Dish finder in London

Eggs, bacon, sausage, beans, grilled tomato, mushrooms and toast, often with black pudding. Best in a proper café, the ‘caff’, rather than a hotel.

Back bacon in buttered white bread with brown sauce or ketchup, the subject of strong opinions. Every caff does one.

Battered cod or haddock with thick chips, salt and malt vinegar. Ask for mushy peas, and eat it from the paper if the weather allows.

A minced-beef pie with mashed potato and ‘liquor’, a green parsley sauce. A working-class East End lunch, served in tiled shops that have been going for a century.

Roast beef, lamb, pork or chicken with roast potatoes, vegetables, Yorkshire pudding and gravy. Pubs serve it from midday on Sundays; book, because the good ones fill.

Hot salt beef carved thick into a bagel with sharp English mustard. Brick Lane's beigel bakeries sell them around the clock.

A boiled egg wrapped in sausage meat and breadcrumbs, then fried. Gastropubs serve them warm with a runny yolk.

Seasoned pork in flaky pastry, sold hot by every bakery chain and most delis. The quickest cheap lunch in the city.

Sausages on mashed potato with onion gravy, a pub standard. Most pubs now offer a vegetarian sausage too.

Charred chicken in a creamy, mildly spiced tomato sauce, the dish British curry houses made their own. Order it with pilau rice and naan, or go to Tooting or Southall for something closer to home cooking.

Chicken marinated in scotch bonnet, allspice and thyme, smoked over a drum grill. Brixton and Notting Hill Carnival are where to eat it.

Cheddar, crusty bread, pickle, apple and pickled onions, a cold pub lunch. Meat-free unless you add the ham.

Baked beans in tomato sauce on buttered toast, often with grated cheese on top. Cheap, filling and on every café menu.

Warm scones with clotted cream and strawberry jam, and a pot of tea. Afternoon tea adds sandwiches and cakes at a much higher price.

A dense date sponge soaked in toffee sauce, served hot with custard or ice cream. The pub pudding people order without looking at the menu.

Crushed meringue, whipped cream and strawberries folded together. A summer pudding, at its best in June and July.