Pretty much every area worth its salt — Camberwell, Golders Green, Shepherds Bush — needs a

place that does falafel, ideally with shawarma. At the simply named ‘Falafel’ it’s possible to

order any conceivable combination of Kermit-green falafel, halloumi, and shawarma, all of which

are perfectly portable for a weekend of walking the Edgware beat.

In the days before Monty’s Deli, a schlep up to Edgware was the way to great salt beef. Today, it’s still worth 45 minutes on the Northern line to visit John and Michael Georgiou’s Ashkenazi-Jewish deli, rewarded with arguably the best deli sandwiches in the city. If pastrami is the meat of choice of New York’s delis then London’s is surely salt-beef, austerely seasoned and thick sliced, perfectly rosy with flavoursome inlets of fat. Here, it’s the melt-on-the-tongue tongue that is the standout, the texture of meat fudge melded with mustard and caraway. 

Not many people know that Burnt Oak is home to London’s largest population of Romanians, and one of the few places where their restaurants exist in concentration. Brasseria Timisoreana is one of the best on the stretch and a great introduction those those unfamiliar with the cooking of one of the most significant European immigrant communities in the city: from hearty Romanian soups to mititei (spiced sausages).

Challah sandwich specialist Kululu has only been open for a month or so, propping up the counter of a kosher deli in Hendon called ... Hendon Kosher Deli but it’s already one of the best things in the area. Elad and Ella assemble Israeli-Moroccan sandwiches the size of new-borns that let the fillings speak for themselves: baloney thin salt beef, sticky steak and onions, or chicken schnitzels as thick as escalopes. One of London’s best sandwich shops.

Cosily hidden on Hendon Way, K Cook deserves to be more well known outside of the Hendon central. Come here to warm up with bubbling lava cauldrons of budae-jigae, shimmering with slices of tofu, or some of the best Korean fried chicken outside of New Malden.

If London stopped sleeping on its Pakistani restaurants they would change: Schroedinger’s chaat. Aladin’s Kebabish in West Hendon is being slept on by many but it doesn’t matter to about one thousand Pakistan families: it is one of the few restaurants that come close to capturing the essence of Karachi and the must-order dishes make up the “holy trinity”: haleem, nihaari and Karachi qorma, the latter of which is one of London’s best curries

One of the best Afghani restaurants in London, Baba Wali has slowly become one of Hendon’s most indispensible restaurants, particularly to the local Afghani community. The range of kebabs is stellar but make sure to pair them with Qabuli Palow with each rice grain sheened with lamb fat, and excellent mantu dumplings.