This article is part of FT Globetrotter’s guide to London
Offal often reminds people of austere postwar cooking and the gamey smell that seeped from their grandmother’s kitchen and made them squirm as a child. The UK Food Standards Agency defines offal as “carcass material used for meat recovery . . . blood, livers and kidneys used to make edible products”. It fell out of fashion in Britain in the latter part of the 20th century, when food became rapidly more accessible and supermarkets industrialised mass meat production; offal gained a reputation as inferior or even undesirable cuts.
But now it has come full circle as restaurants and diners across London and beyond are making more conscious efforts to reduce food waste and be more sustainable; eating every part of the animal is becoming increasingly common practice. It has even become trendy.
Online searches for recipes for bone broth, which is believed to boast many health benefits, have surged in the past two years. A growing number of influencers are promoting the benefits of animal products, and while TikToker Coach Carnivore Cam may be taking it too far by eating mince for breakfast and “bread” made only of eggs, there is some truth in it. Organ meat is full of important amino acids, vitamins and minerals. Liver is rich in vitamins A, B and B12, iron, folate, and riboflavin. Heart is a great source of CoQ10 and zinc, while kidneys and other organs offer even more varied nutrients. (However, they can also be high in cholesterol and saturated fats.)
The concept of “nose-to-tail eating” was pioneered by Fergus Henderson who, alongside Trevor Gulliver, founded the world-renowned London institution St John in 1994, reviving the notion of eating the whole animal with now-iconic dishes such as roasted bone marrow and parsley salad and lamb’s tongues and greens. Since then, many British chefs have been influenced by Henderson’s principles and created inspiring and delicious offal-focused menus.
As a former (though never very good) vegetarian and now reborn carnivore, I believe that if you are going to eat meat you must face up to its inherent goriness, which can actually be quite tasty and sustainable too. To explore this growing trend, I embarked on a mission to give myself gout (which can be triggered by organ meat consumption) and find the best places to eat offal in London (though I wouldn’t recommend trying them all in the same week).
F.K.A.B.A.M. (Islington)
156 Canonbury Road, London N1 2UP
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Good for: People who like a loud soundtrack while they eat
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Not so good for: The hard of hearing
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FYI: Pick up one of the cool merch T-shirts
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Opening times: Monday–Friday, 6pm–10.30pm; Saturday–Sunday, 11am–3pm and 6pm–10.30pm
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Prices: Small plates from £12, mains from £32
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Website; Directions
F.K.A.B.A.M. (Formerly Known As Black Axe Mangal) in north London is not for the faint of heart. Heavy metal and hip hop blare while you eat in a dimly lit room on closely packed tables. (The music is mellower at brunch on weekends.) Head chef and owner Lee Tiernan, who was at St John for 10 years and left as head chef in 2013, has applied everything he learnt about nose-to-tail cooking to an ever-changing and unconventional menu, cooked over on an open fire.
Every obscure cut of animal you can imagine is charred, heavily seasoned and often paired with something pickled, which cuts through the rich organ meat to create perfectly balanced and exciting dishes, as controversial yet popular with cool Londoners as F.K.A.B.A.M.’s playlist. The staff are friendly and chatty while they bounce around to the music and recommend wines to pair with animal parts. The signature lamb offal flatbread is reminiscent of the PizzaExpress classic Sloppy Giuseppe, but tastier and made with testicles, heart and liver. Don’t miss the ode to St John’s bone marrow and parsley salad: oxtail and bone-marrow gratin, flame-grilled ox heart, parsley and anchovy salad, and charred flatbread. The pig’s head sizzler is more of a warm, melting terrine that tastes so good you will forget you are eating a face.
Camille (Borough)
2-3 Stoney Street, Borough Market, London SE1 9AA
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Good for: Cosy date nights and pretending you are in Paris
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Not so good for: Offal novices
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FYI: The wine list has a great range of Beaujolais
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Prices: Starters from £11, mains from £26
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Opening times: Monday, 5.30pm–10pm; Tuesday–Saturday, noon–3pm and 5.30pm–10pm; Sunday, noon–5pm
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Website; Directions
Perched on the edge of Borough Market, new-wave bistro Camille is a delightful frontrunner for the best place to eat offal in London, although with its pavement terrasse, you would be forgiven for thinking you were in le Marais. The atmosphere and hospitality are exceptionally welcoming — that is to everyone except perhaps the squeamish — and vegans.
Camille was opened by Clare Lattin and Tom Hill, the founders of Soho’s Ducksoup, and Brindisa co-founder Ratnesh Bagdai. The kitchen is headed by St John alumnus Elliot Hashtroudi, who, in keeping, likes to use “every part of the animal from feet to beak”. So it is no surprise that the French-inspired menu uses seasonal British produce butchered in-house to create dishes that shock the eye but charm the palette. The stuffed pig’s trotter is a prime example. Both the presentation of a whole foot on a plate and the pay-off — gelatinous skin and umami-packed, liver and shoulder-meat filling — make it a dish that would be appreciated as much by Henry VIII as a 21st-century foodie.
The idea of lamb brain with salsify and fermented garlic scapes (stalks from the garlic bulb) may intimidate but, if you can stomach the sound of it, the bite of the salsify and delicate garlic flavour cut through the mousse-like texture to make a dish you’d struggle to find elsewhere this side of the Channel. For the less experienced organ-eater, the deep-fried veal sweetbreads cannot be missed: calf thymus lightly coated in batter and butter basted that lives up to one staff member’s description of it as “KFC on crack”.
The Guinea Grill (Mayfair)
30 Bruton Place, London W1J 6NL
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Good for: Old-school British offal
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Not so good for: Vegetarians
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FYI: The pub attached looks like much more fun, so head there for a drink after dinner
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Prices: Starters from £10, mains from £22
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Opening times: Monday–Saturday, noon–9.30pm; Sunday, noon–7pm
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Website; Directions
The Guinea Grill is a revered, slightly stuffy, Mayfair institution that has been serving high-quality, expertly prepared meat since 1952 and doesn’t seem to have changed its decor or menu since. It is however the spot for trying offal that is classically prepared but probably better than your grandmother’s. Intended to “complement” its renowned steaks, the optional accompaniments of calf liver, two lamb kidneys and ox heart are cooked with the same level of care and butter as the chateaubriand or côte de boeuf. Offal starters include devilled kidneys, cooked to squeaky perfection and drowned in a sauce that would have been the height of luxury in the days of empire (made of mustard and Worcestershire sauce), soaked up by a wedge of toast.
Service, to match the interior, is old-school, stern but efficient. Make sure to choose your condiment from the mustard man, who walks round in a waistcoat carrying a silver tray offering English, Dijon and wholegrain as well as horseradish, which he elegantly dollops on to your plate.
Barshu (Soho)
28 Frith Street London W1D 5LF
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Good for: Traditional Sichuan dishes
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Not so good for: Getting a last-minute table on a Saturday night
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FYI: They serve Chinese wine, sake and beer
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Prices: Starters from £8.50, mains from £17.90
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Opening times: Sunday–Thursday, noon–10pm; Friday–Saturday, noon–10.30pm
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Website; Directions
On the corner of Soho’s Frith Street sits Barshu, a Sichuan restaurant that offers some of the spiciest offal in London. Authentic flavours and traditional cooking methods applied to every part of the animal imaginable make it a hotspot for those who can handle the heat and like the idea of trying lesser-known cuts. The eccentric interior and efficient, no-nonsense service tells you that this is a good Chinese restaurant.
The menu is extensive, laminated and illustrated with photos. “Man and Wife Offal Slices” is the most intriguing offering, for obvious reasons (the organs it included seemed a mystery even to the waiter): cow tripe, lung, liver and various other cuts served cold in a complex sauce of chilli oil, aromatic spices and peppercorns, making a surprisingly tasty dish that will also dispel your need to take iron supplements for a whole year. Dipping pig intestine, honeycomb beef tripe and pork tripe into traditional Sichuan hotpot is a great way to try the obscure innards as the spicy broth distracts from the peculiar textures.
Smoking Goat (Shoreditch)
64 Shoreditch High Street, London E1 6JJ
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Good for: Late-night boozy get-togethers
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Not so good for: Those who can’t handle heat
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FYI: They have a great varied vinyl collection and cocktails named after the staff’s favourite records
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Prices: Sharing plates from £9.80
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Opening times: Monday–Saturday, noon–11pm; Sunday, noon–10pm
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Website; Directions
This dimly lit, casual dining spot is well known as one of the best spots for Thai food in London, but it is also a great place to try exciting offal dishes. The staff are friendly, trendy and extremely knowledgeable about animal cuts and Thai ingredients. Perch at the bar with a glass of natural wine from the impressive list and watch as the chefs turn meat on the open fire, throwing fistfuls of chilli in every dish.
Smoking Goat holds to the core tenets of nose-to-tail-eating. The restaurant butchers all its own meat in-house, making sure not to waste a scrap. The menu changes frequently, so you can’t count on ordering the same thing on every visit, but there may well be a part of an animal you’re not expecting to eat. Chicken offal laab, pig intestine skewers, tripe and deep-fried pigs’ tails have all made an appearance. The melt-in-the-mouth texture of the monkfish livers makes the inability to taste much else and swollen lips from the chillies worth it. Every dish showcases the balance of heat, acidity and bold citrus spices that defines Thai cuisine, while the small-plate sharing style allows you to try a range of dishes and dine with offal-averse friends. Look out for “Offal Mondays”, which the restaurant is planning to host this year.
Where do you go for offal dishes in London? Tell us in the comments below. And follow @FTGlobetrotter on Instagram
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