The Best French Toast In London

Some days you wake up in the mood for eggs. Other days you wake up with a hankering for a croissant. But we wouldn’t mind starting our day with some pillowy french toast any day of the week. The spots on this list serve peanut butter-stuffed and Nutella-topped versions, and everything in between—hello pepperoni pizza-topped number.

THE SPOTS

Christopher’s may very well have the best french toast in London. There, we said it. Thick brioche with a soft gooey centre, is topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, and more melted chocolate—it’s the reason you come here. But that’s not all this two-floor American restaurant opposite the Lyceum in Covent Garden has to offer. It’s got high ceilings, round tables with white tablecloths, and a menu filled with things like lobster mac and cheese, wagyu burgers (which is definitely an acceptable brunch), and Texas grill complete with sausages and hash browns.

Starting your day with peanut butter and banana-heavy french toast just because you can is what life is all about, because making that decision will lead you to places like Popina. This little Mayfair cafe has scrambled eggs and all the other usual breakfast culprits on the menu, but there’s also a whole french toast section—yes, a whole section. The toast is fluffy and light, and the menu includes a Nutella marshmallow melt that sounds just as good as it tastes.

This all-day spot on James Street specialises in french toast, and by that we mean the menu is literally just french toast, both savoury and sweet. You’ll be grateful for Crome when you’re walking around Oxford Street after dinner, looking for a sit-down dessert, or when you get a pepperoni pizza french toast craving any time of the day. The space is small but mighty, with sofa seating, neon signs, and towers of french toast everywhere you look. The thick slices of toast are fried in butter, while maintaining a perfectly fluffy centre, and topped with things like caramelised banana and Biscoff spread, or stuffed with Nutella and topped with brownie pieces and caramel popcorn. Yes, it’s OTT, and yes, it’s delicious.

NAC, a popular French-inspired bistro in Mayfair, is a destination for many for its famous crushed milk chocolate cookies with Frosties soft serve. That’s all fine and dandy, but you should know that they also have a killer speculoos french toast with raspberries and clotted cream. A fluffy, photogenic piece of brioche that’s available for brunch as well as an all-day dessert, it deserves more recognition than it gets. Just make sure you book as lots of other people want a bite of that french toast too. 

Hide is a huge, fancy, three-storey restaurant in Green Park that’s not only painfully expensive, but it’s the restaurant equivalent of a detail-obsessed, glorious control freak. It serves fine dining, modern European dishes, including french toast with blueberry compote and crème crue that’ll set a whole new bar for french toast in your brain. It’s baked to order, and even though you’ll probably get tempted by the rest of the menu and spend a lot of money anyway, it’s under £15.

If you’re in the market for a serious sugar high before 11am, the caramelised banana french toast at this old-school Mayfair brasserie is for you. It’s less ‘toast’ and more a giant caramelised chunk of sticky carbohydrates, and we approve of the epic portion size. Get one for the table as a sharer. You can enjoy the silver-spoon service and hypothesise whether David Bowie sat on that table under the huge windows without having to invest £200 for the pleasure.