London Balham Restaurant Guide

Burgers served à la française in a brioche bun still win a good level of support for this 20-year-old fast-food group. Having shrunk to just two branches – Balham and the Camden flagship, the latter said to be a favourite of Amy Winehouse back in the day – they are now part of Jamie Barber’s Hush Mayfair operation, with former branches in Kingston, Holborn and Chelsea upgraded into brasseries.

Fans still cross the neighbouring postcodes to brunch at this Antipodean-inspired brunch favourite, in deepest Balham (which has been a trendy local hotspot for over 10 years now). Have your phone ready to look up all the never-before-seen Asian flourishes to the dishes. Top Menu Tip – fish sando.

A “buzzy” atmosphere and “welcoming service” are the strong suits of this “expanding group”, with 16 branches in London and another handful nearby. While nobody disputes that they’re “lovely to sit in” and offer “value for money”, the “Middle-Eastern-inspired cooking” divides opinion, with some reporters “pleasantly surprised by the tasty food” and others bemoaning “underwhelming” dishes that “sound better than they taste”.

2023 Review: “Very helpful staff” add to the appeal of this Balham High Street Indian, of over 15 years’ standing. Whether it should be a perennial inclusion in TripAdvisor’s top 10 London restaurants is debatable, but the (limited) feedback we receive says it’s worth a visit.

2023 Review: “Top-class Chinese food, served in canteen-style surroundings” has arrived in Balham with the pandemic-delayed opening of this first solo project from Chi San, former right-hand man to Alan Yau of Yauatcha and Hakkasan fame. The relatively short menu is filled with standard dishes from the Cantonese culinary canon, modernised through the use of high-quality produce, and there’s an interesting selection of beers, wines and teas.

“A bit of a dive to be honest, but the food is still so good!” – no-one claims Mr Taro’s group is particularly stylish, but for “very generous portions of the classic Japanese dishes (including decent sushi, teriyaki and katsu curry)” these functional canteens hit the spot, and at a very good price. The latest (summer 2024) additions to its roster of eight venues are Catford in southeast London and Brentwood in Essex.

2022 Review: “Great pizza in a cycle-themed restaurant”, alongside high-energy breakfast and brunch, washed down by decent coffee, fuel the peloton that passes through Putney on the way to and from Richmond Park – “what’s not to like?”. The branch in Balham closed down in 2020.

2021 Review: “A great pub!” (part of the Three Cheers Pub Co) down Balham way, with smart interior and gorgeous, big outside garden, and where steaks and ‘artisan pizzas’ are mainstays of a comprehensive menu: “even if the pub was boring, I’d come back time and again for the fantastic food!”

“Reliably excellent pizza” – “better than the other high street chains” – is what you’ll find at this growing Clapton-based operation, now with 12 sites from Balham and Crystal Palace in the south to Tufnell Park (which, as of summer 2024, is the latest to open). They’re perhaps “not smart as places to eat”, but that hardly matters – and the “toppings are interesting without being off-puttingly un-pizza-ish”.

“Lush pizza” that’s reliably “top-quality” has driven the expansion of this Islington-based group that has developed four different 48-hour ferment bases – including gluten-free and ‘black vegetable charcoal’ versions to reduce stomach gas; so “everyone’s happy”. The eight-year-old group now has nine sites in the capital (including a new one labelled as ‘Chelsea’ but on Fulham Broadway) and one in Reading.

“A heady mix of cocktails and curry, with friendly and informative staff” – this contemporary Indian on the site of former Balham favourite Lamberts (RIP) operates as a café by day but is “noisily popular in the evening”, when it serves for “very good dishes with a modern and innovative twist on Indian favourites” in “an attractively decorated setting”.

Close to Tooting Bec, a bakery spin-off from well-known Balham coffee shop Milk, a southwest London leader in Antipodean-style daytime coffee and grazing.