Toast of London: how the grilled sandwich is taking over London menus this Autumn

Dig out your winter coat, the midday sandwich run has got a bit brisker. Which means chefs are turning up the heat — from this week lunch now means hearty autumnal soups, warming rice boxes and (best of all) gooey cheddar sandwiched between two grilled bookends of sourdough.

Yes, it’s toastie time, and the capital’s best restaurants and street foodies are rising to the occasion. Grilled cheese is just a starting point: this season’s toasted sandwiches run the gamut from jammy to baked polenta (really).

The crowd-pleaser is definitely PB&J Society’s sweet vegan toastie. It’s full of deep-roasted, home-churned peanut butter mixed with real-fruit jam- grilled between two thick slices of Brixton wheat and rye sourdough bread.

Founder Ian Roe calls it a “molten mix of gooey goodness”. The sweetness of the jam complements the salt of the peanut butter while the crunch of sourdough makes his creation an “attack on every tastebud”. It’s a good looking sandwich, too — unsuprisingly, it’s already an Instagram star. See it for yourself at Camden Market every Saturday.

While PBJ is inspired by the USA, at Kerb’s new weekend market in Crouch End it’s all about the Italian job: the word-of-mouth hit is a savoury toastie made of polenta.

Its creators, Rachel Littlechild and Jaime Randall, the owners of Polental, were inspired by a trip to Bologna where they ate pasticciata, a baked dish of set polenta layered with cheese and tomato sauce — essentially a veggie polenta lasagne — and on their return experimented with a toastie version.

The polenta is cooked with mushroom stock, caramelised white onion, garlic and thyme. It’s then sliced, grilled and layered with Mayfield cheese. The result is a naturally gluten-free alternative for toastie-lovers who can’t eat bread.

Over at nearby Stroud Green Market every Sunday, Toastiewala’s artisan offerings take British produce and give it an Indian twist. The most popular is the Mumbai ploughman’s, made with fruity mango and date relish with farmhouse cheddar, finely cut green peppers and red onions. This decadent combination has Londoners queuing, says founder Farah Ebrahem.

She also serves toasted sandwiches with home-made green chilli coriander pesto and red chilli garlic pesto — the chilli and spices will warm you from the inside.

Dishoom is all over the trend: the Indian restaurant’s famous chilli cheese toasted sandwich puts cheddar cheese inside slabs of white bloomer with chopped green chillies. You can also get it for breakfast in the form of kejriwal, where the chilli cheese toast is topped with two fried eggs.

Wine and Rind cheese shop in Tottenham also has a breakfast toastie: a creamy mash-up of Baron Bigod cheese and truffle honey.

Meanwhile, toastie disciples know that the best thing to order on Cora Pearl’s menu in Covent Garden is its famous toastie, made from cheese and salted pork- inside dainty crustless fingers.Further south, in Stockwell, gastropub The Canton Arms has become famous for its luxurious foie gras toasties, where the exclusive ingredient is sandwiched between thinly sliced white bread.