I have to admit that on my first time visiting London, I thought that all the city had to offer in terms of food was fish and chips (though when done right, they’re incredible).

Little did I know that London’s food scene is some delicious melding of flavors from all around the globe, keeping both tradition and innovation in mind. Though with so many options, it can be challenging knowing just where to start while making sure you don’t miss out.

That’s where food tours come in handy – I’ve detailed the 5 top London food tours that are all well worth your time and money. Let’s get started!

Best Food Tours in London

	London Walking Food Tour With Secret Food Tours	London Walking Indian Food Tour With Secret Food Tours	Eating London: Brick Lane, Shoreditch & Spitalfields Food Tour
Location:	6 Tooley St, London SE1 2SY	Whitechapel Gallery, 77-82 Whitechapel High St, London	Poke House - Spitalfields, 111b Commercial St, London
Start:	Between 10:30 AM & 11:00 PM	5:00 PM	10:30 AM, 11:30 AM & 2:00 PM
Duration:	3.5 hours	3 hours	3.5 hours
Includes:	London Bridge Tour, Jamon & migas croquetas -  King Prawn croquetas with seafood aioli, Italian classics, coconut beef rendang curry, pork bao buns - secret dish, bittersweet vermouth and 3 gins	A selection of curries: authentic, traditional & vegetarian, Fluffy naan bread & Basmati rice, Unique fried snack, spicy chickpeas with a twist, Lucious lassi, Sweets such as gulab jamuns and creamy ras ghulla	8 tastings at 6 different locations, bagels, fish & chips, curry, cheese, and more, expert local guide, London Food Lovers Guide PDF
	Tour Information & Booking	Tour Information & Booking	Tour Information & Booking

Quick Answer: The 5 Best Rated London Food Tours For 2026

1. London Walking Food Tour With Secret Food Tours
2. London Walking Indian Food Tour With Secret Food Tours
3. Eating London: Brick Lane, Shoreditch & Spitalfields Food Tour
4. Eating London: Twilight Soho Food & Drinks Tour
5. London East End Walking Food Tour With Secret Food Tours

London Food Tour Reviews

1. London Walking Food Tour With Secret Food Tours

London’s food scene comes with centuries of history and cultural influences backing it, making it one of the most diverse in the world. However, if you’re just Googling “best food in London”, you’re likely going to miss a ton of dishes and eateries that really make up the heart and soul of the city.

With the London Walking Food Tour with Secret Food Tours, you get the option to explore the food scene on either the London Bridge or London Soho tour – each offering something a bit different.

While both tours clock in at around 3.5 hours, the meetup spots are different and your start times could vary a bit. I’ve done both, and they’re completely different, so if you enjoy one, you’ll likely enjoy the other, as well.

The London Bridge food tour takes you through the bustling Borough Market with a lively atmosphere packed with over 100 different stalls offering everything from produce to unique dishes you can’t find anywhere else.

You can’t visit London without sampling a proper fish and chips, and right after Borough Market, you’ll get your opportunity, washing it all down with some seriously tasting London beer or cider (your choice). We also had some incredible fig cakes, grapes, and chutneys, finished off with a classic English dessert and breakfast tea. T

he Soho tour has a bit more of an “upscale” feel to it, taking you through speakeasies and quaint locales to sample everything from croquetas to Catalan Vermouth!

I felt like the Soho tour was a bit more multicultural, whereas the Borough Market alternative catered more towards the traditional “English” food scene, but I loved them both. Our guides were fun and friendly, and if you want to dive right into local cuisine, it’s a great way to do so!

Other London Activities You May Enjoy

2. London Walking Indian Food Tour With Secret Food Tours

I have to admit, that before going on this tour, I was someone who couldn’t identify one curry from the next – even though I loved them all. Whether you’re an Indian food lover or simply wanted to immerse yourself further in the culture like me, this next tour is for you.

The London Walking Indian Food Tour with Secret Food Tours gets deep into the flavors and history of one of the most influential food cultures in the UK!

Brick Lane is the epicenter of the city’s Bangladeshi and South Asian food scene, though with a huge array of restaurants to choose from, it’s frankly overwhelming for most visitors.

This tour skips straight past the watered-down tikki masala tourist traps and delivers you to the most fragrant biryanis and juiciest kebabs out there. After meeting up with our guide in Whitechapel, we headed straight to the first of 3 restaurants with the rest of our small group with just 12 participants.

Our guide shared interesting cultural and historical commentary as we strolled along, learning about the makeup of the South Asian community in London, which was fascinating. It was a great way to sample different lentils, curries, and naan breads, learning the differences between each type!

This makes it so much more convenient when you go to a restaurant and always find yourself ordering the same thing because it’s a “safe” choice. After that, we stopped at a sweet shop and a grocery shop which I actually went back to later on to grab some things to try and whip up something on my own!

As if all that weren’t already enough, we even got a tour of the last restaurant we went to, which only added to the more “VIP” feel!

3. Eating London: Brick Lane, Shoreditch & Spitalfields Food Tour

London isn’t all afternoon tea and little finger sandwiches, and while those can be a bit of fun, if you really want to taste the city you need to head to the East End. If you want to explore the East End right, I highly recommend you take the Eating London: Brick Lane, Shoreditch & Spitalfields Food Tour!

It extends beyond polished dining rooms and somewhat stuffy atmospheres, digging into the slightly rebellious, multicultural food that the city was actually built on.

The tour kicked off with me meeting our guide and the rest of my small group in Spitalfields, where I instantly knew I was going to have a great time with the scent of freshly baked bagels wafting through the air!

Our guide did a fantastic job at keeping things lighthearted and exciting, contextualizing the food relating back to its history and offering some insight into the different cultures that have immigrated here over the centuries.

I got to try some fantastic salt beef bagels and the Humble Crumble which I’d admittedly never heard of before but is currently one of the the trendiest dishes around London.

We progressed onto the Bangladeshi-run curry houses of Brick Lane, which are so incredible I think they deserve an entire day dedicated to it, alone. Somewhere along the way, I tore into some incredible fish and chips which were worlds better than those I had the first time in the city at a big tourist spot.

Oh, and if you have a sweet tooth, your life is going to change when you try the sticky Toffee Pudding and tea at the pub in Shoreditch! Of course, you’ll get plenty more tastings along the way – each one offering a glimpse into a different culture or different place in time, expanding upon your concept of what London really is.

We saw a few heritage-listed places as well, and our guide did a fantastic job of regaling us with historical and cultural commentary, enriching the experience even further. If you have a few hours free, instead of heading to just one restaurant, you’ll get a whole gastronomical immersion!

4. Eating London: Twilight Soho Food & Drinks Tour

Soho has always been one of my favorite parts of London’s food scene – it’s always felt a bit more raw, unpredictable, and bursting with energy. The Eating London: Twilight Soho Food & Drinks Tour does a great job of playing into that energy, offering a fun-filled night of eating and drinking your way through some of the neighborhood’s best-hidden gems.

f you’re looking to go out on the town and grab a drink or some bar food, this is the perfect way to explore some of the trendiest spots combined with some old-school institutions that serve the best of the best.

Even though I’d been visiting Soho for years prior to this tour, I learned more in these few hours than I did all the times prior to this. We met up with our guide who wasted no time in jumping right into the history and culture of the area, sharing a ton of fascinating facts I’d never known before about its seedy past.

You’ll walk streets once haunted by literary legends and rockstars, stopping at food spots where the atmosphere is just as vibey as what’s on the plate.

Our small group made it so much more intimate and relaxed, feeling more like a close friend group than another head in a massive crowd. No food tour in London is complete without a bit of Indian cooking, and we tried plenty of that, including the Rasam Ke Bomb.

I was a bit apprehensive about the city’s Mexican food, but was thoroughly impressed with La Bodega Negra’s treats and late-night hidden bar! You’ll get to sample plenty more treats and surprises, wrapping things up in the hidden basement bar known for its delicious sweets and incredible cocktails.

As a former craft bartender, I have high standards, and this one set the bar even higher for me going forward. All in all, it’s a comprehensive experience you can’t miss if you want to hear about the grittier tales of Soho while trying the best it has to offer.

5. London East End Walking Food Tour With Secret Food Tours

If you’re planning on hanging out in London’s trendy East End, it can feel a bit overwhelming when figuring out what to eat. There are so many restaurants and each one has something a bit different to offer, so where do you start?

The London East End Walking Food Tour with Secret Food Tours takes the guessing out of the game, with an expert local guide there to take you to some of the can’t-miss eateries while sharing fascinating facts and stories along the way.

The 3-hour experience is super easy to fit into a busy schedule, with plenty of different start times available to further facilitate your planning. You should probably skip lunch or dinner if you’re planning on going on this tour, as you’re sure to fill up plenty!

We met our guide in Shoreditch and immediately knew it was going to be a great experience with his top-notch storytelling and insider knowledge of the area’s food scene.

We started out by trying apparently one of the most famous bagel shops in the entire world, providing us with perfectly-toasted, chewy bagels and a wide array of different types to choose from. I’m a huge bagel person and am always on the hunt to find my next favorite spot, and I think this one became “it”.

After that, we strolled around a bit while learning about some of the more iconic spots in the city, which was also a great opportunity to get my digestion rolling and ready for our next stop.

The fish and chips and English dessert we had was also incredible – fish and chips seems easy enough to whip up, but mastering it is a whole ‘nother subject. If it’s your first time in London, I highly recommend this tour specifically as it covers a wide variety of local dishes and history, giving you a quick lay of the land!

A Food Lover’s Guide to London Food Tours

A vendor at Borough Market hands you a bacon and egg bap still warm from the griddle, and somewhere between the first bite and the last, your guide mentions the market has been trading on this exact spot since medieval times, back when Southwark was better known for its taverns and its trouble than its food.

That is the real case for a London food tour. The city’s reputation for bad food is decades out of date, and the best way to prove that wrong in one afternoon is standing in a market that has been feeding this city for the better part of a thousand years.

Why Take a Food Tour in London

London’s food scene runs on immigration and history in equal measure, curry houses that reshaped the national diet, East End bakeries built by Jewish and Bangladeshi communities in turn, and a market culture that predates most of the buildings around it. A good tour does not just feed you, it explains why London eats the way it does now.

Borough Market anchors most of this reputation, one of the oldest and most celebrated food markets in the world, and the area around it, Southwark, has its own thick layer of history worth knowing before you start eating. A guide who can move between a cheese stall’s backstory and a story about the neighborhood’s medieval red-light district earns their fee twice over.

This suits a first-time visitor especially well. English food does carry an old reputation it has not entirely shaken, and a well-chosen tour is the fastest way to see that reputation is no longer accurate.

It also works for a returning visitor who has already done the obvious sights. A food tour through a neighborhood you have walked before, seen through the lens of what people there actually eat, tends to change how you see the whole area on your next visit.

When to Go

London runs food tours year round, and rain should never be the reason you skip one. The city sees rain on a meaningful number of days almost every month, and tours simply carry on regardless, so dress for it rather than waiting for a dry week that may not come.

May through October brings the heaviest tourist crowds generally, with September and October running particularly busy. If you want a calmer version of Borough Market specifically, a January or February visit trades warmth for genuinely thinner crowds.

Most Borough Market tours do not run on Mondays, since a meaningful share of the market’s stalls close that day. Book Tuesday through Sunday if the market itself is your priority, and confirm the specific day with your operator regardless of season.

What You Will Actually Eat

Borough Market

Most standard Borough Market tours run three to three and a half hours across six or seven stops, built to add up to a full meal rather than a light snack. Expect a bacon and egg bap, proper fish and chips, artisanal British cheese paired with ale, cider, or mead, and a sticky toffee pudding to close things out.

Several operators end with a Secret Dish revealed only on the day, a nice bit of theater after that much straightforward description.

The market itself sits beside London Bridge Station, with Southwark Cathedral, the Golden Hinde replica ship, and the Thames all within an easy walk. A guide worth booking threads the market stops together with this surrounding history rather than treating the walk between vendors as dead time.

Southwark’s own past adds real texture here. This was medieval London’s entertainment district, taverns, theaters, and a reputation for trouble the neighborhood has only fully shed in recent decades, and a good guide will not let that history go unmentioned just because you came for the cheese.

East London and Brick Lane

East London’s food scene tells a different, more recent immigration story, and a tour through this area covers ground a first-time visitor would struggle to judge alone, since knowing which spot locals actually rate versus which one exists for tourists is genuinely hard without local knowledge. Expect a mix of South Asian cuisine, Jewish deli classics, and the newer wave of East End food culture layered on top of both.

These tours typically include a digital guidebook afterward, worth requesting if it is not offered automatically, since it turns one afternoon into a reference for the rest of your trip.

Covent Garden and Soho

A different kind of walk altogether, this route leans into Soho’s countercultural and musical history alongside its food, sampling everything from Indian cuisine to bao buns to a proper hard cider along the way. It suits a traveler who wants nightlife-adjacent neighborhood history as much as the food itself.

This is a strong second tour if Borough Market was your first, since the ground covered and the food on offer barely overlap with a market-focused walk.

Private and Specialty Tours

Private tours exist across nearly every neighborhood covered above, customized to a group’s specific interests and generally accommodating dietary restrictions that a public group tour cannot, gluten-free needs on a Borough Market walk being the clearest example. Several operators also run a Royal London gastronomy walk through the city’s more prestigious neighborhoods and past its palaces, a different register entirely from a market crawl.

Corporate and larger group bookings are common too, with some operators hosting groups up to 40 people for team events, a format worth knowing about if you are organizing something beyond a standard visitor’s afternoon.

Where to Book

• Standard Borough Market group tours. The most booked option for first-time visitors, small groups of 10 to 12, six to seven stops, typically running Tuesday through Sunday.
• East End and Brick Lane tours. A distinct culinary and cultural story from Borough Market, worth booking as a genuinely different experience rather than more of the same format.
• Covent Garden and Soho tours. A food-and-neighborhood-history combination suited to a second day of touring rather than a first.
• Private tours. Available across most neighborhoods, better suited to dietary restrictions, larger groups, or a fully customized route.

Book at least 72 hours ahead where possible, and further out if your dates fall in the busier May through October stretch. Confirm any dietary needs directly with the operator rather than assuming a standard group tour can accommodate them on the day.

What It Costs

Standard Borough Market group tours run roughly £75 to £89 for adults and £60 to £79 for children, covering three to three and a half hours and enough food to skip a separate meal. East End tours tend to run slightly lower, commonly around £65, while some operators price similarly across their full lineup of neighborhoods.

Private tours cost considerably more, commonly £110 to £120 per person with a minimum group size, though they buy you full customization and dietary flexibility a public tour cannot always offer. Some operators sell flexible vouchers covering a choice of neighborhoods at a base price, with the pricier Borough Market option requiring a top-up if that is what the recipient chooses.

Tipping is customary but not expected, generally 10 to 15 percent if you tip at all, handed directly to your guide rather than added automatically to the price.

None of these prices typically include alcohol pairings beyond what a tour explicitly builds in, so check whether cider, ale, or mead tastings are part of your specific booking before assuming they are included.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Borough Market worth doing with a guide, or can I just wander on my own?

Wandering alone works fine if you already know London’s food scene, but a guide solves the real problem of a market this size, figuring out which of dozens of stalls are actually worth your appetite. First-time visitors get more value from a guided version.

Which tour should I book first, Borough Market or East End?

Borough Market, if you are only doing one. It covers the broadest introduction to London’s food history and sits beside enough surrounding landmarks to double as general sightseeing.

Can these tours accommodate dietary restrictions?

It varies by tour and restriction. Gluten-free needs, for example, are often not accommodated on a standard Borough Market group tour but can be handled on a private booking with advance notice.

Do I need to worry about rain ruining my tour?

No. London tours run rain or shine given how often it rains here, so dress for the actual forecast and expect the tour to proceed as scheduled regardless.

Is a private tour worth the higher price?

Yes, if dietary restrictions, a larger group, or full route customization matter to you. For a straightforward first visit with no special requirements, a standard group tour covers the same ground for considerably less.

What day should I avoid booking a Borough Market tour?

Monday, since a meaningful portion of the market’s vendors close that day. Most operators do not run Borough Market tours on Mondays for exactly that reason.