Chasing the queue: Are these 5 Southwark food spots worth the wait?  

Words: Sunny Sunday

Images: Lauren Miller

The Brits love a queue. In fact, they are talented at queuing, culturally trained from a young age to form gorgeous orderly lines in the name of fairness. Some say that when a Brit sees a queue, they fall neatly into line without knowing what’s waiting for them at the end.  These days, a lengthy queue outside of a restaurant could mean that the food is certified high-quality — tried, tested, and worth the wait. It could also mean that a TikTok influencer swears to have found the city’s next hidden gem in a post that has gone viral. 

As an American seeking  the spirit of British culture, I braved the queues of five popular food spots in Southwark, London to find out whether the food at the end was truly worth the wait.  

Rye Lane Bagel 

You’ll find Rye Lane Bagel housed in a tiny single-room storefront on a slightly quieter stretch of Rye Lane in Peckham. It’s tiny and easy to miss, but the queue spilling onto the street is a dead giveaway.  

Service is friendly but slow, and although there may only be a handful of people waiting ahead of you, you could easily queue for 30 minutes or more for a bagel. The founder, Abhinav Saxena, is usually the only one behind the counter and he takes his time with each customer, chatting liberally with regulars and first-timers alike, despite the hungry patrons spilling out onto the pavement.  

The wait time hasn’t stopped social media influencers from getting the final famous bagel-cut-in-half shot for their videos, like this user who claims that her one-hour trip to the bagel shop (never mind the queue wait) was worth it.  While the morning and early afternoon hours are busy with hungry patrons, Saxena divulges that by 3 pm on weekdays and 4 pm on weekends, the masses have dispersed, and the wait time is much more reasonable.  

Saxena, who has lived in the area for the past five years, tells me that the most popular menu item is the salted beef bagel, which comes up to £6.66. It’s a simple and weighty dish, the beef stacked thick and high against pickles and yellow mustard, all inside a plain bagel. While hefty, the salted beef distracts from what should have been the best part, but what was, unfortunately, a below-average bagel.  

Ultimately, the queue was the best part of the experience. It was a pleasure to watch the colourful exterior ongoings of Rye Lane and feel the warmth of the community culminating around the shop. I would return just to stand in line, chat, and then leave.  

Verdict: Not worth the queue 

Address: 100 Rye Ln, London SE15 4RZ 

TOAD Bakery 

TOAD’s queue stretches to obscene lengths down the pavement. The bakery is closed on Sundays, and so its queue is especially long on Saturdays. You can expect a wait time of at least 30 minutes, if not closer to an hour, which is a big ask for a couple of pastries.  

This little Camberwell bakery is by far the trendiest spot on this list. It boasts a hip, rag-tag style with tattooed staff members, haphazardly scrawled out menu descriptions, and limited edition condoms for sale, proceeds of which go toward a grassroots collective that advocates for sex workers.  

With nearly 50K Instagram followers, TOAD Bakery is arguably either very good or very aesthetically savvy. Between Reddit posts and Google reviews, the jury is still out among many on whether the hype is warranted or not.  TOAD’s menu is ever-changing, with a variety of bread and pastries available daily that typically run between £3 and £6. For the same price, you can get either a loaf of bread or a single pastry. It’s a choice that proves difficult when presented with the glamour of gleaming danishes, buns, and croissants. 

The almond croissant is one of my favourite baked good items, and I am pleased to report that TOAD Bakery is tall enough to ride the ride. Their artisanal take on baking comes alive in the almond croissant’s unconventional, inwardly folding form. A good almond croissant needs to balance crispy flakiness, soft doughiness, and almond paste mass, and TOAD Bakery ticks the boxes.  

Early birds can get the worm and avoid a major queue if you arrive right as TOAD opens at 8 am on weekdays. Otherwise, the crowds have usually dispersed by 3 pm if you don’t mind a pastry that’s not fresh out of the oven. It’s safe to say, Saturdays are best avoided at TOAD unless you enjoy staring at the back of someone’s head for far too long.  

Verdict: Worth the queue 

Address: 44 Peckham Rd, London SE5 8PX 

Lebanese Grill 

‘Queue’ is a generous word for what forms outside the front of Lebanese Grill on New Kent Road. The environment is both casual and hectic, and there is no clear indication of where to stand to order and where to wait for your food as throngs of patrons mill about.  

Assertiveness is key in this queue, which rarely has dry spells and is bustling into the wee hours of the morning. Open daily from 12 pm to 2 am, the restaurant attracts crowds with its shish, burger, and kofta dishes. There’s no surefire way to avoid the Lebanese Grill queue, but overall, the afternoons are less busy than later hours, especially on Friday and Saturday nights when partygoers are looking for fatty foods to soak up their alcohol.  

It’s a very male-dominated space, a place where men cook meat for other men. Of all the workers and patrons present, I was the only woman. Four serious men in creamsicle-coloured polos tended to the food, chopping up assorted meats and dumping bags of coal onto the aggressively smoking grill. I was admittedly intimidated, but my mouth watered from the robust aromas wafting onto the street.  

I ordered a £7 lamb shish which came with rice, salad, and a healthy splash of sauces. The meat was undeniably delicious, tender and well-flavoured; however, the meat-to-rice-and-salad ratio was completely off. After a few bites, I had finished the lamb and was left scooping away at rice and iceberg lettuce for the remainder of the dish.  

Verdict: Not worth the queue 

Address: 173 New Kent Rd, London SE1 4AG 

The Table Cafe 

On a quiet weekday morning, I asked my server about The Table Cafe’s queues and her eyes went round with shell shock as she relived past weekend shifts. The staff is so accustomed to the rush of crowds, that even during quieter times, they are poised for action, rushing to take orders and serving up dishes at a comedic speed.  

While Mondays through Fridays are calm for the all-day brunch spot, people line up out the door for breakfast food on the weekends. Still, a simple reservation can save you the pain of waiting, the server assured me. Otherwise, you might be looking at a wait time of around 30 or 40 minutes.  

Set in a corporate area between the Southwark and London Bridge stations, the restaurant does a good job with ambience, given the business-sterile aesthetic of its surroundings. Leafy pothos hang from the ceilings and there’s a warm tone about the place. 

I ordered a cappuccino and waffles with sausage, scrambled eggs, and bacon. In total, it was £20. Everything down to the high-quality maple syrup was spot on, a stellar balance of sweet and salty. Even the dishes were plated beautifully. My friend’s sweetcorn cake with griddled halloumi was expertly dressed with sprinkles of corn dust and swipes of tomato compote — a green, red, and yellow spectacular.  

Verdict: Worth the queue 

Address: 83 Southwark St, London SE1 0HX 

Padella  

Padella is so familiar with the queue that it has set up permanent rope stanchions to guide traffic around its entrance. There is a nearly perpetual queue in front of the Italian pasta bar, which does not take reservations. At its longest, you might be waiting for a seat for up to an hour. 

Padella’s online following has exploded since its opening less than a decade ago. Because of its proximity to the tourist magnet that is Borough Market, the Italian pasta bar has amassed nearly 6,000 Google reviews. 

While the queue might seem daunting, the restaurant has instituted an online queuing system that makes things a little easier. By either scanning the QR code at the front of the restaurant or by using the Dojo app, you can wait for your table away from the shuffle of a man-made line.  

If you don’t mind a later lunch or an earlier dinner, crowds are thinner and the queue is short when the lunch shift is ending after 2 pm or just as the dinner shift begins at 5 pm.  

The gorgeous silver open kitchen of Padella feels refreshing against the busyness of London Bridge Station, especially after passing a woman projectile vomiting on the underground. The Italian pasta bar has an entrance to the back and front, which makes the place feel as open as a revolving door.  

A friendly Italian waiter asked me “Are you ready for a delicious pasta?” And I was. He recommended the tagliarini with dried chilli, garlic, and crispy breadcrumbs. Although I sat overlooking the open kitchen, it was prepared so quickly that I missed its creation and only noticed it when it was placed in front of me in a steaming pile.  

Padella makes its pasta fresh in-house each morning — something that’s obvious once you’re eating. My dish was only £9.50. Most pasta dishes on the menu cost around £13, which is a steal, given the food quality, the area, and the warm service. 

Verdict: Worth the queue 

Address: 6 Southwark St, London SE1 1TQ 

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Featured image by Lauren Miller