles).
There’s something a little heavenly about the all-white, signal-less bar at St. John in Clerkenwell. So much so that we’d be more than happy to spend the rest of our days at the British restaurant. During the week the bar area is, hands down, our favourite place to eat alone in London. It’s quiet. It’s peaceful. Nobody can use their phone. There’s a bar stocked with an excellent range of drinks. And we could, if pushed, eat that Welsh rarebit forever and ever.
NORTH
photo credit: Jake Missing
At Kofteci Metin, friends settle in on big round tables, dates take a banquette, while solo diners get comfortable with an Efes and meatballs for one. And everyone enjoys an enormous replica Picasso that hangs on the wall. The eclectic interior of this Turkish spot on Harringay Green Lanes is an added bonus to what is a straightforward restaurant. This place is all about koftes—juicy Ottoman kebabs, maybe with a vibrant piyaz salad on the side. You’ll find it hard to go wrong here.
This pan-Asian spot jostles for attention next to West African cafes and Chinese takeaways on a permanently busy street in South Tottenham. Inside, low-key catch-ups take place underneath neon lights and relaxing solo meals are enjoyed in wood-clad corners. The menu—which covers Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and Thai dishes—is solid and portions require a post-meal nap. Satisfying piles of chow mein and fried rice feature but crispy chicken in any form—from juicy karaage to popcorn bites in a gangnam sauce—should always be part of your order.
photo credit: Aleksandra Boruch
Follow the smell of slowly cooking, deeply flavoured lamb shawarma in N4 and you’ll find Palmyra’s Kitchen, sandwiched in between the glassy development behind Finsbury Park. A Middle Eastern restaurant that serves dishes from Syria and Lebanon, this homely spot suits solo diners whose sole desire is to inhale a superb shawarma. Everything is flavour-first: the labneh has an officious fizz of garlic, the tabbouleh is fittingly 90% parsley, and the soujuk oozes cumin and pepper.
photo credit: Jake Missing
A bowl of Seto’s delicate miso ramen is a perfect meal any night of the week. The low-key Japanese restaurant in Camden is a bustling hub of solo diners, students, and groups of friends. You'll want to call ahead as a free table, even for one, is not a given. It’s the noodle soup you should pay the most attention to. The carefully made broth is a pork and chicken mixture, and you can get it topped with chewy chashu pork, moist chicken breast, as well as piles of bamboo shoots, spring onion, and gooey ni tamago egg.
SOUTH
photo credit: Aleksandra Boruch
This restaurant is best described as a much-needed exhale. Light floods into The Garden Museum Cafe’s paired-back room from its leafy green courtyard, and the vibe is like The Secret Garden meets MasterChef. Getting a table for one—preferably outside when it’s warm—and tucking into their modern British menu of things like homemade brawn or umami-rich venison mince and mash is a form of self care. The place is tranquil, gorgeously green, and almost nicer to experience alone than with the distraction of others.
photo credit: Aleksandra Boruch
Slump into Kaieteur Kitchen in a huff and you can guarantee that your frown will be turned upside down by any number of things. This Guyanese spot’s heartwarming hospitality is well-known, not just in Elephant and Castle but all over London, and its food is excellent. Pepper pot is a slow-cooked meaty puddle of brown deliciousness, with meat so tender it gives up before your plate is put down. The sauce is so rich with cloves, cassava, and cinnamon, that leaving even a drop is a crime. Roti is a must.
photo credit: Aleksandra Boruch
Located on a quiet street corner in Peckham, Ganapati serves delicious thali weekday lunches with enough food to keep you satisfied for at least six hours. We’re talking creamy chicken curry, rice, poppadoms, a refreshing raita, and a mung bean salad, all for under £15. There are also dosas and flaky parathas on their all-day menu and there are plenty of solo tables at the back.
photo credit: Giulia Verdinelli
Hummus, a pineapple, and a tin of beans with little sausages. That’s what we picked up the last time we went to our corner shop looking for solo dinner inspiration. But that’ll never happen at Persepolis. This Persian shop, deli, and restaurant serves the people of Peckham (and beyond) a range of brilliant-tasting and priced vegetarian and vegan dishes. It’s perfect for a healthy solo lunch or early dinner, especially as the one-person mezze plate is around tenner.
EAST
photo credit: Giulia Verdinelli
Instead of cupboard foraging, 3pm-type food, Snackbar makes gooey tuna melt toasties and kimchi croque madames. The airy, low-key breakfast and brunch spot is something of a haven among the frenetic energy off of Dalston’s Kingsland Road thanks to its muted tones, miso chocolate chip cookies, and all-round chilled vibe. Also, the caesar salad—with crispy chicken skin and oozing amber egg yolks—makes a strong case for brunch salads.
photo credit: Aleksandra Boruch
Homies on Donkeys is a restaurant that feels like it wants to share the good time vibes via osmosis. The walls are Barbie-pink and Lego-yellow, and the Leytonstone taqueria makes mood-boosting tacos, from smoky chicken barbacoa to roasted broccoli. This place is pretty much perma-busy, but rock up on your own and nab one of the window stools. Soon enough you’ll have a creamy horchata in one hand and jalapeño relish happily dripping down your wrist.
photo credit: Aleksandra Boruch
Bao are very good at restaurants. So, it's little surprise that their take on a Taiwanese noodle shop (in the heart of Shoreditch) is full of comfortable bar seating and window-facing stools. Perfect for getting your head down and intimate with something brothy. The Tainan beef noodle soup is a heartwarming bowl of slurpyness—don’t skip on the beef butter—and one of these is a perfect solo meal. It’s also worth knowing their Soho location offers an excellent £20 single diner menu with a bao, a bite of fried chicken, a rice dish, and a refreshing glass of peanut milk.
photo credit: Giulia Verdinelli
The Chongqing noodle and Sichuanese spot in Spitalfields is a peaceful getaway from the hubbub of the market next door. A bowl of niu-rou mian is a face-down, bib-on kind of noodle soup and the same goes for a generous, dry chilli-heavy portion of gong-bao ji ding. Gong-bao chicken done the proper, Sichuan way. That said, if they sound a little heavy you can always swing by for a bowl of dumplings and lang-ya tu dou, wok-fried chips.
WEST
photo credit: Aleksandra Boruch
Cafe Helen is something of a west London institution and for those familiar, it’s a go-to at any hour of the morning. The Lebanese restaurant has two hulking shawarmas spinning from late afternoon to 6am so if you’re after a speedy post-work mezze, or a solo late-night wrap on Edgware Road, this is the place to go. While it’s not the most carefully made shawarma in the world, the fact that you can call on Cafe Helen any time of night more than makes up for it.
photo credit: Aleksandra Boruch
This Somali spot in Shepherd's Bush is an in-and-out kind of place—the white lighting and mismatched dining chairs hint at that. It’s usually half-filled by friends looking for a quick fix when they’re on a budget, or a hungry phone-scroller perching on a chair while waiting for their takeaway. The mandi—tender lamb shoulder covered in caramelised onions, potatoes, and peppers—is an excellent solo choice at Banaadiri.
photo credit: Aleksandra Boruch
One thing we like to do when we hate everyone and everything, is hide. It’s a very mature technique we learned when we still wore bibs. Normah’s in Queensway Market is one of our favourite restaurants to hide in. The Malaysian spot is a low-key, homely place, where Normah does everything. She fries the crunchy chicken wings and she braises the meltingly good rendang. If maternal warmth and cooking are what you need, look no further.
photo credit: Jamie Lau
Every neighbourhood needs a steadfast joint. Your port in the storm when you need a little you time and, for Shepherd’s Bush, that place is Mr Falafel. The Palestinian spot has a pretty basic grab-and-go setup, but their classic wrap is under a fiver and it’s got to be one of the best falafels in London, with hummus, fried aubergine, pickled veg, plus a load of fried cauliflower and potato.
