The best sandwich in London is not a question of bread. It is a question of what time it is. One of these shops has never closed since 1979. Another is shut on Mondays and Tuesdays and takes a three hour break in the middle of the afternoon.
Between them they cover the clock, and once you know which is open you know where you are going. Here is what each one publishes.
The one that never closes
Beigel Bake, 159 Brick Lane
Twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, since 1979.
Beigel Bake
- Address
- 159 Brick Lane, London, E1 6SB
- Nearest
- Shoreditch High Street, five minutes. Aldgate East, seven. Liverpool Street, ten
- Hours
- Open 24 hours a day, seven days a week
- Booking
- No booking, no table service. Join the queue
- Price
- Beigels from around 2.20 pounds, with the salt beef and the smoked salmon at the upper end of a range running to about 8.50
- Standing
- Baking on Brick Lane since 1979, and the only address on this page open in the middle of the night
How to get in
Hand carved salt beef with mustard and pickles is the order, and the smoked salmon with cream cheese is the other one. The queue at two in the morning is part of the thing rather than a fault in it, and it is the reason this shop is on every London list: there is nowhere else to eat this well at that hour. Their own wall carries quotes from the Prince and Princess of Wales, Stormzy, Mariah Carey and Questlove, who describes Amy Winehouse bringing him here for the salt beef. Ask for mustard. Everyone who has written about the place says the mustard is the point.
The one shut on Tuesdays
Max’s Sandwich Shop, Crouch Hill
Five days a week, split services, no reservations, and an annual holiday schedule published in advance.
Max’s Sandwich Shop
- Address
- 19 Crouch Hill, London, N4 4AP
- Nearest
- Crouch Hill overground, two minutes. Finsbury Park, fifteen
- Hours
- Closed Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday to Friday midday to 3pm and 6pm to 11pm. Saturday 11am to 3.30pm and 5pm to 11pm. Sunday 11am to 6pm straight through
- Booking
- None taken. Private hire only on a Monday or Tuesday, when the shop would otherwise be closed, or during the day before normal opening
- Standing
- A sandwich shop that runs like a restaurant, open into the evening and closed at the start of the week
How to get in
Read the hours before you travel, because there are three separate traps in them. It is closed on Monday and Tuesday. It shuts for three hours in the middle of every weekday afternoon. And it takes no reservations at all, so the timing is the only thing you control. Sunday is the exception and the easiest visit, running straight through from eleven to six with no break. They also publish their annual closures, which almost nobody does: three weeks at Christmas, two weeks in August, and the Saturday and Sunday of Easter weekend. Eleven at night on a Friday makes this the only late sandwich here that comes with a chair.
The one built for a lunch hour
Sandwich Sandwich
Five London shops, a Time Out award, and hot food only between eleven and six.
Sandwich Sandwich
- Address
- 1 Gresham Street, EC2V 7BX, their largest. Also Broadgate, Mark Lane, Tottenham Court Road and Paddington Station
- Nearest
- St Paul’s or Bank for Gresham Street. Liverpool Street for Broadgate. Tower Hill for Mark Lane
- Hours
- Gresham Street Monday to Friday 7am to 6pm, Saturday 8am to 6pm, Sunday 9am to 6pm. Breakfast 7am to 10.30am on weekdays and 8am to 10.30am at weekends. Hot food 11am to 6pm. House classics all day
- Booking
- No booking. Click and collect and delivery through their own app, which they sell on beating the queue
- Standing
- Family run, started in Bristol in 2012 and now in London, and crowned winner of the Time Out Sammie Slam in 2024
How to get in
The menu runs on three separate clocks and the one that catches people out is hot food, which does not start until eleven. Turn up at half ten wanting a hot stack and you are having breakfast instead. The house classics are the exception and run all day. Gresham Street is the newest and biggest, in the City, and opens at seven on a weekday for the office trade. The app exists because the queues are real: they advertise it specifically as a way past them, which is an unusually honest piece of marketing.
What to know
After midnight there is one answer. Beigel Bake on Brick Lane is open all day and all night, every day of the year. Nothing else on this page is open after eleven.
Hot food has its own hours. Sandwich Sandwich serve hot stacks from eleven to six and breakfast from seven to half ten. The all day option is the house classics, and that is the menu to look at if you arrive between services.
Max’s is a restaurant wearing a sandwich shop’s name. Split services, evening trading to eleven, two days closed, no bookings and a published annual holiday. Treat it like a dinner plan rather than a lunch one.
Nobody here takes a reservation. Max’s says so outright, Beigel Bake has no tables to reserve, and Sandwich Sandwich sells an app instead. The queue is the system everywhere.
Sunday is the easy day at two of the three. Max’s runs straight through eleven to six with no afternoon break, and Beigel Bake does not notice the day at all. Sandwich Sandwich opens an hour later at nine.
Everything here was taken from each shop’s own published information and rechecked on 28 September 2026. Prices are their starting figures and menus change. Confirm before you travel.
The best burger in London is the other handheld argument, and two restaurants both claim the world title in writing.
Cheap eats in London prices the rest of the cheap end, from £9.50 pasta upward.
Where to go next
The best bakeries in London cover the bread end of this, and they close at four almost everywhere. The coffee guide covers what to drink with it.
Late night restaurants is the wider answer to the two in the morning problem, and fish and chips is the other great cheap London plate with hours worth checking.
Spitalfields Market is five minutes from Brick Lane, and Shoreditch covers the rest of that postcode.
Questions we get asked
What is the best sandwich in London?
The salt beef beigel at Beigel Bake, 159 Brick Lane, is the one everyone names, hand carved with mustard and pickles and available at any hour of any day. Max’s Sandwich Shop on Crouch Hill is the one to sit down in, though it closes on Mondays and Tuesdays. Sandwich Sandwich won Time Out’s Sammie Slam in 2024 and has five London shops.
Is there a 24 hour sandwich shop in London?
Beigel Bake at 159 Brick Lane in E1, which has been open 24 hours a day, seven days a week since 1979. It is the only address on this page open in the middle of the night, and the late queue is part of the experience rather than a sign something has gone wrong. Shoreditch High Street is the nearest station at about five minutes.
What time does Max’s Sandwich Shop open?
Not at all on Monday or Tuesday. Wednesday to Friday it runs midday to 3pm and again from 6pm to 11pm, with a three hour break between. Saturday is 11am to 3.30pm and 5pm to 11pm. Sunday is the only day it runs straight through, 11am to 6pm. No reservations are taken at any time.
Where can you get salt beef in London?
Beigel Bake on Brick Lane, where hand carved salt beef with mustard and pickles is the signature order and has been since 1979. It is served round the clock. Their own quote wall runs from the Prince and Princess of Wales to Stormzy and Questlove, who tells the story of Amy Winehouse taking him there for exactly this sandwich.
What time does hot food start at Sandwich Sandwich?
Eleven in the morning, and it runs to six. Breakfast is served from 7am to 10.30am on weekdays and from 8am on weekends, so there is a half hour gap at half ten when neither is available. The house classics run all day, which is the answer if you arrive between the two services.
Do London sandwich shops take bookings?
Essentially none of them. Max’s Sandwich Shop states plainly that it takes no reservations, and offers private hire only on the Monday or Tuesday when it would otherwise be shut. Beigel Bake has no tables. Sandwich Sandwich sells an app whose stated purpose is beating the queue rather than booking a place in it.
Written by Robert J Wills, no. 126 in the guide.
Last checked 28 September 2026 against the venues' own published information. Nobody pays to appear here and we take no bookings.
