Unrated: This is a restaurant we want to re-visit before rating, or it’s a coffee shop, bar, or dessert shop. We only rate spots where you can eat a full meal.

This old-school Greek restaurant has been going strong since the ‘60s and operates as a sort of pseudo-foster programme for sad Londoners who want to pretend they’re in Rhodes. Heartily stuffed dolmades are passed across tables, Yannis Markopoulos songs blare from the speakers, and any pungent garlic breath from the truly Greek-style tzatziki is dutifully ignored. The food is reliably tasty with the slapdash, giant portion presentation favoured by good yiayias everywhere.

On Trap Kitchen’s menu of soul food-inspired classics, the star of the show is the XXL lobster tails that are so meaty and so perfectly juicy that we’d brave even the worst weekend crowds. It’s one of the best spots for a deeply satisfying seafood fix. This Camden spot has two levels—the ground floor has intimate booths and upstairs is where we’d go for a date night that starts with BBQ chicken wings and ends with a nap. It’s a popular place so book ahead and come with an empty stomach.

Small plates and sharing are the best way to enjoy Mr Ji’s always-innovative flavour combinations. Their tacos are made using crispy dumpling skins, and dishes like brioche prawn toast are cooked with enlivening combinations like sweetcorn béchamel. The main dining room—all gun metal greys and modern lines—has the space and big round tables for groups sharing a carafe of sake and zesty crudo numbers.

The smashburger is a special thing. And BUK’s house special burger is not only halal, but it has some seriously outstanding ratios. Two thin but substantial, flattened beef patties, a double portion of melted american cheese, plenty of that creamy, chilli house sauce oozing over the patty, and sweet caramelised onion to top it all off. This burger laughs in the face of the Big Mac. And we laugh in the face of anyone who hasn’t been to this laid-back burger spot.

Guanabana, a Caribbean restaurant on Kentish Town Road, serves one of the best Sunday roasts in the city. A perfect bite includes a little bit of everything: tender jerk beef, a caramelised baby carrot, a piece of sweet plantain, and the edges of a crispy roast potato and yorkshire pudding, all drenched in spicy jerk gravy. The common thread between the Sunday specials, weekday dishes, and atmosphere is comfort, and a midweek cosy BYOB group meal should always be headlined by the peppery lamb curry.

Camden Town is pretty full on. Lots of people, lots of shuffling, and lots of CBD-infused Doc Martens. If you’re looking for respite from it all, head to Lemonia on Regent’s Park Road. This family-run Primrose Hill classic has been serving mezze and souvlaki to the young and old of north London for donkey’s years, and it’s a big Greek restaurant that’s perfect for groups but also full of solo diners at lunchtime. You won’t be stunned, but you will be very satisfied.

No other spot around Regent’s Park Road captures the effortless, slightly bohemian but also ridiculously rich style of this corner of NW1 quite like Greenberry. Head to the all-day cafe for a delightful plate of prawn risotto, or a fluffy pancake and rhubarb brunch, and pretend you live in one of the pastel terraces around the corner on Chalcot Square. It’s where you should go when you’re trying to convince the person you’re dating (or yourself) that you’re a serious, understated person with good taste in salads.

Hidden underneath the arches close to Camden Road station, this Mexican delivery-only restaurant deserves to see the light. The breakfast menu is excellent—chilaquiles with gooey eggs, molletes with sourdough, and huevos rancheros. We also think about the smoky, finely ground chorizo and Yucateco-style pork tacos (slow-cooked in orange and achiote paste) almost daily. While you can’t order in person or have it delivered further than Camden, you can order via any of the major delivery apps to collect from the address itself, and then head to St. Martin’s Gardens for a bench.

Nothing makes us feel quite as comfortable as a restaurant like Portuguese spot O Tino. It has football playing silently on a screen in the background, and arguably the friendliest staff in London who are particularly generous with the port. The headliner gambas à Tino—fat, juicy prawns in a bath of silky tomato sauce and garlic—are essential, and we also have a real surf-and-turf soft spot for the hulking pork à alentejana with clams and fried potatoes.

Lume is the kind of great little place that makes you want to live within walking distance, and find a way to make sure that the staff never let anyone else sit at your corner table on a Sunday night. The food here is broadly Italian with Sardinian influences and an extensive wine offering, which sets it apart from most other neighbourhood restaurants in this part of town.

La Patagonia is a friendly Argentinian grill restaurant that’s a good spot to know about when you find yourself on Camden High Street and want to get clear of the vape clouds as soon as possible. You should get involved in one of the steaks, and some of their lightly fried empanadas, plus a side order of humita—a comforting corn, cheese, and béchamel situation—and several glasses of malbec.

Every time we go to Camden with an out-of-towner and they decide they want ice cream, we head to Chin Chin Laboratories by Camden Market. Although there isn’t much seating, this place makes super smooth ice cream involving nitrogen and, we don’t know, science—but it tastes excellent, especially the burnt butter caramel flavour.