Brigade

Located in Tooley Street’s imposing former fire station, this buzzing, glass-fronted outfit does its bit for social responsibility while giving the chains that inhabit this chunk of London Bridge a run for their money. The kitchen works in tandem with the charitable Beyond Food Foundation, offering vulnerable people catering apprenticeships and giving them ‘the tools for a brighter future’; over a six-month period, the brigade learns to cook restaurant-quality dishes, ranging from flavoursome beetroot and chilli risotto topped with scallops to chunky pork belly with crisp bacon, savoy cabbage and dinky caramelised onions. The venue, with its orderly open kitchen, exposed brickwork and huge embossed lampshades, certainly packs in its share of London Bridge suits, who are also lured in by cocktails at the adjoining bar – try the spot-on apricot sidecar or the zingy marmalade mojito.