BERLIN, June 2026 — Appetite for London food tours has grown almost 25% in the last year and GetYourGuide is connecting travelers who want more than a meal — with the guides who know exactly what's at steak. Shunning the stereotypes of “bland” and “beige” food, London has become one of the world's unexpected great food cities.
Ranked second only to Hong Kong by Food & Wine in its 2026 list of top cities for food and drink, London operates as a global kitchen — where West African dishes, world-class Indian curries, and modern French tasting menus are neighbourhood staples, not novelties.
Interest for London food tours on GetYourGuide has jumped almost 25% over the past year, with UK travelers particularly eager to taste the flavors of their own capital. On average, they account for almost a third of all interest in London food experiences on GetYourGuide.
"London has always drawn visitors from every corner of the world," said Dan Evans, GetYourGuide's Senior Regional Manager for the UK and Ireland. "But food tours have tapped into something deeper — a hunger to understand a city through the communities who built it. GetYourGuide connects those travelers directly with the guides who know its flavors and stories best."
The unlikely South London neighborhood of Brixton sits at the heart of that story. But the culinary diversity there didn't happen by accident. Much of it was built by the Windrush generation.
Brixton Food Guide, Obi Opara
As Windrush Day falls on June 22, Brixton-born guide Obi Opara is walking visitors through a neighborhood that’s being rapidly rewritten by gentrification. His African and Caribbean food tour of Brixton aims to help preserve the flavours and culture the Windrush generation brought to the UK.
His own Nigerian father was among the first wave of people from the Caribbean and other British colonies who came to the UK in the late 40s and early 50s to fill post-war labour shortages.
Every dish on the tour carries a specific history — and Obi tells it as you eat. "Everything we've experienced today wouldn't necessarily be here if it wasn't for the sacrifices made by the Windrush generation," he tells each group. Almost 90% of people on his tour are Black Americans, Obi said.
"When people talk about London being a multicultural city, it's really the Windrush generation they're talking about — all of these people came with their culture, their music, their foods, their spices, to make the country what it is today."
That’s the food, he said, that’s putting London on the map as a culinary hotspot.
Here are Obi’s Brixton must-tries:
Five foods that built Brixton
- 1. Oxtail
”You can't go to any Black neighborhood Black neighborhood in the world and not see oxtail,” Obi said. Once considered a “throwaway,” Obi describes Oxtail as a legacy of slavery. “It was one of the offcuts that the slaveholders didn’t want and a lot of the captive slaves were like, well, how do we make this more edible?” The answer was slow-cooking the oxtail with peas, carrots, and yams into a deep, dark broth. “Oxtail is definitely number one,” Obi said. - 2. Jerk
Not to be confused with jerk chicken, Jerk is a method of cooking, Obi explained. When the Maroons, formerly enslaved Africans who had escaped into the hills of Jamaica, cooking meat over open fires meant that the smoke would give away their location to bounty hunters. So they began cooking underground, covering their fires with pimento leaves and wood. The trapped smoke, rich with the oils of pimento wood, gave the meat a flavor that could not be replicated any other way. "Jerk is basically the same as barbecue," Obi says. "Or your brisket smoked for 10 hours. Same principle, different story behind it." - 3. Beef patty
The Jamaican beef patty has a history that surprises most visitors. Cornish miners were sent to the Caribbean in the 1500s and 1600s to mine bauxite, and they brought the Cornish pasty with them. Local people, unimpressed by unseasoned flour pastry, improved it: they seasoned the crust with turmeric and curry powder, giving it its distinctive orange colour, and filled it with spiced meat. The crimped edge, Obi notes, is a direct inheritance from the Cornish original, where miners held the crust to avoid contaminating their food with dirty hands from the mines. For those who want more than a snack, the patty can be eaten inside coco bread, a soft brioche-like roll. "At that point," he says, "it's no longer a snack. It's a full meal." - 4. Jollof rice
Jollof rice represents the Nigerian and West African community that has long been part of Brixton alongside the Caribbean one. A rice dish with roots in Senegal, it now has variations across West Africa, each country claiming the definitive version. "Nigerians are among the most widely traveled people in the world," Obi says, "and we've taken the dish everywhere with us." - 5. Rum
The fifth “dish” is a drink: Jamaican Rum punch made, on Obi’s recommendation, with Wray and Nephew white rum. “There’s a reason the Rum Kitchen called their version the Zombie,” Obi joked, pointing to the 63% proof on the rum bottle. “On tours, I recommend that people only have one if they have plans after the tour.” - Bonus personal dish:
If there’s one dish that makes Obi feel like a child again, it’s okra soup with pounded yam: the Nigerian cousin of what Americans know as gumbo, eaten with hands wrapped around a ball of yam pounded into a doughy mass. "Once you eat it, it’s time to go to sleep,” he said.
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Obi's African & Caribbean Food Tour in Brixton on GetYourGuide:
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About the data
- GetYourGuide booking data analyzed interest in London food experiences between June 2024-May 2025 and June 2025-May 2026.
- Global: +24.4%
- UK: +27%
- US: -12%
- Germany: +23%
- France: +17 %
- On average, over the last two years, UK customers accounted for 31% of interest.
About GetYourGuide
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