Three streets here feed people every day of the week: Golborne Road at the top, Blenheim Crescent in the middle, and Kensington Park Road in the south. Portobello Road itself is a Saturday street, and on a Tuesday afternoon much of it is closed shutters and a coffee queue.
That is the single most useful thing to know about eating in W11. The market and the food follow different timetables. The stalls run Monday to Saturday, but the crowd, and therefore most of the hot food, arrives on Friday and Saturday. Come on a Wednesday expecting a street food scene and you will find a fruit stall, two bakeries and a great many estate agents.
Our guide to the Notting Hill area explains what the district is and which day suits which kind of shopping, and our page on Portobello Road Market covers the antiques arcades. This page is only about where to eat, on which day, and what it costs.
Five directions from Ladbroke Grove station
- Golborne Road
- 4 minutes north; Portuguese pastry shops, a Moroccan run of grocers, cheap counters
- Blenheim Crescent
- 6 minutes south-east; a spice shop, a cookery bookshop with a kitchen, a proper cafe
- Kensington Park Road
- 12 minutes south; the Italian corner and the two restaurants with stars
- Westbourne Grove and Ledbury Road
- 12 minutes south-east; the expensive part, and the best of it
- Portobello Road itself
- The length of it; excellent on Friday and Saturday, thin midweek
- Our September 2026 price bands
- £4–£8 a counter plate, £12–£18 a main course, £22–£35 in the smart rooms
What Saturday does to the prices
On a Saturday, the southern end of Portobello Road carries a stream of people moving at walking pace between the antiques arcades. Cafes with pavement tables in that stretch charge what a captive audience will pay, and they are full regardless.
The market's own food pitches are better value than the sit-down places around them. Kensington and Chelsea registers each trading pitch as a separate food business, which means a street stall carries a hygiene rating you can look up in the same way a restaurant does; several pitches at the Notting Hill Gate end hold five stars from inspections in 2025 and 2026.
Weekdays invert the picture. Fewer stalls, no queue, and the places that live on local trade rather than passing trade are the ones still open. Those are the streets below.
A street stall's hygiene rating is on the public register like any restaurant's. Search the trader's name, or the pitch number, on the Food Standards Agency site. It is the quickest way to settle an argument about whether a market counter is a good idea, and it works for Portobello, Golborne Road and the arcades alike.
Photo: Txllxt TxllxT · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons · resized
Golborne Road, where the Portuguese end of the neighbourhood eats
Golborne Road runs north from under the Westway flyover, four minutes from Ladbroke Grove station, and it is the best street in the area for a cheap, good meal on any day of the week. It has been a Portuguese and Moroccan street for decades and still is, which is why the prices have not followed the postcode.
Two Portuguese pastry counters do the same thing a few doors apart. Lisboa Patisserie at 57 and Cafe Oporto at 62 both sell pastéis de nata, the small custard tarts with scorched tops, along with coffee, rissoles and almond cakes. Lisboa Delicatessen at 54 to 58 is the shop version: salt cod, tinned fish, bread, wine. All three were inspected in 2025 or 2026 and hold ratings of 4 or 5. Our page on Portuguese and Brazilian food in London explains what to ask for at the counter.
Further up, the street turns Moroccan and Middle Eastern: grocers with trays of olives and preserved lemons, a falafel counter at 95, a Palestinian cafe at 48. The Moroccan and North African page has more on the cooking. Prices here are the lowest in the area; our estimate for September 2026 is £4 to £8 for a filled flatbread or a plate from a counter, and a pastry and a coffee for about half that.
Golborne Road's own market stalls trade hardest on Friday and Saturday. On a Monday the shops are open and the street is quiet, which is exactly when it is most pleasant.
Blenheim Crescent, four shops and one meal
Blenheim Crescent crosses Portobello Road six minutes south-east of Ladbroke Grove and is the densest short street in the district for people who care about food.
The Spice Shop at number 1 grinds and blends its own; it is a shop rather than a kitchen, and it is where you go if you want to take something home that is not a tea towel. Books for Cooks at number 4 is a cookery bookshop with a small working kitchen at the back that cooks a set lunch from the books, on weekdays only and in very few covers. It holds five stars from an inspection in September 2026. There is no booking and no menu published in advance: you turn up, or you do not eat there.
Mike's Cafe at number 12 is the other end of the same street and the better answer for most visitors. It is an ordinary London cafe of the kind that opens early and closes mid-afternoon, with eggs, bacon, toast and mugs of tea, and it has five stars from an inspection in June 2025. If the cooked English breakfast is on your list, this is a more honest version of it than anything on Westbourne Grove.
Books for Cooks serves lunch on weekdays and stops when the food runs out. The kitchen is small, the sitting is early and the dish changes with whatever book is being cooked from. It is the cheapest interesting lunch within five minutes of Portobello Road, and the reason nobody tells you about it is that there are barely a dozen seats.
Kensington Park Road and the Italian corner
Walk twelve minutes south from the market's northern end and the character changes completely. Kensington Park Road holds a cluster of Italian restaurants that have been there since the 1990s, including one at number 29 and its sister room at 37, both rated five stars in 2025. Main courses here sit in our £18 to £28 band for September 2026. Our Italian food guide sorts the styles out.
The same street also has two of London's most decorated kitchens, one of them at 92 to 96 with three stars and one on Ledbury Road with two. Both need booking months ahead and belong to a different kind of evening; see our page on where London's Michelin stars are if that is the trip.
Between the two extremes, there is a French bistro at 184A and a Spanish deli on Portobello Road at 248 to 250 that has been selling ham, chorizo and tinned seafood since the 1950s. Buying from it and eating on a bench is a perfectly good Notting Hill lunch; our Spanish and tapas page explains what to ask for.
Westbourne Grove and Ledbury Road: what the postcode costs
This is the part of the area that appears in magazines. Westbourne Grove east of Portobello Road, and Ledbury Road running north from it, are lined with boutiques, brunch rooms and delis, and prices are the highest in W11. Some of it is very good and some of it is a room with good lighting.
The ones with a long record are worth knowing. The delicatessen at 63 Ledbury Road has been there since the early 2000s and sells food by the plate or by weight from a counter; it holds four stars from July 2026. The Mexican room at 141 to 145 Westbourne Grove opened in the middle of the 2000s and has five stars from October 2025. There is an Australian brunch room at 175 and an organic shop with a cafe at 208 to 212, both rated five, and an Italian restaurant behind Chepstow Place trading since the 1990s, also rated five.
Our September 2026 estimate for this stretch is £16 to £22 for brunch with coffee and £22 to £35 for an evening main course. Two well-known places within these few streets were rated below 3 at their last inspection and we do not name a business the regulator rates 1 or 2, however often it appears in lists.
Notting Hill Gate, and the trap at the top of the hill
Notting Hill Gate is the station most visitors arrive at and the weakest place in the area to eat: fast food, chains and places aimed at people with ten minutes. The exceptions are a Japanese restaurant at 17 and a Caribbean restaurant at 157 to 159, both rated five, and two old pubs a minute away on Pembridge Road and Wellington Terrace.
The photograph-covered cafe near the station is the one place many visitors arrive determined to find. At its most recent inspection it was rated 1, so we do not send anyone there. Walk two minutes up Pembridge Road instead.
Carnival weekend is not a weekend for restaurants in W11. Over the August bank holiday, many businesses board up and the ones that open sell from a hatch to a moving crowd. Eat before you arrive, bring water, and read our carnival guide for what is actually available on the route.
Sundays and Mondays, the two awkward days
There is no main market on a Sunday. Shops and cafes on Westbourne Grove, Kensington Park Road and the Portobello frontage open, the arcades do not, and the street is slow. A good day to eat here and a poor day to shop.
Monday is the reverse of Saturday: everything open, nothing busy, and several small kitchens closed for their day off. The two Portuguese counters on Golborne Road are reliable. Our notes on Sunday trading and opening hours cover the wider pattern.
What you will actually pay
| Where | Walk from Ladbroke Grove | Typical main course or plate | Best day |
|---|---|---|---|
| Golborne Road counters and pastry shops | 4 minutes | £4–£8 | Any day; stalls Friday and Saturday |
| Portobello Road market pitches | 2–15 minutes | £7–£12 | Friday and Saturday |
| Blenheim Crescent | 6 minutes | £8–£15 | Weekdays |
| Kensington Park Road | 12 minutes | £18–£28 | Any evening; book at weekends |
| Westbourne Grove and Ledbury Road | 12 minutes | £22–£35 | Weekday lunch is better value |
| Notting Hill Gate parade | 20 minutes, or one Tube stop | £8–£15 | Avoid if you have a choice |
Every figure in that table is our own estimate for September 2026, not a quotation from a menu, and we do not link to restaurant websites: several domains that look like a London restaurant's own site have been taken over by unrelated operators.
What the area does not have
Almost no late food. Kitchens in W11 stop early by London standards, so a meal after midnight means going east; our late-night eating page has the streets that stay open. And no cheap sit-down cluster of the kind Chinatown or Whitechapel has. Golborne Road is the nearest thing, and it is a counter street rather than a restaurant street. For the citywide picture, see eating well in London on little money.
Two surprises do sit outside every category above. A small Malaysian cafe at the northern end of Portobello Road, rated five stars in June 2025, appears on our Malaysian and Singaporean page; and a Thai kitchen in the back of a pub on Ledbury Road belongs on our Thai food page, which explains why pub Thai kitchens exist at all.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best day to eat at Portobello Road Market?
Friday or Saturday, when the most food pitches trade and the street is fully open. Saturday is the busiest day and the slowest to walk along. If you want a quiet meal rather than a market, come on a weekday and use Golborne Road or Blenheim Crescent instead.
Where can you eat cheaply in Notting Hill?
Golborne Road, four minutes north of Ladbroke Grove station, is the cheapest street in the area: Portuguese pastry counters, a falafel shop, Moroccan grocers and small cafes. Our September 2026 estimate is £4 to £8 for a counter plate. The Spanish deli on Portobello Road is the best option for assembling a picnic.
Is there anything open near Notting Hill on a Sunday?
Yes. There is no main market on a Sunday, but cafes, pubs and restaurants on Westbourne Grove, Kensington Park Road and the Portobello frontage all open. The antiques arcades do not. It is the calmest day of the week to eat here.
How do I check a Portobello Road stall is safe to eat from?
Search the trader's name on the Food Standards Agency's ratings site. Kensington and Chelsea registers each market pitch as its own food business, so street stalls carry a hygiene rating out of five with the date of the last inspection, exactly as a restaurant does.
Which Tube station is best for eating in Notting Hill?
Ladbroke Grove, on the Circle and Hammersmith & City lines, for Golborne Road, Blenheim Crescent and the northern market. Notting Hill Gate, on the Central, Circle and District lines, is nearer the antiques end and the smart restaurants, and the food immediately around it is the weakest in the area.
Sources
- Food Standards Agency - Food hygiene ratings search (checked September 2026; used to confirm that every business referred to here is still registered at the address given, and to exclude any rated below 3)
- Food Standards Agency - The Food Hygiene Rating Scheme (checked September 2026)
- Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea - Portobello Market goes car-free permanently (checked September 2026)
- GOV.UK - Tips at work: how service charges must be passed on (checked September 2026)