'I'm a Londoner, here are my favourite autumn comfort foods and where to try them'

As summer turns to autumn, the season of comfort food arrives. Trends expert Gurdeep Loyal shares his favourite comfort foods to enjoy in autumn, plus where to try them in London and our best recipes to make at home.

For more like this, check out our best comfort food recipes with over 60 recipes.

1. Deep filled savoury pies

Cutting into a buttery crusted, deep-filled savoury pie is one of the most wonderful autumnal sights to behold. Equally comforting is a deep-filled fish pie topped with piped mash potato, or even a pie with a flaky puff-pastry top. What matters is that the filling is richly flavoured, with a thick, warming gravy.

Quo Vadis in Soho from Jeremy Lee is famous for it’s daily-changing majestic suet-crusted pies – with fillings like Swaledale mutton, celeriac and turnip, guinea fowl and porcini, or ham hock, chicken and leek. At The Hero Pub in Warrick Avenue, their classic duck, and cheese and onion pies are topped with piped Duchess potatoes, perfectly burnished before they’re served. And at Blacklock, the steak and stout pie is made using the trimmings from their morning butchery, fuelled by a hearty stout.

Make it at home: make a golden braised beef and mushroom pie, lamb shank shepherd's pie topped with fluffy mash or a deep filled vegan butternut squash pie.

Pie with a chunk missing next to greens, mash and a glass of red wine

2. Roti and curry

There’s something deeply comforting about abandoning cutlery and eating with your hands – especially when it’s to scoop up a fragrant curry with torn pieces of roti. At Roti King in Euston, their iconically flaky roti canai are hand rolled and stretched to order, served with your choice of beef rendang, chicken kari or dhal.

In Elephant and Castle, head to Guyanese restaurant Kaieteur Kitchen where chef Faye Gomes’ rotis are served with slow-cooked oxtail pepperpot, okra and curry chicken. And at The Tamil Prince in Islington, try their famous flaky-buttery rotis with paneer butter masala, Chettinad lamb curry or Thanjuvar chicken curry.

Make it at home: we've got plenty of curry recipes to choose from, from a beef rendang to a healthy spinach and chickpea curry. Learn to make homemade roti canai to scoop up your sauces.

3. Soup dumplings

Autumnal comforts are all about foods with a mix of textures that sooth, surprise and delight in equal measure. Crispy sheng jian bao soup dumplings deliver this sensory contrast in every way: pan-fried until golden-brown and crispy on the bottom, with an unctuous meaty-soft filling, and hot soup oozing from their insides to slurp out with every bite.

Dumpling Shack in Spitalfields have almost cult status for their pan-fried pork soup dumplings, made fresh every day and served with their house chilli oil. For a more traditional steamed take on Shanghai soup dumplings, head to Dim Sum Duck in Kings Cross where their dumplings are famously large, with delicate translucent skins and a deeply flavoured soup broth.

Make it at home: set aside a rainy autumn weekend to make Chinese pan-fried soup dumpling bao, complete with homemade dough and chilli oil.

A black pan filled with nine crimped dumplings

4. Crumble and custard

Warm seasonal harvest fruits, baked with a crumble-oaty-sugary crust, and served with piping hot custard is the personification of autumnal comfort in pudding form.

At Humble Crumble in Borough Market their nostalgic crumble cups are made using sustainable ingredients, like Wildfarmed flour, the highest quality Madagascan vanilla and Northiam Dairy cream. Seasonal flavours include classic apple, rhubarb and a decadent “crumbrûlée” – a crumble topped with custard and blowtorched sugar.

For an alternative take on crumble with a similar sensorial effect, try the hot chocolate mousse at Marjorie’s wine bar in Soho – a warm custardy chocolate pudding, topped with crunchy hazelnuts, cacao nibs and olive oil.

Make it at home: an old school apple crumble, juicy pear crumble or spiced easy plum crumble – the options are endless. Serve your crumble of choice with a big jug of homemade custard.

5. Slow cooked birria tacos

There’s something deeply comforting about a slow cooked birria meat taco, dipped into a Mexican broth of its own juices. At Taca Tacos in Peckham, their signature beef birria is cooked for 6 hours in a braise of Mexican beer, rich spices and chillies, served with crispy quesatacos, soft shell tacos and broth.

Coba Mexicana on Brick Lane serve their birria tacos with Oaxaca-style cheese melted onto the taco shell, slow cooked braised beef, hot sauce and pots of rich birria consommé. And at Birria Taco near Kensal Rise, birria are filled with marinated tender beef, slow cooked in Mexican salsa, herbs and spices. The beef is pulled off the bone and filled into crispy corn tacos and melted cheese over a griddle, topped with sweet white onions and coriander, served with a consommé broth.

Make it at home: making our birria tacos recipe is worth the effort to be rewarded with super tender beef, crispy tacos and melting cheese.

6. Gözleme (Turkish stuffed flatbreads)

Freshly griddled Turkish flatbreads, filled with piping hot spinach, feta and potatoes are one of the most comforting things your can devour at lunch time at this time of year – and they’re perfect to take along with you for a brisk autumnal walk in a park. Istanbul Gozleme – which pops up around the city in places like Wanstead and Hammersmith – serve up deliciously charred, deeply filled versions, with garlicky yogurt and chilli sauce for dipping.

At Pitted Olive in Bloomsbury, their gözleme are hand rolled in the window with fillings like lamb and onion, and spinach-feta. And at Hala restaurant in Harringey, filo gözleme are freshly made with minced meat, potatoes or even cheddar.

Make it at home: award-winning food writer Özlem Warren shared her gözleme recipe filled with potato and spinach.

People helping themselves to stuffed flatbreads

7. Udon noodle soup

What could be more autumnal than a steaming pot of umami-rich broth, with thick chewy wheat noodles, and additions like smoky bacon, jammy eggs and seaweed? Udon noodle soup is supremely comforting by its very definition.

At Koya Ko in Broadway Market, their classic ginger miso soup is served with udon noodles, juicy pork and comes with seasonal greens. Okan in Brixton Village serve up their noodle soups curry-udon style with ginger pork and beef. And at Misato in Soho, their thick Japanese udon come with options of curry pork katsu, Kitsune soup with fried bean curd, or tori udon with Japanese fried chicken.

Make it at home: this healthy miso chicken soup has a fragrant broth for the udon noodles – top with an egg if you like.

Chicken Noodle Soup Recipe with Miso and Chilli

8. Biryani

A celebratory slow cooked biryani – rich in spices, slow cooked onions, and aromatics – is one of the most comforting autumnal dishes there is, especially if the rice is cooked under a ‘dum’ dough lid which traps in the flavours like a vacuum. Asma Khan serves up the most famous biryanis in central London at Darjeeling Express in Kingly Court at her Biryani Supperclub Events. Her lamb dum biryani is a family recipe where layers of meat, potatoes and rice are infused with saffron and spices, slow-cooked in a sealed pot and then served with Hyderabadi chilli-onion gravy and beetroot raita.

At contemporary coastal Indian restaurant Trishna, their luxurious wild mushroom biryani consists of kaima rice, sliced truffle and pink peppercorn raita. And at Ambassadors Clubhouse just off Regent Street, their regal Punjabi Masledar lamb biryani is served with a boondi palak raita.

Make it at home: try our lamb biryani recipe for a great dinner party centrepiece, or go veggie with a paneer dum biryani.

Plate of lamb biryani topped with pomegranate seeds and coriander leaves

9. Raclette

Hot melted cheese and potatoes are two things that scream autumn – especially when done in an Alpine French way. Kappacasein in Borough Market’s raclette is legendary throughout the city, with their London-made raclette cheese – warmed then scraped over new potatoes, baby gherkins and pickled onions.

At La Fromagerie in Bloomsbury their melted raclette comtoise is served over Charlotte potatoes, with shallots, mustard and caper relish. And Josette in Farringdon is famous for its signature all-you-can-eat raclette experience, where table-top melted morbier and raclette cheese is served with potatoes, charcuterie, and cornichons.

Make it at home: this is the ultimate indulgent autumn recipe: frying pan potato bread topped with raclette and a tangy pickle dressing.

Potato Bread with Raclette and Pickle Relish

10. Dosas, sambhar & chutney

Dipping a crispy edged dosa, into warming gingery sambhar and a tangy chutney is an autumnal delight that hits every tastebud. These South Indian pancakes are made a little bit like crepes, either from rice, chickpeas or sometimes ancient grains.

Ravi Shankar Bhelpoori House in Euston is a long-standing institution, whose famous crispy dosas are filled with masala potato or spinach and paneer, served with a coconut chutney. At Jikoni in Marylebone from Ravinder Bhogal, her buckwheat dosa is served with pumpkin thoran and coconut-garlic chutney. And at Dosa World just off Brick Lane, their dosas come with fillings of masala chicken, lamb, paneer or prawn.

11. Sausages and mash

Creamy mashed potatoes and sausages are a marriage made in autumnal comfort heaven, especially when topped with a lusciously thick gravy. At Mother Mash in Carnaby Street, you can choose your own pie and mash journey – with a choice of classic, cheesy, sweet potato or horseradish mash, and cumberland, London smoky or vegan Lincolnshire sausages – teamed with onion, farmer's or classic gravy.

The Woolpack in Bermondsey Street – famous for its cosy vibe – serves up pork & apple sausages with creamy mash, caramelised onion jam and Young’s ale gravy. And at German Gymnasium in Kings Cross their German Käsekrainer consists of smoked & grilled cheese pork wurst, sauerkraut, soft herbed mash potato and crispy onions on top.

Make it at home: make our sausages and mash with cheat's onion gravy for an easy midweek meal ready in under 30 minutes.

12. Rice pudding

The creamy sweetness of rice pudding – evocative of school dinners and vintage culinary times past – has had something of a gastronomic glow-up in recent years. It’s the perfect autumnal hug in every one of its guises, be that classic-traditional or out-there gourmet.

At Gina restaurant in Chingford – from husband-and-wife team Ravneet Gill and Mattie Taiano – one of the highlights on their pudding menu is a creamy rice pudding served up with cherries and pistachios. At Mexican restaurant Fonda by Santiago Lastra, rice pudding is infused with cinnamon and served with cherries and mezcal custard on top. Jackon Boxer has an exquisite Riz au lait with English plums and macadamia at Dove in Notting Hill. Also check out Quince Bakery in Islington, where pastry chef extraordinaire Anna Higham has also become famous for her comforting rice pudding tart – baked in a pastry case with seasonal fruit compote – that’s equally delicious hot or cold.

Make it at home: master a classic rice pudding or be inspired by global flavours with our halva-topped rice pudding or Spanish rice pudding with a crunchy sugar topping.