The Portobello Road Market, located in Notting Hill, is lauded as the Londoner’s favourite food market. You have Camden Market, which is for the social media crowd, Borough Market, for those seeking history and quality and Old Spitalfields, for the more trendy foodies. The food market at the Portobello Road Market is more rustic, down to earth and more full of Londoners than tourists. Well, that’s the claim anyway. The food market is full of a variety of different food vendors serving food from all over the world: Indian, Iraqi, Afghan, Italian, Spanish and Korean to name a few. You want Paella? Falafel? Bagels? Or loaded chips? And most were halal! Perfect! You’ll definitely find something that tickles your fancy. In this post, I will detail the three spots we tried out and we think you should too!
1. Bagels from Baegeluk
This was our first stop of the day. We absolutely love salt beef and rueben bagels, but finding halal versions are very difficult. So, to come across a spot that does halal bagels, we were super interested and excited. They have a very intriguing menu with an 8 hour beef brisket option, fried chicken option, jackfruit option and an all day breakfast option too. So, something for everyone. Each bagel is priced at £8. We opted for the 8 hour beef brisket one, which was named Bae’s Big Boss. It came with mustard, pickles, jalapeño and caramelised onions. As you order, you watch your bagel being made in front of you, which is always a joy and one of the reasons I love street food. The service from the guys was faultless, they made us feel at home despite the hectic nature of the market and their stall (it was a busy day!).
Onto the food… you can really taste the quality of the 8 hour beef brisket. The beef tasted how good quality beef should, prominent beef flavour without it being “meaty” tasting. The texture was perfect too as it was easy to bite into unlike some other beef brisket places. Overall, the bagel tasted delicious and you can tell the quality of the ingredients being used was top notch, from the bagel to the beef. The additions definitely added to the flavour and it married well with the meat.
My own personal preference or maybe what I was expecting is more along the lines of the American/Jewish style salt beef or rueben bagels where very particular fillings are included. This was not that. But, that is not taking away anything from them and their food. They are doing them and they are doing it well! Again, a personal thing, I would ask for no pickles next time. It gave the overall bagel a slight ploughman’s sandwich taste – if you know what I mean. Overall, a great spot and you can tell they are really passionate about what they do – it is evident in what they’re producing. Can’t wait to return and try their fried chicken and breakfast options!
2. Paella from Simply Paella
This stall had the longest queue and the best of smells. So, when we saw that their best selling dish is halal, we didn’t hesitate in joining the long queue. Simply Paella are on a mission to bring authentic Spanish paella to the people of London. They use authentic recipes and they cook on site. Go around 12 and you’ll be able to see them cook. Initially, they offered only two paellas: Seafood and Valenciana, but now they do Vegetarian and Chorizo Paellas too. The Valenciana Paella contains chicken and it is halal! It comes with runner beans, butter beans, garlic, onion, chopped tomato, sweet smoked paprika and Spanish rice. And it is priced at £8 for medium and £10 for large. For those who don’t know, paella is a Spanish dish that originates from or is most associated with at least with the Spanish region of Valencia.
So, this dish right here we had high expectations of. This is the original and their best seller. They describe the taste to be smoky and barbequey. How satisfied were we? In reality, the end result was quite underwhelming. I mean, the dish was decent, but it kind of lacked in flavour. What we smelt was definitely not this one. I think I’d get the seafood one if I go again.
View the menu here.
3. YamYam Chicken
I feel this spot has had the greatest hype on social media and specifically on TikTok. I’ve seen numerous claims of this being the best fried chicken in London! They specialise in Korean fried chicken. So, of course we got that along with rice and a fried egg. That set us back £8. We actually missed this the first time we went round the market. This was another evidently popular stall. There was a long queue and you can watch them make the dishes in front of you like the other stalls. It’s like watching clockwork here as each staff member has a station and it’s wonderful to watch them work.
How was the food? The wings were delicious as Korean wings usually are. The sauce on the wings were barbecuey with a nice garlic flavour. The rice and egg was a good accompaniment to the chicken. However, was it the best chicken in London? Not for me. The best Korean wings we’ve had so far is from the Brick Lane market.
Overall impressions of the food and the market
As mentioned before, there are plenty of halal options here at this market. In fact, most of the food stalls we saw were actually halal. So, this in theory should be a halal foodie’s dream come true! However, the one thing that kind of put us off the market was how busy it was. I mean you can’t fault a market for being busy, but it dampened the personal experience. Crowds just make me feel uncomfortable couple that with heat and that’s a recipe for disaster for me. There was literally zero room to manoeuvre in the market as it was absolutely ram packed in there. And the thing is actually we really weren’t expecting the crowds at all as we had a preconception that Notting Hill is calm and relaxed so the market in the area (i.e. Portobello Road Market) will also be calm and relaxed. It was anything but!
We went on a Saturday and supposedly this is the busiest day of the week, so maybe if we went another day we would’ve had a different experience. But then we also were aware that the food market is mainly open on the Saturday, so that is the best day to go for food options. Would I go back? I’m probably not in a rush to, but if in the area, will definitely pop by.
Getting there
Parking: Side roads are free evenings, after 1:30 on Saturday and all day Sunday. If arriving before 1:30 on a Saturday, Wornington Road is pay and display.
Nearest Mosque: Al Manaar | The Muslim Cultural Heritage Centre
Nearest station: Ladbroke Grove
