Mercato Metropolitano: restaurant review | Jay Rayner

There’s plenty to like in the many stalls at this new street food centre, and only one problem: where’s the street?

Mercato Metropolitano, 42 Newington Causeway, London SE1 6DR. Food per head: £10-£20

London is eating itself out of house and home, literally. The pressure for affordable housing is intense. People with jobs in the capital need places in which to live that don’t leave them at the mercies of Southern Rail. Instead, suitable brownfield sites for new flats at affordable prices are being transformed into vast eateries which take the street out of street food. Ah well. At least we’ll never want for overloaded Korean-accented hamburgers piled with kimchi and ganjang called things like Seoul Food, because that’s hilarious.

An ooze of stracchino cheese leaks its way across your fingers as you tear and fold the foccacia