Food trends in London
In a decade of living in London, I’ve watched food trends come and go, some quietly, others completely taking over the city. Do you remember the avocado craze? Almost as intense as the pistachio phase (suddenly every dessert, every gelato, every latte had to be green). Then came fermented everything: kefir, kombucha, pickles. On the sweet side, we now seem to be deep into what I’d call the great cookie revival.
But beyond these surface-level trends, something more structural has happened.
Over the past 10 years, London has gone from trend-driven, centralised,
fusion-heavy, chef ego-led to identity-driven, decentralised, culture-led,
rooted in storytelling and community.
Diverse cuisines on the rise
Every couple of years, a cuisine breaksthrough:
2016–17: Japanese wave (ramen, matcha, milk bread)
2017–18: Korean goes mainstream (KFC, BBQ, kimchi)
2018–19: Filipino & Sri Lankan breakthrough (ube, hoppers)
2019–20: Caribbean starts to upscale (jerk, rum)
2020–21: Comfort food era (sourdough, pasta)
2021–22: Turkish & Eastern Mediterranean rise
2022–23: West African takes centre stage
2023–24: Regional Mexican boom
2024–25: Regional Chinese deep dive
2025–26: Broader African cuisines emerge
The bold African cuisine movement
Restaurants like Akoko and Chishuru areredefining African cuisine in London: refined, technical and worthy of fine dining. Kudu brings South African influences into modern European formats, while Ikoyi pushes boundaries even further. This shift marks a move from “ethnic, cheap, generic” to “authored, elevated,
culturally specific.”
What about Maghrebi food?
Maghrebi cuisine, which encompasses Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Mauritania, is often reduced to couscous and tagine. But it is far richer: regional, layered, diverse. Couscous alone exists in countless variations: fish, meat, barley, sweet. Beyond that: pastilla, rfissa, chorba are largely unknown in London.
And yet, the cuisine remains underrepresented or mislabelled as Middle Eastern.
The London problem
In London, Moroccan food lives in:
- grill shops around Portobello Road
- nostalgia-led corner stores
- occasional pop-ups
Where are the modern Moroccan cafés? The bakeries? The chefs reinterpreting tradition?
Even sourcing ingredients like finot flour is a challenge.
A quiet shift
There are early signs of change. Places like Impala and Oula Café introduce North African flavours, while chefs like
Nargisse Benkabbou promote Moroccan cuisine through books and pop-ups.
It’s early, promising but not enough.
Bold and Beldi
“Beldi” comes from balad—land, country—butcarries deeper meaning: authenticity, integrity, rootedness.
A modern Maghrebi movement could be bold, rooted, and unapologetically modern.
London is ready.
The question is not if, but when. Maybe Morocco is the 2027 food trend? Dima Maghrib.