South

Some head to Chinatown for dim sum, but you’d be missing out on a Camberwell classic: Silk Road. Come for a late-night dinner (closing time is 11pm) and indulge in all manner of chili-kissed noodles. Share a plate of the Xiang-style hand-pulled ones with lamb, which come in a lip-stinging sour soup.

Down in Brixton you can’t miss Adejoké Bakare’s Chishuru. What started as a supper club has grown into a permanent spot serving up modern West African dishes. The rotating set menu is full of bright and bold flavors, always accompanied by rice, plantain, and cucumber. There’s scotch bonnet–infused sauces—not for the faint-hearted—and gamey stews.

North

The Nigerian tapas restaurant Chuku’s, run by siblings Emeka and Ifeyinwa Frederick, warrants a trip to Tottenham. Share the fluffy yam dumplings or the beef ayamase, which comes smothered in kicky green pepper sauce. And don’t miss the yam and smoked mackerel croquettes, which bring together salt, crunch, and big heat from the scotch bonnet jam.

Travel south a little farther to Afghan Kitchen in Islington Green, a tiny, long-standing spot with an even tinier menu. All of the dishes here are gently spiced, rich, and saucy, begging to be mopped up with fluffy house-made bread. Order the tender lamb or eggplant in yogurt.

East

On weekends, Khyber Pass in Manor Park is the place to be for Northern Pakistani fare. Go for ghanta ghar chicken, enriched with ginger, chili, and garlic. The daals here are fragrant and al dente—the perfect complement to the peshwari chappli lamb kebab. And don't skip the kahwa tea, which is sweet and heady with cardamom, cloves, and cinnamon.

Grab an early lunch at Campania and order the gnudi: three perfect spheres of pillowy ricotta and sage drenched in butter. Strongly consider the scialatielli: fat, doughy, lengthy strands bathed in peppery, garlicky olive oil and usually tossed with whatever shellfish is on that week.

One thing you can count on in London is that there’s always a good pub a stone’s throw away; in this case, it’s The Marksman, just around the corner from Campania. In need of a light bite? Order the Maldon-flecked oysters or the langoustines. Ravenous? A classic Sunday roast will do the trick. The beef and Yorkshire pudding for two is a worthy—and sleep-inducing—way to end the day.

West

The team behind the Middle Eastern grill house Berber & Q have opened Carmel, in Queen's Park, a Middle Eastern-meets-Mediterranean restaurant serving Spanish tomatoes sprinkled with sumac, a whole-roasted cauliflower shawarma with turmeric and pomegranate agrodolce, and a spicy, smoky, fall-off-the-bone roast chicken. The hummus (creamy and tangy) with the za’atar flatbread (soft and pillowy) should be on-hand at all times.

Head south from Queen’s Park toward Notting Hill for seafood from the Western Isles at Orasay. If you’re passing through for lunch, grab the fish finger sandwich: crispy fried haddock, tartar sauce, and shredded cabbage, all piled high into a potato bun. Oyster happy hour takes place between 4 and 7pm on weekdays, but you'd might as stay for dinner and order the whipped cod’s roe on potato bread.

Central

A Filipino bistro in the heart of Mayfair, Sarap Baon, from the Philippines-born chef Ferdinand Montoya, focuses on all-things-pork. There’s a whole suckling pig stuffed with lemongrass and pork adobo rice for the table, plus monkfish escabeche and celeriac kare kare, a rich, peanut-y stew finished with a hit of truffle. Be sure to order a side of coconut milk–braised kale, which is doused in ginger, chili, and garlic.

Cat Sarsfield is a food writer, content strategist and unmeasured cook with a millennial penchant for fresh pasta, scammer stories and penning newsletters. Namely her own, Since No One Asked, a weekly-ish dispatch of food nostalgia, recipe-not-recipes and cultural content recommendations. Fun fact: she's lived in a shed in Cornwall, a railway house in Sri Lanka and a bridal suite in California.