Greek brunch in London is the answer to a very London problem this weekend. Brunch has taken over the listings: Secret London’s weekend guide leads with a noughties themed bottomless brunch in Islington on Saturday, DesignMyNight has a hoedown brunch with burlesque near Trafalgar Square and an Ibiza anthems brunch in Soho, and a Southwark hotel is doing Sunday brunch with live jazz on the fourteenth floor. All good fun, all loud, none of it cheap. If what you actually want on Saturday morning is a bougatsa still warm from the tray, a proper freddo and eggs done the Greek way, here are six Greek bakeries, cafes and restaurants that open early at the weekend, from Marylebone and Mayfair to Palmers Green and Crystal Palace, all of them Greek List members.
Breakfast in Greece was never a long sit down affair, which is why Greek brunch in London grew out of the bakery counter rather than the hotel dining room. The core is the pie: tiropita with feta, spanakopita with spinach and herbs, and bougatsa, thin pastry wrapped around semolina custard, cut into squares and dusted with icing sugar and cinnamon, best eaten before noon. Add a koulouri, a Greek coffee from the briki or a freddo shaken over ice, and you have the version most of us grew up with.
The restaurant version came later: strapatsada, eggs scrambled with tomato and feta, yoghurt with honey and walnuts, and the modern Greek brunch plates that Marylebone made fashionable. Below you will find both styles, with the address and the weekend opening hours taken from each Greek List listing.
If you want the restaurant kind of Greek brunch in London, start at Opso on Paddington Street. The name is the ancient Greek word for a delicacy, the menu is overseen by the Michelin starred chefs Georgianna Hiliadaki and Nikos Roussos, and at the weekend the kitchen switches to brunch: free range egg dishes, breads and pastries baked in house, and a cocktail list if your Saturday is going that way. It opens at 10am on Saturday and Sunday and keeps going until late. The Hellenic Centre is two doors down, and the Giorgos Ioannou exhibition there runs until 19 November, which makes this the easiest Greek morning in central London.
Getting there: Baker Street (Bakerloo, Jubilee, Metropolitan, Circle and Hammersmith and City lines) or Regent’s Park (Bakerloo), both under ten minutes on foot.
Greek stop nearby: Opso at 10 Paddington Street, Marylebone, W1U 5QL. Brunch from 10am on Saturday and Sunday, modern Greek sharing plates the rest of the day.
Mayfair is not where you expect a Greek coffee stop, but Chill House Coffee on Shepherd Street is exactly that: an independent specialty coffee house started by a group of friends whose only rule is that you drink your coffee the way you like it. For Greeks that means a freddo espresso or a freddo cappuccino, made properly, in a quiet street a few minutes from Green Park. It opens at 8am at the weekend and closes at 7pm, so it works as the first stop before Opso or as the afternoon coffee after a walk in Hyde Park.
Getting there: Green Park (Jubilee, Piccadilly and Victoria lines) is a five minute walk; Hyde Park Corner (Piccadilly) is about the same.
Greek stop nearby: Chill House Coffee at 10 Shepherd Street, Mayfair, W1J 7HY. Open from 8am on Saturday and Sunday.
The bakery version of Greek brunch in London lives in the north. Borneo Cafe and Bakery at 29 Green Lanes, between Palmers Green and Wood Green, is where the neighbourhood meets for coffee and breakfast: trays of spanakopites and tsourekia, sandwiches, freshly squeezed juices and cakes made to order. It opens at 6am on Saturday and 7am on Sunday, which matters, because the pies are at their best in the first hours and the regulars know it.
A short drive or bus ride further north, Source of Life Bakehouse at 258 East Barnet Road has been baking sourdough since 2020, a family with bread making in its history that could not imagine doing anything else. It opens at 6am every day and closes at 2pm on Sunday, so this is a morning stop: a loaf, a few treats, and Sunday breakfast is sorted for the whole family.
Getting there: Palmers Green station (Great Northern) is a short walk from Green Lanes, and buses run the length of the road. For East Barnet, New Barnet station (Thameslink and Great Northern) then buses 184 or 307 along East Barnet Road.
Greek stop nearby: Borneo Cafe and Bakery at 29 Green Lanes, Palmers Green, N13 4TN, open from 6am on Saturday and 7am on Sunday. Source of Life Bakehouse at 258 East Barnet Road, EN4 8TD, open from 6am, Sunday until 2pm.
South of the river the Greek morning starts at Kamari on Westow Street in Crystal Palace, a kafeneio and bakaliko in one. The counter fills every morning with flaky spanakopita, tiropita and custard filled bougatsa, the coffee is freddo or the traditional briki, and the deli shelves carry barrel aged feta, Greek olive oil and the childhood snacks you cannot get in a supermarket. It opens at 6.30am every day and is a few minutes from Crystal Palace Park if you want to walk the dinosaurs afterwards.
Down the hill in South Norwood, Grand Cafe 241 at 241 Selhurst Road is a family run Greek coffee shop, bakery and bar with cheese pies and spinach pies baked every day, homemade desserts, brunch, cocktails and a soft play corner for the children. It is the one place on this list where a two hour Greek brunch in London with toddlers is not a problem for anyone.
Getting there: Crystal Palace station (Overground and Southern) or Gipsy Hill, then a few minutes up to the triangle for Kamari. Selhurst station (Southern) is on Selhurst Road, and Norwood Junction is a short walk, for Grand Cafe 241.
Greek stop nearby: Kamari at 25 Westow Street, Crystal Palace, SE19 3RY, open from 6.30am every day. Grand Cafe 241 at 241 Selhurst Road, South Norwood, family run with a soft play area.
Go early: bougatsa is a morning pastry and the custard is at its best before noon, so a Greek brunch in London is really a Greek breakfast that runs late. Check the day: Opso only serves brunch at the weekend and Source of Life closes at 2pm on Sunday. Take some home, a box of tiropites and a tsoureki from Borneo or Kamari is the cheapest way to make Monday feel Greek. And if you want a proper sit down meal after the coffee, our guide to Greek Sunday lunch in London picks up where this one stops, while Greek bakeries in London and where to get a freddo in London cover the rest of the map.
Brunch first, then something Greek later. The Greek List events page is the most complete list of Greek events in the UK; these are the next ten days in London:
The cafes, bakeries and restaurants in this guide are Greek List members. More than 100,000 Greeks and Cypriots in the UK read Greek List every month, on the site, in the newsletter and in the Ellines sto Londino Facebook group, and Greek List listings rank first on Google. A listing puts your business in front of them.
Where do you go for Greek brunch in London? Tell us in the Facebook group Ellines sto Londino and tag the friend who is always late for it.
