It’s a truth universally acknowledged that a Londoner in possession of a lunch hour must be in want of a decent meal. And yet it’s not every lunchbreak that you can order a steak and hear it sizzling seconds later. Nor is it every day that you can walk away from a sturdy midday meal of meat and two veg feeling both satisfied and strangely smug. But change has come to the high street: canteen-style dining is back and this time it’s healthy, high-end and served at high-speed. 

Spots such as Farmer J and The Salad Kitchen have sprung up around the metropolis like wildflowers in a spring meadow and Londoners are frolicking among them. But perhaps this isn’t surprising. As the pace of our lives has picked up and al-desko dining became depressingly common, office workers have realised that a walk and a warm lunch counts as an act of self-care. As one health-conscious Canadian colleague noted over his Farmer J “fieldtray” of brown rice, cashew kale miso slaw, spiced-date sweet potatoes and amba chicken with green tahini: “If you’re not eating healthy on Tuesday lunch, when are you eating healthy?” 

In an age when we’re surrounded by “sometimes” foods, Brits are belatedly learning the feel-good properties of nutrients that aren’t sealed in fried batter or plastic triangles. Hence why Monday-to-Friday workers and the hybrid hordes alike are now looking to make the most of their days in the office. “When people come into town now, they’re willing to spend more on lunch,” says Simon Stenning, industry analyst and founder of Future Foodservice. “They want something more exciting, more nourishing – fewer meals out, but better ones. People know that they’re spending more but they also know what they’re getting.”

For The Salad Kitchen, which opened its first outlet in 2014, the surge in popularity has seen its revenue double each year since 2021. Pass by any of its premises in the Square Mile during the lunch rush and you might confuse the queues for a Guinness World Record attempt at the largest gathering of gilets. But beware of pitying the hungry office workers mindlessly marching toward a square meal – Londoners love a queue, a lunch queue doubly so. 

For this isn’t just about the food so much as the strange mix of structure and escapism. There’s comfort in the choreography. You join the relative order and serenity of a London line made up of people who seem like they can keep their houseplants alive and didn’t scoff a block of chocolate before bed. There’s camaraderie in the collective pretence that any of us know what “amba” is. You shuffle along, answer questions with single-syllabic responses and semi-conscious nods. Mercifully, the decisions are so few that vacillation is easily avoided. 

Stenning notes that there is also a strong “pleasure principle” at play. In other words, the “treat yourself” syndrome – a chronic ailment for this writer. And Farmer J is surely playing to the pleasure seekers. It’s the kind of place where everything is “elevated”, including the price. But what’s a few extra quid here and there? The answer: a lot more there than here. Nevertheless, you’re back the next day. 

Concerningly, this new lunchscape could spell trouble for industry leaders such as Pret a Manger and Itsu as they get lost between premium canteen offerings and the holy trinity of the supermarket meal-deal. Londoners are loath to give up the latter: the streets remain replete with people juggling a sandwich in one hand, crisps in the other and a drink lodged somewhere in between. It’s not just a meal, it’s a pastime. So why bother with an overpriced Pret baguette when you can get an inexpensive meal-deal or pay a few extra pounds for a rainbow salad so vivid that it could hang in a fauvist exhibition? It’s a small extra cost for a dish that someone actually put some effort into. At Farmer J they’ve even gone to the bother of giving every item a backstory: every chickpea comes with a CV, every roasted cauliflower boasts a robust provenance. I wouldn’t even be surprised if the ponzu sesame broccoli had a podcast – did you listen to Florets of Wisdom this week?

It’s being called the quick-service restaurant revolution but canteen-style dining is hardly new – it’s just had a makeover. Many private businesses now have their own canteens, The River Café began in just such a fashion. And when Leon launched it pitched itself as healthy fast food in a similar vein. So perhaps we’re witnessing more than just the comeback of the canteen, we’re seeing the return of the lunch hour not just as a meal but a moment. An hour to slow down and check in with yourself, your community and your colleagues. It’s the office crowd’s small rebellion of individual sovereignty. If the system is going to occupy our minds, we might as well reclaim lunchtime for the body. 

And yes, I’ll probably go back tomorrow – because somewhere between the queue, the tray and the medium-rare steak, I’ve convinced myself that I’m making good life choices. And honestly, maybe I am.

Matich is Monocle’s digital sub editor and a contributor.

Sadiq Khan believes that London is poised for a pivotal moment of opportunity and growth and is urging the world to take notice. In a year he calls a “game changer” for the capital, the mayor is championing a rare alignment across national and local government – one that could unlock long-awaited investment and development potential. 

Speaking to Monocle’s editor in chief Andrew Tuck earlier this year in Cannes, Khan shared why now is the moment to back London’s future and what this means for the city’s trajectory.

Great to see you, Sadiq. Tell us, why is this year so important for London?
This year is a real turning point for the city and for the country in terms of alignment. We’ve got a new national government whose number-one mission is growth, which finally puts us on the same page. I can say candidly to financiers, developers, housing providers and everyone here in Cannes that now is the time to buy a stake in London. 

The stars have aligned in terms of certainty and stability, which is what stakeholders and contractors are looking for. We’ve brought together not only myself as mayor but also the 32 boroughs, the municipality, Network Rail and others under the umbrella of a delegation that we call “Opportunity London”. The city wants good, inclusive and sustainable growth but investors crave stability. That is why we’re launching 20 live projects for people to take an interest in. 

Does that include leisure and student housing?
It’s a whole piece. “Opportunity London” includes a can-do prime minister, mayor and councils, and a range of housing that is affordable, market value, built-to-rent and for students. Old Oak Common is one of Europe’s largest brownfield sites so there’s lots of potential there. The land that we own in the Royal Docks also offers big opportunities so we have come up with offers for joint ventures. 

We’ve opened one of the world’s finest new rail lines, the Elizabeth line, and we want to extend the Bakerloo line south and the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) to Thamesmead. We also want to open the West London Orbital. All of this will unlock more housing and regeneration.

You’ve got some planning powers and convening influence but many developers still say that economic headwinds, financing and quotas make it hard to get projects off the ground. Has the state of the financial markets held you back?

Let’s look at the past few years. Under my mayoralty, we’ve had more homes completed than at any time since the 1930s – about 10,000 more per year than my predecessor – and we’ve started building affordable housing and council homes again. But you’re right: high interest rates and the lack of confidence in the market have been huge challenges. Brexit, especially the hard version, caused a skilled-labour shortage and inflation in construction. Then we had the coronavirus pandemic followed by Liz Truss’s mini-budget and Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

Now interest rates are lower. Confidence is returning and, for the first time in a long time, the national government, the mayor and local councils are all aligned. Show me another global city where that’s the case.

So I say to investors: this is your moment. We can give you certainty and stability.

The labour pool in construction has been badly hit by Brexit. Are there enough skilled workers to deliver your housing ambitions?
We need to train more Londoners. That’s why I published “The London Growth Plan”; a 10-year vision to grow our economy by £100bn (€118bn). A key part of that is talent strategy. We need plasterers, bricklayers, AI specialists, quantum coders, roboticists, life scientists and creatives. We’re retraining the city’s residents for new careers. In the past five years under the adult-education budget, we’ve trained one million people. Half of them saw that their wages increased by more than 10 per cent. It works. But challenges remain: construction inflation and skilled-labour shortages. We must continue to respond.

But can you ever build enough?
That’s the big question. Our city has grown consistently over the past 40 years. People want to relocate here, which is a good problem to have compared to declining cities elsewhere, but we haven’t planned well enough for that growth. 

Over the past eight years we have built about 45,000 homes annually. The government now wants to achieve 88,000 per year, a figure that we haven’t hit since 1934. I’m determined to get as close as we can.

We’re working on a new pro-growth “London plan” that will rethink the green belt with a brownfield-first approach. We’re looking for good development and developers tell me, “We don’t want a free hand – we want certainty.”

There is a lot of talk about ending nimbyism. How do you balance that with quality, character and public space?
The previous mayor had a laissez-faire attitude about urban planning that led to soulless density. We want homes, not units. So our plan mandates minimum room sizes, green roofs and community spaces.

Local councils also have their own plans. Camden isn’t Croydon and Croydon isn’t Havering. But councillors often face political pressure from small groups that oppose new developments simply because they want nothing built. We need to empower councils, mayors and the central government to push through good plans and meet real demand.

Would you scrap the green belt?
No, that’s a stupid generalisation. Not all green-belt land is pristine. Some of it is low quality and near transport. If the brownfield site is exhausted and there’s poor-quality green-belt space near a station, we should build there sensibly and at high density.

You mentioned how transport corridors unlock housing. What’s the potential there?
Transport systems transform cities. The Elizabeth line is proof of that – a network of 40 stations, new homes and new energy. Tony Pidgley lobbied me hard for a station at Woolwich – and look at Woolwich now. It’s the same with the Northern line extension at Battersea Power Station. We’ve got new buses across London too.

If we extend the DLR to Thamesmead then that’s 40,000 new residences. Extend the Bakerloo line south and it’s tens of thousands. As long as I’m mayor, London won’t stand still.

What about Oxford Street?
A work in progress. Oxford Street was once buzzing and now it’s tired. We need a development corporation and third-party investments. If we pedestrianise Oxford Street, it can host retail, leisure and culture again. Flagship shops deserve a world-class location.

Heathrow is another polarising issue. You’re cautious about expansion. Is that a fight that you’ll have with the government?
Aviation is important for our economy but I support a better Heathrow, not a bigger one. The noise pollution already affects more people than all major European hubs combined – and that’s with just two runways.

Air quality around the airport is still poor and a third runway would only worsen it. Plus, the Climate Change Committee says that aviation growth must meet carbon goals. Can Heathrow do that?

Then there’s the infrastructure; rerouting the M25, tunnelling, upgrading the Piccadilly line, the Southern Rail and the Elizabeth line. It’s not the best use of money. Though I agree with the government on most issues, on this, maybe not. 

There’s a tension now between livability and economic viability. Do you think that people are wary of rapid urbanism?
That’s a profound question. Urbanisation is accelerating and more than 50 per cent of the global population live in cities, heading for 65 per cent by 2050.

We need to grow sustainable, green, human-oriented cities. The “London plan” prioritises public transport, cycling, walkability, no car parks near stations, green roofs and walls, and rewilding urban spaces.

We’ve brought back bats, bees, and beavers – Justin and Sigourney Beaver, to be precise. We’ll clean up the river so that residents can swim safely and enjoy nature in the city. We’re building homes and creating more jobs, all while embracing the challenge.

Finally, what still keeps you up at night? What’s the hardest part of being mayor?
Street crime remains a concern but we have made progress. We currently have the lowest rate of teenage homicides in 13 years and under-25 deaths are the lowest they have been in 22 years. Burglary is also down and we’re tackling phone theft by working with police and phone companies to make second-hand phones worthless, just like car stereos and TomToms once were. We’re also working with the private sector to design out crime and create a better city. Tough on crime and tough on causes.

Sadiq Khan, mayor of London, thank you for joining us.
Merci beaucoup.

“Where are we headed?” asked a moustached man in a Saville Row suit so sharp that it would have made Tom Wolfe feel underdressed. “Haven’t the foggiest,” said a tall gent in a pith helmet. “But someone’s in charge, surely?” No one was. But that was precisely the point of this saunter sans purpose. And so the accidental leaders of some 100 dandies ambled off – perhaps by muscle memory – in the direction of Soho.

Granted, the intrepid duo didn’t have far to go. The Grand Flaneur Walk, organised by Chap magazine and now in its fifth year, starts at the statue of Beau Brummell in St James’s and has no set destination. Brummell, the quintessential 19th-century dandy who spent a mere five hours getting dressed each day, once said that “to be truly elegant one should not be noticed.” By that logic, this writer was among the event’s most elegantly invisible participants. It’s hard to stand out when the person next to you is wearing a floral-patterned Gucci suit with a straw boater and the serene expression of someone who has never heard of cargo pants. Another attendee was dressed like an 18th-century corsair after a particularly lucrative raid: period buckle shoes, velvet dress breeches to the knees, a waistcoat that looked incomplete without a pair of flintlock pistols and a cravat accessorised by – wait for it – another cravat. Even London made an effort with a day adorned in clement May sunshine.

Gustav Temple, editor of Chap, was busy distributing lapel pins and posing for photographs. “It’s getting bigger each year,” said Temple. Indeed, the 100-strong crowd was big and bright enough to have been Instagrammed from orbit. “But the interesting thing is that people are dressing better too, every year they’re raising the bar.” 

That bar was somewhere between Soul Train and an Edwardian séance. Floating through London like a flotilla on the Thames, the procession of flâneurs had come from far and wide to kick it with their kin. An American woman flew in from Munich just for the stroll, so too a contingent from Italy. “There has to be some way for us to parade,” Temple added. “I just wish we hadn’t gone down Shaftesbury Avenue. But a true dandy accepts.” 

Soho, however, was a fitting backdrop. The district’s dandified history was close at hand as the procession drifted past Meard Street, once home to Sebastian Horsley, whose unauthorised autobiography, Dandy in the Underworld, shows the lengths some will go to stand out from the crowd (Horsley had himself crucified in 2000). One is reminded that dandyism isn’t just about dressing up. It’s a reaction against tired trends and feed-filling algorithmic conformity, a refusal to be boring or – God forbid – generic. 

The dandy, once presumed drowned under a high-street tsunami of lycra, puffer jackets and sweatshop-made sneakers, is today sauntering toward a 21st-century comeback, albeit at a suitably meandering pace. From museum exhibitions to last week’s Met Gala theme of black dandyism, the figure’s 21st-century incarnation is reasserting the right to overdress for absolutely everything.

Beneath the panama hats and parasols there was something sincere. At one point in the limbo between pub pit stops, someone produced a clutch of scotch eggs and distributed them among the crowd. The cry went round: “One should never saunter on an empty stomach!” Nothing is too high nor too low for dandies, all the world’s their stage – or in this case, their snack. Far from snobbish, the event’s overarching mood was supportive and celebratory – individuals enjoying a rare jaunt together as a tribe. 

One exquisitely dressed dandy, whom Monocle was assured had never been seen without a waistcoat, was saying his goodbyes when someone entreated him to fix a small frill of leather that was starting to fray from the handle of his vintage cane. “Oh goodness me,” he said. “I’ve let the side down.” He hadn’t. Next year, the tribe will return – lapels pressed and cravats aplenty, sauntering proudly without purpose. 

Matich is Monocle’s digital sub editor and a contributor.