This restaurant in a bustling market is the perfect place for lunch and afternoon dinner dates
Stewart Carr tries out the dishes at Agora souvla bar(Image: MyLondon)
London is the city that never sleeps and for its millions of residents, oftentimes it feels like neither do we. This week, on one of my busy afternoons walking across the city gathering pictures for a feature, my weary feet brought me to Borough Market, having already trodden 15,000 steps and it was still daylight. Then, I remembered there was a restaurant said to be the best in London – perched right on the edge of Borough Market. What perfect timing!
Agora souvla bar on Bedale Street was rated London’s number one restaurant of 2025 by Squaremeal magazine, despite only opening in late March 2024, and its success is all the more remarkable as meals are typically priced at less than £50 per person. It’s also famed as a place to turn up without a booking, as uber-efficient staff will jump through hoops to get you a table. We’ll see soon enough how accurate that is…
First off, I have to find Agora restaurant and its branding is subtle enough that it doesn’t instantly jump out at you. I confess I felt like a member of Spinal Tap getting lost backstage as I wandered the stalls asking where this secretive eatery is. Tip: You’ll notice Cafe Leon on the corner of Bedale Street, just keep walking up the street until you see Agora on your left-hand side. It’s directly opposite the Globe Tavern.
A salad of grilled onion, pomegranate, sumac and mixed herbs was enchantingly original(Image: Stewart Carr)
I step into Agora and sure enough this is a swanky place, with dark wood tables and a rustic colour palette. You can see chefs hard at work in the open kitchen, a sight which sometimes comes across as a gimmick, but here it seems mightily appropriate. You can see various meats being spit-roasted, while the heat from the fire adds a primeval quality to the earthy décor.
Agora is a popular restaurant, with a youngish crowd in their 20s and 30s, and different groups seem happy to share the large tables. I explain to a server at the door I need a table for one and he scans the bookings like a military tactician before finding me a plum spot by the window. Another lone diner, a bat expert from Wales, is soon sat next to me and we strike up a friendly conversation.
This is, at heart, what Agora’s all about. It’s a busy, jostling place just like Borough Market itself, with loud conversations and fiery cooking nearby; somewhere you can dump your shopping bags for half an hour and get fed and whetted without the stiff ceremony of being waited on by fawning staff. The servers here are friendly and extremely efficient but they’re obviously busy; anyone who comes with an attitude won’t be humoured.
Pork belly is delicious with thick crackling and a sprinkling of herbs, but hardly a quintessential Greek dish(Image: Stewart Carr)
I’ve never tasted orange wine before, and so I opt for a glass of Fattoria Di Vaira Vincenzo priced at £7.50, it’s essentially an aromatic white wine with an orange lustre. The menu at Agora is fairly eclectic, more of a tapas or banquet than a traditional choice of starters and mains.
Diners can order the likes of frozen margarita for £10, or an impressively puffed up wild-farmed flatbread for £3.50, while spreads include Ezme salata (finely chopped tomato, green chilli and pomegranate) or the traditional chard borani – a kind of yoghurt-based dip – with crispy garlic, both for £5. Among the skewers and grills are the vegetarian shishito pepper and ladolemono (£4), mushroom and spring onion (£3.50), as well as lamb (£4.50), pork (£5), chicken thigh (£6) and sardine (£4.50) skewers.
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Salads such as Greek salad featuring carob rusks and creamy galomizithra cheese (£10.50) are tempting for those looking for classic Greek cuisine, while slow cooked chickpeas and green zhoug (£9) is an appetising braise. After observing other diners’ meals, I’d recommend trying one of the delicious flatbreads, each of which seems to boast an exquisite topping, for instance green garlic butter fonduta at £9.50, or the awesome spanokopita, graviera, crispy potato (£10) and for meat-lovers, spicy pork sausage, spit-roasted pineapple, hot honey (£10.50). Rotisserie pork belly (£15) and lamb souvla (£17) are also advertised.
For myself, I order a salad of grilled onion, pomegranate, sumac + mixed herbs (£7) – essentially chopped sweet onion in a reddish sauce of turmeric juice and pomegranate molasses, alongside the rotisserie pork belly. The salad is enchantingly original but I’m disappointed with myself for choosing pork belly, hardly a quintessential Greek dish. The four plump cubes of pork taste delicious with thick crackling, but I wish I’d chosen one of the more adventurous humous spreads or elaborate flatbreads I see on other tables.
After a while, I’m suitably recharged to continue my escapade across London. I forego having Tiramisu (£7) for dessert, and opt to pay my bill, which comes to £34.40. Not bad for two dishes and a glass of wine. The whole walk-in experience lasts around half an hour and as I go, I’m left with that nagging feeling a reviewer never wants to feel; I need to go back, to try more, and taste more. An intriguing spot for food lovers.
Agora souvla bar is located at Bedale Street, near Borough Market.
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