The best food halls around the UK

Seven Dials Market

This multi-level space in Seven Dials in Covent Garden houses a huge range of stalls run by small businesses. You can order from different stalls and you’ll be handed a buzzer so you’re free to wander off and return when your food is ready. Our favourites ranged from Kolkati who serve West Bengali Kati rolls, to Mother Flipper who specialise in classic cheeseburgers, as well as Lucky’s Hot Chicken where you can order a giant Nashville-style chicken sandwich served with crinkle cut fries. There is pizza, steak, tacos, sushi, bao buns, pad thai and a whole range of dessert options including doughnuts, ice cream and more. In short: come hungry!

Arcade Food Hall, London

Arcade Food Hall is the new undertaking by stellar restaurant group JKS (Gymkhana, Hoppers, BAO). There are branches in Tottenham Court Road and Battersea Power Station, both offering the excitement of ONE menu, but NINE restaurants. You can order Japanese, Thai, or Vietnamese food and have it all brought to the same table (a food hall with table service gets double points). Fussy eaters, this one’s for you! But it’s also for the experimental eater. We were properly impressed by dishes like beef sate marrangi, with its tender meat and tangy depth of flavour, or vegetable momo dumplings in a tomato, sesame and chilli oil sauce. The Nashville hot chicken from Manna – where chicken is brined then deep fried and immediately coated in chilli oil and a spice rub – is not to be missed!

Cargo, Wapping Wharf, Bristol

Sip a cider slushie from The Cider Box while you browse this collection of independent restaurants and food shops – including a cheesemonger, butcher, bakery and bottle shop – housed in converted shipping containers on Bristol’s southern harbourside. Seafood bar Salt & Malt serves cracking fish and chips, plus creative dishes such as a Korean-style cod burger with gochujang mayo – grab a terrace table for a harbour view; on the upstairs level, Cargo Cantina has great tacos and margaritas. There are queues for the offbeat burgers at Squeezed, known for its unique umami-rich sauces like peanut chipotle barbecue, and opposite is Somerset brewery Wild Beer for a post-dinner pint. Finish with a bitesize sweet treat from The Choux Box Patisserie, open weekends until 8pm.

Eataly, London

Lovers of Italian flavours rejoice: there’s pizza, pasta, and gelato galore at the largest Italian deli and foodhall in the UK. One of the only experiences of its kind in the UK, the market boasts three restaurants, an Italian winery, a food-to-go area, live demos and a cookery school. Get down there, prontissimo! We recommend eating at the grill-focussed restaurant Terra for their maritozzi and gorgonzola cart, and the pasta pomodoro at Pasta e Pizza is knock-out.

Escape to Freight Island, Manchester

Manchester’s Escape to Freight Island takes its meaty options seriously, with Lucky Food Chicken bringing the fried stuff, Carnival bringing steaks and more, and Madre holding up the taco side of things. There’s pizza from Voodoo Rays and Mi and Pho to take care of the vegetarian and vegan massives.

Five Valleys, Stroud

Now home to House of Piri, Italian streetfood at Non Solo Pasta and Kyuri Sushi, Five Valleys in Stroud, Gloucestershire is a haven for lovers of food, offering not only places to enjoy a hot meal but a top quality fishmonger, butchers, bakers and cheese shop too. We highly recommend locals favourite Fat Toni’s pizzeria for bigger-than-you’ve-ever-seen pies.

Duke Street Market, Liverpool

With Liverpool’s exciting food scene on the rise, there was no surprise when traders from across the city came together in 2019 to create this social eating concept space. This centrally-located buzzy hub is a great spot for an afternoon glass of wine and a bite of food with friends. Trader highlights include Vinceno pasta, Cahita sandwiches and Bone & Block butcher.

Great Cornish Food, Truro

A food hall with excellence stamped all over it. Clean and bright, this is an independent grocery store with one aim: championing the finest Cornish produce. There’s a butcher, deli counter and fishmonger, plus hot food to take away, bolstered by shelves laden with local produce. Buy wedges of Cornish gouda and nettle-decorated yarg, Roskilly’s ice cream, clotted cream by Trewithen Dairy or Rodda’s, Da Bara bakery cinnamon buns (so good), Baker Tom bread, Colwith Farm Distillery gin, Camel Valley sparkling wine and so much more (those are just a few top-choice highlights). The point of difference here is that the store is out of Truro’s town centre, right next to Waitrose, and you can walk from one shop to the other using the same trolley. It’s a concept that gave pioneer-founder Ruth Huxley sleepless nights in 2016 when the store first opened, but it’s been a roaring success, and the business is now owned by its employees. Brilliant.

The Goods Shed, Canterbury
A treasure trove of food in a repurposed bare-brick, vaulted-ceiling railway shed right next to Canterbury West station, The Goods Shed is a food hall, restaurant and farmer’s market in one. Outstanding cheese from Cheese Makers of Canterbury, a butcher, the only indie fish shop in the city, an impressive array of local craft ales, abundant veg and good things in jars, the whole place wafting with the smell of excellent coffee from Gill’s Café and Delicatessen (coffee and pastry pitstop obligatory on arrival). Time the visit to end with lunch or dinner in the restaurant, up steps on a galleried landing overlooking the food hall, lit by huge arched windows on the other side. A beautiful setting that delivers on food made with produce from a few feet away in the food hall below. You can’t get more local than that!