The 5 Most Overhyped Foods At London's Iconic Borough Market

London is one of the world's great tourist destinations, but is it worth the hype? Not everyone thinks so: In 2023, the English capital ranked in the Top 10 most overrated cities in the world according to traveler reviews (per The Independent). That's the trouble with hype; build something up too much, and the chances of disappointment are far greater. If you want proof, witness the bored punters wandering around London tourist traps like Madame Tussauds, or check out the underwhelmed faces of people stepping off the London Eye after paying £42 ($54) for a Ferris wheel ride. Overhyping places has become far quicker now with social media, and that extends to food. TikTok and Instagram are awash with people clamoring to tell you the best must-try grub in the Big Smoke, and London Borough Market is a place that comes up often.

The history of London Borough Market dates back around 1,000 years, and it has been standing at its current spot in Southwark on the south bank of the River Thames since 1756. More recently, it has become a tourist destination for foodie travelers. Since the late '90s, London Borough Market has become known for its range of stalls offering trendy street food and other delicacies. There is a conveyor belt of viral videos telling you what to eat at the market, so let's take a look at some of the most overhyped spots and see what deserves your attention and which ones you could skip.

This may well be the most overhyped and overrated item on this list. Turnips is a greengrocer that prides itself on supplying the freshest seasonal produce at two locations in Greenwich Market and Borough Market. Although the latter venue sells a lot of quality fruit and veg, it has become globally famous thanks to its viral chocolate strawberries that attract visitors from all over the world. A temporary ban imposed by the Market bosses at the end of 2023 only increased the popularity of the strawberry cult — one person reportedly traveled from Australia just to get a taste, as reported in The Standard.

Strawberries are the quintessential English summer fruit, but is this the best place to try them? The plump, juicy berries at Turnips are known for their freshness, but £8.50 ($10.90) for a plastic cup containing about a dozen strawberries with a drizzle of melted chocolate is extortionate, even by London standards. For context, Wimbledon has maintained the price point of its iconic strawberries and cream at £2.50 ($3.20) despite the soaring costs of everything else available at the tennis tournament. For a more authentic British strawberry-tasting experience, there are several pick-your-own farms in and around London where you can pick them straight from the stem, cheekily eating your fill before even weighing up your punnet. So, by all means, try the fruit at Turnips, but with so many other food options available nearby, your money may be better spent elsewhere.

The Padfield family has been making dairy products since taking over the ancestral farm in Somerset in 1990, raising a herd of Holstein Friesian cows and using traditional methods to create hand-crafted cheeses that have won numerous awards. Their Bath Dairy stall at London Borough Market has gone viral in recent years with its Mac and Cheese. TikTok videos invariably show the big pan of creamy mac and cheese that bubbles away at the stand, and you are getting three wonderful gourmet cheeses blended in there for your buck. However, at £10 ($12.70), it is pretty pricey for a pot of macaroni coated in cheese sauce, with or without the toppings of jalapeños and crispy onions.

If you really want to get your cheese on, consider Kappacasein Dairy as an alternative. Two queues form each day with people eager to try their famous raclette and cheese toasties. Owner Bill Oglethorpe has dedicated 20 years to the art of melting cheese, sourcing his products from fine Somerset farms. Raclette is a Swiss dish with molten cheese oozing over new potatoes, and it has one serious pull — add a side of pickles for a little extra bite. The toastie is also a hit, mixing cheeses (including aged Montgomery Cheddar melted between two crisp golden slices of sourdough) with leek and onion for extra savoriness. At £8 ($10.17) per dish, it's a better deal, and they both pack a seriously cheesy punch.

Sausage rolls — herby minced pork baked inside flaky pastry — are a British institution. High street bakery chain Greggs sells around 130 million annually, and social media went into meltdown in 2019 when the bakery introduced a vegan option. That is how passionate Brits are about them, for better or worse. While the Greggs classic is still a bargain at £1.45 ($1.85), more expensive gourmet versions are going viral, such as the hulking ones sold by Ginger Pig at Borough Market.

Established in 2003, Ginger Pig is a chain of London butchers renowned for quality meat sourced from free-range farms across the country. The Borough Market shop has a popular sideline in baked products, including Scotch eggs, pork pies, and world-famous sausage rolls. Three options are available: Traditional, pork and stilton, and harissa lamb. They start at £6.00 ($7.64), but they are real monsters, as big as your fist and stuffed with meat.

The hype is through the roof, with some reviewers even equating the sausage rolls to a religious experience. We probably wouldn't go that far, but the quality of the meat shines through in every bite, and it is a great way to acquaint yourself with a national culinary treasure. If there is one small criticism, a dollop of HP sauce or piccalilli would be a welcome tart contrast to the sheer amount of seasoned meat, but one thing is for sure: You'll never look at a regular Greggs sausage roll the same again.

Britain has become a nation of sandwich buyers since the Marks & Spencer retail chain first sold pre-packaged butties in 1980. Now, an astonishing 3 billion sandwiches are consumed each year. The art of putting things in bread and selling them has evolved immeasurably since Marks' first humble offerings, and one spot that draws TikTokers in droves is The Black Pig at London Borough Market.

The signature "Best One" is a serious sandwich. Hunky ciabatta bread is smothered with truffle-honey mayo before servers heap on slow-roasted pork from free-range pigs bred on the U.K. coast in Suffolk. This is topped with two more sauces and lashings of freshly grated parmesan cheese. The Best One is a little pricey at £12 ($15.40), but it is a very tasty and filling sandwich, and one downside is that it might not leave much room to sample any other viral grub from the market. But if you are a sandwich lover, then this may very well be the stall you head to first. 

These sarnies are very highly rated by visitors and foodie websites alike; Tripadvisor users concur, awarding The Black Pig a lofty 4.5 stars. London has far more expensive sandwiches, but that £12 price tag might be a sticking point for some visitors. A more wallet-friendly option can be found at Hobbs Roast, a popular sandwich shop (4.5 on Tripadvisor), where you can pick up a pulled pork wrap or bap for under £10 ($13).

Much like the great British sausage roll, doughnuts have also undergone a gourmet revolution in recent years. Not so long ago, we'd be talking about a bag of sugar-dusted rings at the seaside or cheap-and-cheerful bakery doughnuts filled with fruit jam or vanilla custard. Now, innovative bakers seek to create increasingly artisan and adventurous doughnuts, coming up with some very Instagrammable options. Bread Ahead, a well-established bakers with eight London outlets (including Borough Market), has become known as one of the best doughnut vendors in the capital. Its best-selling crème brûlée version is a viral sensation.

Besides the signature flamed doughnut filled with vanilla cream, Bread Ahead offers fillings ranging from classic (raspberry jam) to more exotic (salted caramel and honeycomb). These are pretty wonderful-looking doughnuts, and many visitors believe they are worth the hype. On Tripadvisor, Bread Ahead gets a 4-star overall rating, with the crème brûlée doughnut receiving plenty of 5-star reviews. Dissenting voices say they aren't anything special, particularly at £4.50 ($5.75) a pop. This price point is an issue when you can still get a four-pack of regular jam doughnuts from Greggs for £3.30 ($4.20) or cheaper still from Tesco or Sainsbury's. They might not be as fancy, but they are just as good when bought fresh and warm. This is another situation at Borough Market where your hard-earned cash might be better spent on something else.

London Borough Market has so many great food stalls, and stating that any one place is more overhyped than another is very subjective. Therefore, while compiling this article, we have taken other visitor reviews and ratings into consideration (Tripadvisor, Yelp, etc.) and evaluated the price points for each item. Value for money is often an issue when a destination becomes popular with tourists, and costs can become inflated in line with a product's desirability — especially if it has gone viral.

Overhyped can also equate with overpriced, which can be a pitfall if you are unfamiliar with costs in the U.K. In this respect, we have also compared most of the items on the list with similar offerings either at the market or other outlets. Of course, we understand that value is also subjective, and many travelers will happily pay a little more to say they've tried the latest TikTok trend for themselves; a Greggs sausage roll certainly isn't as Instagrammable as one from Ginger Pig, for instance. To say the stalls featured here are overhyped is just a matter of opinion — your best bet is to cruise the market before committing, see what you fancy, and then decide whether the food is worth the buzz for yourself.