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Visions Canteen breakfast sandwich is one of the best in Shoreditch, east London
Visions Canteen’s egg, bacon, chicken liver pate, and pickled onion breakfast sandwich
Adam Coghlan

The Best Breakfast Sandwiches in London

Breakfast muffins, bacon naans, full English burritos, and more to start the day the right way

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Visions Canteen’s egg, bacon, chicken liver pate, and pickled onion breakfast sandwich
| Adam Coghlan

Start the day with one of the city’s best things between sliced bread.

For a complete list of bacon butties, there’s a map for that too.

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Usta Niyazi

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Crispy dough envelope fillings of spinach and feta, spiced potato or the left field choice of mozzarella and mushroom. Gozlemes are a breakfast staple across the city and great ones are offered alongside cheese and sausage bread (hot dogs are definitely sandwiches) and simits while baklava takes pride of place. —Feroz Gajia

Ararat Bread

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Fiery lamb mince slathered onto a cooked flatbread, egg cracked on top. Circling through the rotating oven it emerges with meat sizzling in its own fat. Rolled, handed over, paper ripped, the wrap is devoured at a temperature far too hot. The burns a permanent reminder of the pleasure experienced. —Feroz Gajia

A grill covered in discs of uncooked flatbread dough, ready to go into an oven, with a baker in the background shaping one of the breads Halal Eat Out/YouTube

Catalyst

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The menu might have changed, but Catalyst’s bacon and egg salad sandwich on pain de mie, and breakfast flatbread filled with soft egg, avocado, pickles, and taramasalata still prove flavourful and thoughtful food exists in Holborn at 8 a.m.. —Feroz Gajia

St John Bread and Wine

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The gigantic St John bacon sandwich is a London classic. Unusually, the rare breed meat is unsmoked but cooked over open flame, which brings a charred — and, yes, smoky — flavour to the sandwich. Bread is toasted on the same grill and is spread generously with butter and homemade ketchup. This isn’t one for the brown sauce fans. —Helen Graves

Best bacon sandwiches in London: St. John bacon sandwich St. John [Official Photo]

E5 Roasthouse

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It begins with the bread: a rhomboid ‘Gilchester Bun’ named after the Northumberland farm whence sister site E5 Bakehouse sources its heritage flour. Split, toasted and buttered, its ‘chew’ demands a bit of jaw action but nothing beyond the capabilities of a hungover human. Stuffed inside is good frazzly Blackhand bacon and two boiled egg halves seasoned up with salt and cracked pepper. —Hilary Armstrong

Billingsgate Cafe

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For the early risers out at dawn Piggy’s Cafe is a ritual and a treasure. Offering the legendary sandwich stuffed with seared scallops and Bacon on buttered baps. The meeting place where simple pleasures are enjoyed... Until they move the whole thing out of London. Go while it still stands. —Feroz Gajia

Dishoom Kensington

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Probably Dishoom’s most famous dish. For good reason. Wildly inauthentic and proud. Naan, generally, is an underrated vehicle for any sandwich, which goes someway to explaining the triumph here. Bacon, (and egg), chilli jam, a little yoghurt, and chopped coriander — all on a chewy little folded naan, which soaks up the rendered fat. Eat quickly. —Adam Coghlan

El Paso - Cafe & Burritos

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There’s one dish here that no one else in London does — a British breakfast burrito fused with the Mexican-American tradition of wrapping a fry up in a tortilla. Chef-owner Isabel’s El Paso breakfast burrito revels in inauthenticity with its scrambled eggs, sausage and bacon, cheese, pinto beans, pico de gallo, and is even better with sour cream and hot sauce. —Jonathan Nunn

Ordering a croque madame for breakfast is a bold move, particularly one that’s punching aged Comte. It comes bubbling under a blanket of golden bechamel and that all-important fried egg. The egg isn’t necessary, of course, but does make the sandwich seem more breakfast-appropriate. A sharply dressed side salad makes finishing the whole thing more achievable. —Helen Graves

Mother Flipper

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The Mother Flipper breakfast muffin is the reason Brockley Market shoppers spend so much time wiping egg off their faces. The muffin comes toasted and buttered, stacked with a coarse-grind garlic and herb sausage from The Butchery, a free-range egg ripe for poppin’ and a slice of American cheese. There’s an option to add candied bacon and a potato rosti for an extra £1 each — tricky to handle but worth the mess. —Helen Graves

Sub cult breakfast sub

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Whitechapel Bakery Rinkoff supplies the special recipe 8-inch subs that are the signature of this outstanding sandwich van. The Sub Contractor is filled with bacon, herby sausage, fried egg, white pudding and ketchup as a homage to the classic English breakfast — albeit with added fancy truffle mayo. This sub is only served on Saturdays at Brockley Market, for fear that its City shop customers might fall asleep at their desks. —Helen Graves

One of Balham’s top attractions, the Convict sandwich at Milk is a hangover slaying stack of protein. Based on an Egg McMuffin, it’s got oak smoked Tamworth belly bacon, a secret recipe for sausage patty from a local butcher, ‘folded’ eggs, house-made chipotle ketchup and a tousled hairdo of grated Lincolnshire poacher. Egg McExtra. —Helen Graves

Honey & Co. Bloomsbury

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Warm pita, hummus, aubergine, boiled egg, salad, pickles with tahina, amba and zhoug. Listing what a sabich contains is cause for salivation always. To have the gluttonous forethought to partake in it for breakfast is devious and deserves a treat. Luckily H&C have bakes in abundance, so treat yourself twice. —Feroz Gajia

Usta Niyazi

Crispy dough envelope fillings of spinach and feta, spiced potato or the left field choice of mozzarella and mushroom. Gozlemes are a breakfast staple across the city and great ones are offered alongside cheese and sausage bread (hot dogs are definitely sandwiches) and simits while baklava takes pride of place. —Feroz Gajia

Ararat Bread

Fiery lamb mince slathered onto a cooked flatbread, egg cracked on top. Circling through the rotating oven it emerges with meat sizzling in its own fat. Rolled, handed over, paper ripped, the wrap is devoured at a temperature far too hot. The burns a permanent reminder of the pleasure experienced. —Feroz Gajia

A grill covered in discs of uncooked flatbread dough, ready to go into an oven, with a baker in the background shaping one of the breads Halal Eat Out/YouTube

Catalyst

The menu might have changed, but Catalyst’s bacon and egg salad sandwich on pain de mie, and breakfast flatbread filled with soft egg, avocado, pickles, and taramasalata still prove flavourful and thoughtful food exists in Holborn at 8 a.m.. —Feroz Gajia

St John Bread and Wine

The gigantic St John bacon sandwich is a London classic. Unusually, the rare breed meat is unsmoked but cooked over open flame, which brings a charred — and, yes, smoky — flavour to the sandwich. Bread is toasted on the same grill and is spread generously with butter and homemade ketchup. This isn’t one for the brown sauce fans. —Helen Graves

Best bacon sandwiches in London: St. John bacon sandwich St. John [Official Photo]

E5 Roasthouse

It begins with the bread: a rhomboid ‘Gilchester Bun’ named after the Northumberland farm whence sister site E5 Bakehouse sources its heritage flour. Split, toasted and buttered, its ‘chew’ demands a bit of jaw action but nothing beyond the capabilities of a hungover human. Stuffed inside is good frazzly Blackhand bacon and two boiled egg halves seasoned up with salt and cracked pepper. —Hilary Armstrong

Billingsgate Cafe

For the early risers out at dawn Piggy’s Cafe is a ritual and a treasure. Offering the legendary sandwich stuffed with seared scallops and Bacon on buttered baps. The meeting place where simple pleasures are enjoyed... Until they move the whole thing out of London. Go while it still stands. —Feroz Gajia

Dishoom Kensington

Probably Dishoom’s most famous dish. For good reason. Wildly inauthentic and proud. Naan, generally, is an underrated vehicle for any sandwich, which goes someway to explaining the triumph here. Bacon, (and egg), chilli jam, a little yoghurt, and chopped coriander — all on a chewy little folded naan, which soaks up the rendered fat. Eat quickly. —Adam Coghlan

El Paso - Cafe & Burritos

There’s one dish here that no one else in London does — a British breakfast burrito fused with the Mexican-American tradition of wrapping a fry up in a tortilla. Chef-owner Isabel’s El Paso breakfast burrito revels in inauthenticity with its scrambled eggs, sausage and bacon, cheese, pinto beans, pico de gallo, and is even better with sour cream and hot sauce. —Jonathan Nunn

Levan

Ordering a croque madame for breakfast is a bold move, particularly one that’s punching aged Comte. It comes bubbling under a blanket of golden bechamel and that all-important fried egg. The egg isn’t necessary, of course, but does make the sandwich seem more breakfast-appropriate. A sharply dressed side salad makes finishing the whole thing more achievable. —Helen Graves

Mother Flipper

The Mother Flipper breakfast muffin is the reason Brockley Market shoppers spend so much time wiping egg off their faces. The muffin comes toasted and buttered, stacked with a coarse-grind garlic and herb sausage from The Butchery, a free-range egg ripe for poppin’ and a slice of American cheese. There’s an option to add candied bacon and a potato rosti for an extra £1 each — tricky to handle but worth the mess. —Helen Graves

Sub cult breakfast sub

Whitechapel Bakery Rinkoff supplies the special recipe 8-inch subs that are the signature of this outstanding sandwich van. The Sub Contractor is filled with bacon, herby sausage, fried egg, white pudding and ketchup as a homage to the classic English breakfast — albeit with added fancy truffle mayo. This sub is only served on Saturdays at Brockley Market, for fear that its City shop customers might fall asleep at their desks. —Helen Graves

Milk

One of Balham’s top attractions, the Convict sandwich at Milk is a hangover slaying stack of protein. Based on an Egg McMuffin, it’s got oak smoked Tamworth belly bacon, a secret recipe for sausage patty from a local butcher, ‘folded’ eggs, house-made chipotle ketchup and a tousled hairdo of grated Lincolnshire poacher. Egg McExtra. —Helen Graves

Honey & Co. Bloomsbury

Warm pita, hummus, aubergine, boiled egg, salad, pickles with tahina, amba and zhoug. Listing what a sabich contains is cause for salivation always. To have the gluttonous forethought to partake in it for breakfast is devious and deserves a treat. Luckily H&C have bakes in abundance, so treat yourself twice. —Feroz Gajia