| 🏆 Best gastropub | The Colonel Fawcett — Camden’s best kept secret |
| 🐟 Best fish & chips | Hook — sustainably sourced, creative batters |
| 🍔 Best burgers | Band of Burgers — BYOB, charcoal grill, build your own |
| 🎸 Best for a big night | The Blues Kitchen — BBQ, bourbon, live music every night |
| 🌱 Best vegan | Purezza — UK’s first vegan pizzeria, even the mozzarella |
Camden has more good places to eat than most London neighbourhoods. Planning your trip? See our Camden safety guide, best hotels, and shopping guide. The market’s street food is world-class, but step away from the main drag and you’ll find some genuinely excellent restaurants that most tourists never discover. Here are the best — all verified open in 2026.
1. The Colonel Fawcett
The self-proclaimed “Camden’s best kept secret” and it’s earned the title. This Victorian gastropub is tucked away from the market crowds on Randolph Street, which is exactly why locals love it. The menu is modern British — seasonal, well-sourced, and genuinely well-cooked rather than dressed-up pub grub. Sunday roasts are exceptional. There’s a dedicated gin menu with over 100 options, 16 draught beer lines, a lovely back garden, and comedy nights on Mondays and a quiz on Wednesdays.
If you only have time for one sit-down meal in Camden, make it this one.
Address: 1 Randolph St, London NW1 0SS · thecolonelfawcett.co.uk
2. Hook
Hook started as a single stall in Dublin in 2011 and has since become one of the most respected fish and chip restaurants in London. Their approach — sustainably sourced fish, creative batters (tempura, panko, beer), seaweed-salted chips — takes the traditional British chippy somewhere genuinely interesting. Every ingredient is traceable. The result is fish and chips that tastes like it’s been thought about rather than just assembled.
Address: 63-65 Parkway, Camden Town, London NW1 7PP · hookrestaurants.com
3. Band of Burgers
The only restaurant in London cooking its burgers on a dedicated charcoal grill, which gives everything a distinctive smokiness you’ll notice immediately. The menu spans classic beef to beetroot patties and coffee brisket, and uniquely you can build your own from scratch. It’s also BYOB — bring your own drinks — which keeps the bill reasonable. Cash-friendly, relaxed atmosphere, genuinely good burgers.
Address: 23 Camden High Street, London NW1 7JE · bandofburgers.co.uk
4. The Blues Kitchen
Yes, it’s a small chain. No, that doesn’t matter. The Blues Kitchen in Camden is the best version of what it is — smoky American BBQ, dirty cocktails, live blues and soul music every single night, and London’s largest bourbon collection. The food is unapologetically indulgent: pulled pork, burnt ends, loaded fries, and a surprisingly good range of veggie options. Go for dinner, stay for the band. It’s a proper night out.
Address: 111-113 Camden High St, London NW1 7JN · theblueskitchen.com
5. Purezza
Purezza opened in Brighton in 2015 as the UK’s first entirely vegan pizzeria, and their Camden branch brought the same philosophy north of the river. Everything — dough, cheese, toppings — is plant-based, but the results are so good that omnivores come back regularly. The vegan mozzarella genuinely melts. Plenty of gluten-free options. And yes, there is an Oreo pizza. It’s as good as it sounds.
Address: 43 Parkway, Camden Town, London NW1 7PN · purezza.co.uk
Don’t Overlook the Market Street Food
Camden Market’s food stalls deserve a mention of their own. The Camden Lock area in particular has some of the best and most varied street food in London — Japanese, Peruvian, Vietnamese, Caribbean, Middle Eastern — all within a few hundred metres of each other. It’s worth building a full food crawl into your visit rather than committing to just one stall. Go hungry.
Explore Camden with a Local
After eating, the Amy Winehouse tour is one of the most popular ways to explore the neighbourhood. A guided food tour is one of the best ways to experience Camden’s eating scene — you’ll discover stalls and spots that take locals years to find, and get the story behind the neighbourhood at the same time.