The Best Breakfast, Lunch And Dinner Places Near Old Street, London

This new café and bar has practically become Culture Trip’s editorial meeting room, and you can often find us on the big table downstairs having our meetings fueled by some great coffee. Breakfast choices are delicious, nutritious and mindfully sourced. We love the homemade sourdough, topped with a soft-boiled egg. Also worth a try is the roasted cinnamon apple and Greek yoghurt.

For freshly cooked cheap eats at lunchtime, head to Whitecross Street Market, where food trucks and businesses spill out onto the road. A CT staff favourite is Yum Bowl, which has a stall on the market itself, as well as a shop just around the corner.

As the name suggests, this is a casual, contemporary dining space serving great breakfasts (as well as lunch and dinner) throughout the week. There’s an emphasis on healthier dishes, such as The Modern Pantry Breakfast pudding, made from chia seeds and quinoa soaked in coconut milk, cinnamon and vanilla, and served with coconut yoghurt, blueberry and ajowan-poached pineapple sprinkled with toasted coconut. The cured New Caledonian prawn omelette with green chili, spring onion, coriander and smoked chili sambal is amazing, too. If you’re going at the weekend, the menu expands to include brunch offerings washed down with bubbles.

Hidden down a little alleyway, this café and restaurant offers great home-cooked Irish food, which means three things: fresh-baked soda bread, a big pot of tea and a cake on the table. There’s a great range of sandwiches – try the club: a triple-decker sandwich with free-range roast chicken, bacon, avocado, tomato, baby leaves and mayo. For something more filling, there’s a good homemade pie served with champ (mashed potatoes with spring onions) or a bowl of hearty Irish stew with crusty white bread.

There are two Pham Sushis in the area, one at the bottom of the Heron Tower, and one on Whitecross Street, which is nearer to Old Street. There’s an extensive range of sushi types, from classic nigiri to sashimi. The set platters for four or six are beautifully presented, garnished with traditional carved vegetables. For something really special, try the flying dragon roll, made with eel, asparagus and tempura flakes, wrapped in avocado with ikura (salmon roe) on top.

Founded by four Italian friends who used to work in the area, Jane Roe delivers great value for money by having a short, tight menu of crowd-pleasing pizzas and burgers. Ingredients are carefully sourced and prepared, with all their meat coming from nearby Smithfield Market. The pizza dough is left to rest for 48 hours, before being used to make classics like Napoli featuring, tomato sauce, fior di latte mozzarella, anchovies, olives and fresh basil.

Named after the iconic game dish, The Jugged Hare – unsurprisingly – offers the best of British game, as well as beef, lamb and pork. The menu changes seasonally, featuring dishes from game terrine with hunter sauce to Dorset Crab with Melba toast. Excellent mains come from the grill and rotisserie – and as well as a range of steaks, there’s also half a Suffolk free-range chicken with sage stuffing and bread sauce. But it’s the game dishes diners come here for, particularly in the cooler months.

Dan Doherty’s restaurant in the clouds 40 stories up the Heron Tower offers an unsurpassed view of the city. Choose from slow-cooked lamb sloppy joe, spicy ox cheek doughnut or the eponymous duck and waffle (crispy leg confit, fried duck egg, mustard maple syrup). Wash it all down with one of the champagne cocktails, including the equally ‘robust’ champagne negroni.