London Tooting Restaurant Guide

2023 Review: Laura Aitkin & Kiki Evans’s “quirky” wine bar in Tooting Market is “worth a visit for a fun evening” spent with an “eclectic wine list and food menu” – the latter from a succession of guest chefs (“go for the unusual wines based on themes e.g. myths”). The pair have a second wine bar in a shipping container by Waterloo station.

2021 Review: High marks again for this brave hipster outpost occupying one of the stalls in Tooting’s covered market, and where funky, seasonal, British small plates are served at the counter. Some diners found themselves “questioning some of the combinations”, but most judged results “very good”.

2021 Review: Helping make Tooting’s Broadway Market a foodie destination, this “very affordable” three-year-old seafood specialist wins praise for its “fabulous food, great service and big smiles”. The “really inventive” approach extends to drinks, which include an “amazing gin cocktail” flavoured with oysters. Antiques trade veteran Jimmy Luttman is an “excellent” host.

2021 Review: The “lovely Thai food” at these reliable cafés is “impressively authentic given that they are a chain” – “excellent value” and “fast”, if occasionally let down by “iffy service”. Founded in 2008 by Saiphin and Alex Moore, who inherited the name of their first East End site, the group has 18 branches in London and expanded to Liverpool, Manchester, Reading (delivery only) and Leeds following the sale of a majority stake to US investors. The couple also have two spin-offs, Lao Café in Covent Garden and the new Chinese noodle bar Hoh Sek in St Katharine Docks.

“Always delicious”, this well-known Pakistani canteen on Tooting’s ‘curry corridor’ offers the “same fun and good-value food as it has for years”. A favourite of local boy-made-mayor Sadiq Khan (so come on foot or by public transport), it has an offshoot in Coulsdon, on London’s southern fringe.

2022 Review: “A must-visit on Tooting High Street” – this modest and “amazing-value” family-run café was one of the first in London to serve “authentic and delicious hoppers and other Sri Lankan specialities” when it opened 31 years ago. “The lunch menu is really good for a cheap ’n’ cheerful meal, but for the best experience go in the evening and eat in the back dining room”.

Another year of stellar ratings confirms that Remi Williams and Aaron Webster’s former pop-up in Tooting is no flash in the pan, offering “fine food in a bustling, vibrant atmosphere” and “set menus of delicious sharing plates” for which they make clever use of European salting, curing and smoking techniques. They made a name for themselves at Pop Brixton before moving to this permanent site in 2020.

“A local delight” near Tooting Broadway tube station – this “fantastic tapas restaurant brings together some wonderful Iberian tastes with brilliant service”; and “the lighting is great for an intimate meal out” (the “buzzy and upbeat atmosphere adds to the feeling that you’re anywhere but on Tooting High Street!”). The founders, former food journalist Madeleine Lim and Hikmat Antippa, owner of nearby Meza, are two of the prime movers behind Tooting’s growing food scene.

This family-owned traditional Thai trio – in Brixton, Battersea and Tooting – is “always packed” – a tribute to the high levels of hospitality they have maintained over the years. The BYO policy means they are good value, too.