LDNGuide
The London Halal Brunch Guide
photo credit: Giulia Verdinelli
The most important rule of brunch is that there is no judgement allowed. It’s a lawless place where you can eat shakshuka at 3pm after spending a shameful amount of time in bed, or have fried chicken and maple syrup at 11am, or even admit that you don’t even really like avocados. Brunch can also, however, get a bit repetitive. Especially if eating halal means you’re having to alternate between eggs florentine and an omelette. These spots are all serving exciting, delicious, and most importantly halal options. From meat-heavy mana’eesh, to hot chicken sandwiches, these are best halal brunch spots around the city.
If you’re after the best restaurants with halal options, we’ve got you covered. Plus check out our guides to London’s best brunches and best breakfast spots too.
THE SPOTS
photo credit: Aleksandra Boruch
A small Lebanese bakery slap bang in the middle of Fulham Road, Ta'mini makes excellent pastries. Their counter is full of freshly baked fatayer (a bready pastry with minced meat or a tangy sumac-heavy spinach filling), and the menu of all-day manakish is perfect for a satisfying brunch. The bakery is bright and compact, with a small group table inside and a couple of tables out front. If you manage to get a spot on a weekend, know that you’ll be eating one of the best brunches in London.
photo credit: Aleksandra Boruch
Emy's Kitchen is a Turkish spot that specialises in the kind of breakfasts that will leave you rolling out the door and mumbling about heaven being in Crouch Hill. Bring a group, bring someone who's just run a marathon, bring anyone who’d appreciate a bread basket and a pot of melted cheese. At the weekend, groups of friends and families with young children pile in to snack on pickled beans, dunk freshly baked cornbread in runny yolks, and fight over the feta-stuffed börek. It's satisfying, communal stuff, perfect for lazy breakfasts.
photo credit: Aleksandra Boruch
Tashas is an all-day cafe, but this Battersea spot really thrives between 8:30am and 2pm when it serves breakfast. There’s a mix of proper hits like a sweetcorn scramble (ask for it without the bacon) that’ll make you feel good about yourself, to a creamy halal chicken and mushroom rigatoni that’s so satisfying it feels like a cheeky dinner dish hiding on a brunch menu. And if you’re a late riser, the spicy steak prego—also halal—works just as well for brunch and is served all day.
This bright, inviting Notting Hill spot is so much more than just a coffee shop. The small, industrial-like cafe has exciting dishes like halloumi sandos with the perfect balance of gooey melted cheese to crispy edges, chicken thigh burgers that are tender and slightly spicy, and silky smooth oat milk lattes that make you order another to go. The food is excellent and the pesky queue moves surprisingly fast. On a warm day the tables out front are filled with couples basking in the sun while sipping green smoothies, and the window stools are made for solo self-care mornings.
photo credit: Aleksandra Boruch
When you choose to have brunch at Dobar, you commit to waiting in a queue. Whether it’s 10 minutes or half an hour really depends on how early you get there, but know there is always a wait at this walk-in only cafe on Green Lanes. It's a casual, rustic spot with exposed brick walls, and we’d happily spend a couple of hours here. That’s if the food didn't arrive so promptly, and get eaten even faster. Whether it’s the hearty full English that arrives in a skillet pan, or the fluffy french toast covered in Nutella and fruit, this is the right way to start the day.
Grounded, a cushion-filled cafe in Whitechapel, serves its halal full English breakfast all day. Plus, when it hits midday, you can get things like saucy brisket and tangy buffalo wings. We love rocking up and mixing the eggy breakfast dishes with the more heavy sticky beef rib numbers for a ‘balanced diet’. It’s ideal when you’re with that friend who winces at the words ‘let’s go for brunch’, because you can drink a coffee, eat six chicken wings, and have a scrambled egg in the space of 90 minutes.
photo credit: Beam
The phrase ‘this is nice, isn’t it’ is guaranteed to be said by at least one member of your group if you head to Beam on Westbourne Grove. Maybe they’re referring to the hanging lights or the exposed brick. Maybe it’s the spaciousness of it all. Or maybe it’s the brunch menu (one of the best in Notting Hill) that includes shakshuka, a spicy benedict with harissa hollandaise sauce that you’ll lick clean off the plate, and Nutella-filled doughnuts. We’ll tell you—it’s all of the above. This cafe is walk-in only, so plan accordingly.
photo credit: Giulia Verdinelli
This family-run bakery and Lebanese restaurant in East Acton has been around for years. And it’s one of the few places we’d travel across the city to eat breakfast. The bakery section of Yasmina’s menu is the highlight. Their clay-oven baked mana’eesh are the best you’ll find in London and also some of the best-value. These flatbreads, topped with things like za’atar, spinach, or sujuk and cheese, are crispy, fluffy, and perfectly baked. Our go-to order is a couple of lahm bi ajeen and spinach mana’eesh, all with additional cheese. When served in a tray with labneh, foul moudamas, and falafel, it’s a complete Levantine breakfast spread.
photo credit: Aleksandra Boruch
All-day restaurant Beit El Zaytoun makes a seriously good Middle Eastern brunch. Located in Harlesden, just off the canal, the semi-outdoor area is a good place to be when the sun is out and you're in the mood for hummus. With a brunch menu filled with things like meat and cheese mana’eesh, halloumi, and zait w zaatar, it’s the perfect scenic spot to spend a couple of hours nibbling away at some falafel and tahini.
This cafe in Camden knows better than to pick a side on the whole ‘war on avocados’ thing. It’s got a menu that respects all the classic eggy breakfast stuff, as well as offering things like creole chicken waffles, hot salt beef sandwiches, and—deep breath—curly fries. The food at Lumi is pretty tasty, with halal chicken and beef options, and with none of the brunch dishes exceeding the £16 mark, it’s a solid option around the area.
photo credit: Giulia Verdinelli
Shepherd’s Bush isn’t lacking options when it comes to halal Lebanese restaurants and bakeries. But if you’re only going to try one, it should be Zeit & Zaatar. This little spot on Uxbridge Road has been specialising in manakeesh for over a decade, and it shows. They’ve got all the classics like za’atar and labneh and halloumi, as well as some Z&Z specialties like basterma with cheese, and cheese and honey. You can’t go wrong with a classic lahm beajin or spinach, and you should always ask for some cheese on them.
photo credit: Giulia Verdinelli
If you’re tired of turning up to brunch every Saturday only to discover another menu that appears to be holding a social experiment called How Many Ways Can You Smash An Avocado, then we’d like to introduce you to The Apple Blue. Although this little Balham spot has still got those avocado bases covered, it’s also home to dutch babies. It’s an XXL vehicle for fried chicken that is part pancake and part yorkshire pudding, and we promise this maple syrup-topped carb-fest will avoid any brunch deja vu. The iced Korean coffee is also a real winner.
photo credit: Aleksandra Boruch
Although the coffee at this Hackney cafe is good and their homemade pastries, cakes, and cookies quite irresistible (we’re looking at you, crème brûlée cookie), it’s the weekend when you should visit Bake Street. Their fried chicken sandwiches are McDz-like in the best possible way. Soft buns, crisp pounded chicken, and completely inhaleable in under a minute. Flavours, be it a Nashville-inspired hot chicken or a spiced fish cutter, are above and beyond anything fast food-related, though. Don’t ignore the smashburger either. Or the birria tacos if they’re on.
photo credit: Christopher's
POWERED BY
When you come to this two-floor American restaurant in Covent Garden for brunch, book the upstairs dining room. It’s got high ceilings, an open and airy feel, and round tables with white tablecloths that will make it hard for your friend to reach over for a bite of your wagyu steak. Which, by the way, is halal, as are all of the wagyu beef options on the menu. Our go-to move is to get one of their hefty burgers and leave enough stomach space for the chocolate-filled, brioche french toast. It’s our favourite french toast in the city.
photo credit: Aleksandra Boruch
In an area filled with excellent brunch options, this North African cafe on Balham High Road is one that will have you googling house prices in SW12. A cosy little spot that’s often packed on the weekend, Heart Of Balham the place to come for an excellent halal full English. Just about everything on the menu that includes their roasted seasoned potatoes is a winner and, as well as the tasty brunch options, they serve chermoula chicken burgers and pasta from 11am. If you’re torn between the buttermilk pancakes or another hot chocolate with marshmallows, get both plus the Moroccan msemen for dessert.
photo credit: Aleksandra Boruch
The theme at this Victoria bakery is ‘international baking’, which means you’ll find a selection of breads from around the world. Bagels, monkey bread, focaccia, ka’ak, and more, served plain and stuffed with things like halloumi or pastrami. There are also inventive pastries like a za’atar and gruyère croissant which can be hit and miss depending on how soon you catch them after they’re baked. The go-to order is one of the excellent clay-oven flatbreads. Topped with delicious combinations like merguez and garlic aioli, or burrata and honey, these breads are what make this spot worth going out of your way for. And it's all halal.
