It’s been said time and time again that you can’t work on an empty stomach. And yet, a shocking 12% of Britain’s workers (that’s 1 in 8) never or hardly ever take a lunch break.
What’s more, in the UK, the average lunch break lasts just 28 minutes — that’s hardly enough time to fully take a break and fuel up. But, when you work in a place as vibrant as Bishophsgate, you’ll be wanting to make the most of the full hour every time.
Here at Myo, we understand the strong correlation between employee comfort and work performance, believing the key to a successful business is a satisfied workforce. If you’re working from our Liverpool Street offices, be sure to take the time to taste the local area’s cuisine and feast your eyes upon cultural hotspots nearby, too.
To get you inspired, we’ve put together a guide to the best restaurants, cafes, and sites of interest within a ten-minute walk of our rentable offices and meeting rooms. Read on for more.
Where to eat in Liverpool Street?
Take the elevator down from our Liverpool Street offices, exit through the lobby, walk through the quiet courtyard near St Botolph’s without Bishopsgate church and you’ll be greeted by an impressive array of eateries.
As passionate foodies ourselves, the Myo team have dutifully tried and tasted a fair share of the delicious food on our doorstep during our own lunch breaks, recommending only the best to you. The following options are all available within a short walk from your desk at our Liverpool Street offices.
The best coffee shops near Liverpool Street
Black Sheep Coffee
The Bishopsgate Black Sheep Coffee is right next to the station and is open 7 days a week til 8pm for those who need a caffeine hit around the clock. Offering WiFi, seating, and order-ahead options, Black Sheep makes an efficient little pit stop to work at before catching a train or attending an in-person meeting. It also has disabled access and is dog friendly.
Current Cafe, Petticoat Square
A little further afield, but still only a 6-minute walk, is the quaint Current Cafe in Harrow Place (part of the Petticoat Square area, a vibrant hub with a bustling local community). This is a charming independent Asian cafe that serves specialty coffee (such as their ‘superfood lattes’) and tasteful loose-leaf tea. For a more authentic experience, the Current Cafe is a brilliant option and is open 8am – 6pm on weekdays.
Fazenda UK
Just a few doors down from Current Cafe, you’ll find the green-fronted Fazenda, a homely spot for artisan coffee that draws on the flavours of Italy. This is a popular favourite among locals and has been in business for many years now. Fazenda is open from 7:30am to 6pm Monday to Friday and has a range of both indoor and outdoor seating options.
As well as coffee, this place also serves authentic Italian food, with their crêpes and cakes being highly-rated.
Store St Espresso, 222 Bishopsgate
Another great option for coffee lovers is Store St Espresso, the dog-friendly, bright and airy coffee house. Open 7 days a week, until 5pm, this cafe is minimalist, cool, and crisp, playing to their strengths and simply serving good, strong coffee.
Change Please
Perhaps our favourite on the list is Change Please, a coffee shop with a difference. You may well have read that we partner with Change Please to provide the people in all of our offices with sustainably sourced, ethically produced, and great-tasting coffee.
Change Please empowers those who have been affected by homelessness, training them up as baristas and teaching them invaluable skills to help them get back on their feet. As well as this, 100% of their profits go into helping give the homeless a fresh shot at life.
Plant-based & planet-conscious meals in Liverpool Street
For those among us who are vegan, vegetarian, or just keen to prioritise the planet in their diet, there is a strong selection of eateries with plant-based menus near us.
Grain Kitchen
Grain Kitchen is a small, independently-run restaurant with a casual eating style that’s just a 7-minute walk from our offices. This restaurant serves delicious grain bowls that take inspiration from around the world.
The branch near our Liverpool Street offices has recently expanded their opening hours, too, offering a takeaway or eat-in lunch between 11am and 4pm and a takeaway dinner option from 5:30pm – 8:30pm (excellent for those working late with a hungry stomach!).
Their menu also caters for gluten-free options and includes colourful dishes such as the Mediterranean Beluga Bowl, California Bowl, and Middle Eastern Jewel Bowl.
Abokado
We also recommend Abokado, a fun and fresh plant-based cafe just off Old Broad Street. Just like Myo, Abokado takes sustainability into account at all levels of service – from supply chains to materials. That’s why they’ve recently made the switch away from plastic packaging to cardboard. Also, 75% of their menu is vegetarian, and over 40% of it is vegan! So, there’s no compromise necessary for those with dietary requirements.
Sleek dining options near Liverpool Street
Sometimes, you might want a little more from your lunch break dining experience than quick eats or takeaway food, especially if the weather is bad. Luckily, Liverpool Street and the Bishopsgate area boast plenty of sleek restaurants for sit-down meals.
Paradise Green, 100 Bishopsgate
Up first is Paradise Green, a trendy, modern venue serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner to its guests. Open everyday until either 10pm or 12am (you guessed it, it’s also a bar for after-work celebrations!), Paradise Green brings together art, food, and design to create a luxurious dining experience, playfully inspired by Surfers’ Paradise on Australia’s Gold Coast. On the corner of Wormwood Street and Bishopsgate Street, this is one of the closest high-end restaurants to our Liverpool Street offices at just a 3-minute walk away!
The Devonshire Terrace
For another high-end dining experience perfect for a client lunch or team celebration why not try The Devonshire Terrace from Drake and Morgan? Versatile as a location, this restaurant serves freshly-ground coffee throughout the day, seasonal menus, lunch options, and alfresco dining on their terrace that caters for post-work drinks, lunch-time events, and even weekend brunches.
It’s well worth the 7-minute walk – though that’s hardly a trek for London – as the terrace itself presents a stunning dining experience, not to mention the high-quality food. From ‘shrimp lollipops’ to ‘cockle popcorn’, their menu really does make the mind boggle!
Authentic street-food
Within the vicinity of our Liverpool Street offices, we are incredibly lucky to have not one but two street food markets serving affordable, delicious hot food at prime times throughout the day.
Petticoat Lane Market
Established in 1650, Petticoat Lane Market is a local treasure and one of Britain’s oldest marketplaces. Originally just a clothing market (hence the name), the market now also sells street food from around the world.
Just a few hundred yards away from Spitalfields Market – and not far from Brick Lane Market – the stalls of Petticoat Lane are just an eight-minute walk from Myo’s Liverpool Street offices. The Market is open from Monday to Friday for most of the day on Wentworth Street; however, on Sunday, this expands to numerous streets with over 1000 stalls.
Spitalfields Market
How could we leave this one off our list? While we could write an entire blog about the edible options available at one of London’s most popular traditional food markets, we’ll cut to the chase here.
Simply leave our offices at the start of your lunch break, and make the short 9-minute walk, making sure to take in the sights of the St Botolph’s garden and the shops along Middlesex Street on the way. When you find yourself at Spitalfields, you’re spoilt for choice. There’s everything from pastries to noodles and ice cream. However, we’d have to recommend Merkamo Ethiopian for a veggie main course and, naturally, the Humble Crumble stand for dessert.
If you have the time, it is also definitely worth looking around the book stands and seeing what the antique stalls have to offer. Who said lunch breaks weren’t for shopping?
Landsec’s food trucks
Lastly, if you’re in the mood for street food, but don’t have too much time to spare, there are often food trucks right outside the Dashwood building itself, bought in by Landsec for the workers in the building to enjoy at their convenience. Keep an eye out for these the next time you visit our Liverpool Street offices!
Great-tasting pub grub
You can’t argue with pub grub, especially in the winter months or when it’s cold and miserable outside. If you’re in the mood for warm, British food, we have two traditional pubs within a 6-minute walk of our Liverpool Street offices.
The Astronomer
On Middlesex Street, near to the OYO Home Liverpool Street, you can find The Astronomer.
Open every weekday from 11am – 11pm, The Astronomer is a reliable choice if you’re looking for large portion sizes of your childhood favourites to fuel you up for work. From beer-battered haddock finger sandwiches to spinach & tofu arancini, there is something for everyone.
This pub also has accessible lifts and toilets, step-free access, and is dog-friendly.
The Lord Aberconway
Less than a 1-minute walk is The Lord Aberconway, a quirky – yet traditional – Great British pub in Old Broad Street. Just around the corner from Liverpool Street Station, this could be the last stop for dinner before the train ride home.
Their lunch menu is full of warming, delicious food. From sharing platters to fish and chips or buffet-style food, there’s bound to be something that will take your fancy here. Why not treat yourself to a dessert too?
For office workers, this is an excellent option as their dress code is smart casual so you can go straight from the office to enjoy a meal in comfort. Note: there is disabled access to their facilities.
A bite to eat right on your doorstep
If you’re short on time and want to stay very close to the office, there are a variety of options that take less than a minute to get to. That’s one of the benefits of our office being so centrally located: you’re spoilt for choice and convenience.
Birley’s Sandwiches
If you’re in the mood for sandwiches, toasties, and baguettes, Birley’s Sandwiches on Broad Street is the place to go, winning the British Sandwich Association’s Specialist Sandwich Bar Chain of the Year four times.
Just a one-minute walk from the front door of our Liverpool Street offices, Birley’s is a hotspot for local professionals, serving a full breakfast sandwich menu, plus made-to-order salads, soups, and sandwiches in a traditional deli-style.
Whatever you fancy, the staff there can put together a sandwich or salad for you that’s different each day. One of the best things about Birley’s is the customisability: they don’t pre-package your sandwiches or salads, but custom make them how you want it every time.
Coco Di Mama
Just a 5-minute walk from Myo’s office is Coco Di Mama, a modern Italian pasta house serving everything from slow-cooked bolognese to Lentil Ragu. As they put it themselves, they serve “crowd-pleasing classics with a little bit of informal indulgence” — the perfect pick-me-up for any tough day at the office.
If it’s cold or rainy outside, why not get a steaming hot bowl of pasta delivered straight to the office? Take-away is their speciality after all. If you’re not in the mood for pasta, they have a good range of sandwiches, made the traditional Italian way on sourdough baguettes. Or, for a healthier option, get to know their salad bowls (vegan and vegetarian options are available).
If you’re heading straight back to the office afterwards, be sure to pick up a box of their legendary Bomboloni doughnuts to share with your colleagues — they won’t forgive you if you don’t.
Sites of interest near London’s Liverpool Street
Within a two-minute walk of our offices, you can find a series of interesting and inspiring sights. Stretching back to before the Victorian era to the very peak of modern innovation, our doorstep is something of a museum.
The Victorian Bath House
To the side of our Landsec-owned building, you’ll find a curious, small tiled building called ‘The Victorian Bath House’ that has been attracting inquisitive passersby for decades.
While this is now one of London’s most coveted hireable venues for drinks and small events, it has a very different past. Dating back to 1817, this curious little building is actually a former traditional Turkish bathhouse.
Deriving from ancient Islamic techniques, this style of bath house would use hot, dry air, cold water, massages, and a cooling room to ‘bathe’ guests for health purposes. You can take a virtual tour for yourself if you’d like.
St-Botolph-without-Bishopsgate Church
Right next to the Landsec building, you will find the beautiful St Botolph’s Without church, visible from many of our rentable meeting rooms.
First appearing on the records in 1212, this church has a long and convoluted history. Surviving the Great Fire of London in 1666, the church has many original features, although was partially rebuilt in between 1724-29. And, as for the name, the original defensive wall of London used to have a ‘Bishop’s Gate’ built into it.
If you have some time on your lunch break, we’d strongly recommend relaxing or reading in the gardens around the church where there are some green spaces and benches.
Salesforce Tower opposite
In stark contrast to the relics near us, if you cross over the road, you’ll be met with looming modernity in the form of the Salesforce tower (also known as ‘The Heron Tower’). This is the second-tallest building in London, standing at 755 ft tall, dwarfed only by the Shard. We’d recommend taking a peek through the revolving doors at their impressive fish tank, too.
If you get a moment when walking back from lunch, be sure to look up! For more detail on the things to see and do near our Liverpool Street offices, head over to our lifestyle page.
Myo’s Liverpool Street offices
Of course, there is always the option to bring a packed lunch to enjoy alongside our complimentary tea and coffee, sourced from sustainable suppliers back at the office. However, if the weather’s nice, we’d strongly recommend you explore the vibrant food, drink, and sights on our doorstep.
If you’d like to know more about our Liverpool Street office and the vibrant surrounding area, keep up with our blog or get in touch with our team of experts by emailing [email protected] or calling +44(0)20 3876 6690. Alternatively, book yourself in for a tour today.
