Take an early supper at Hawksmoor Seven Dials (11 Langley Street, WC2H 9JG; 020 7420 9390; thehawksmoor.com), which has a midweek express menu (two courses £22, three courses £25) from 5pm to 6pm.
Lantana – a previous winner of our Best New Café award – continues to dish up inventive and exciting brekkie dishes the Aussie way. Read more.
Anna Hansen’s Clerkenwell restaurant is a popular destination for those who like a breakfast with wow factor. Nearly all the essentially classic dishes are jazzed-up with unusual ingredients. Read more.
This brasserie has a busy breakfast trade. Breakfast diners are directed left towards the comfier of the two main dining areas, which has deep leather banquettes and is slightly more private. Read more.
This sleek café, attached to an architectural practice, is open to the public and serves excellent breakfasts and brunches. Read more.
In central Soho did Ottolenghi a stately pleasure dome decree. This place is perfect when you don’t want a fry-up and need some elbow room at breakfast time. Read more.
Railroad is not your typical Hackney caff. It’s quirky, homely and very lo-fi, but the breakfast is a lot more ambitious than you might expect. Read more.
Occupying a space in some of the remnants of the original Euston train station, this snug lodge is dedicated to serving only the finest cider. Read more.
Experimental Cocktail Club is perhaps the closest we have to a genuine hidden drinking den, and the fact it's on the tourist strip of Gerrard Street makes it even more interesting. Read more.
This cosy cocktail cavern is a bar with down-to-earth decor, extremely well-crafted cocktails, switched-on staff and good music. Simple, really. Read more.
Opened in 2009, together with the Mark Hix-operated restaurant on the ground floor, this is a destination in its own right. It's a subterranean speakeasy with plenty of style. Read more.
Reminiscent of a Twin Peaks cabin with moose heads, mirror balls, and retro wallpaper, this hidden basement bar is delightfully quirky. Read more.
A late-closing cocktail bar that boasts live jazz and a gifted bunch of bartenders who have compiled a well-crafted list featuring liquid legacies from the cocktail's golden era. Read more.
A loveable place that aims to recreate the atmosphere of a New York speakeasy, Purl has simple but endearingly eclectic decor. Read more.
An intimate space in which to enjoy pristine cocktails mixed with quiet ceremony by the elegantly bow-tied owner, Tony Conigliaro. Read more.
With a small square of front terrace, a modern bar and a grand, sunken restaurant, this little piece of Poland has been a worthwhile stop on Waterloo bar crawls for many a year. Read more.
As part of the architect George Gilbert Scott's 1873 Midland Grand Hotel, The Booking Office is an awe-inspiring bar. Read more.
Gentrification has sunk its claws into this once-scruffy boozer, for years one of the holdouts along the Portobello Road. Read more.
