If you have spent any time eating your way across South London, Tooting Market will not have escaped your attention. Tucked just off Tooting High Street and a short walk from Tooting Broadway Underground, this covered indoor market has been feeding Londoners since 1930 — and it keeps getting better. 

Today, it stands as one of the city’s most genuinely exciting food destinations, where independent traders bring real craft, real flavour, and real culture to every plate.

Among its many standout food traders, one name is rapidly becoming essential: Olives Meze Shawarma. Serving homemade Mediterranean food from Unit 3, Tooting Market, it is the kind of place that reminds you why independent food culture matters.

A Market With 90 Years of Food Culture Behind It

Tooting Market was founded in October 1930 and has been at the centre of the community ever since. What makes it different from a generic high street food court is precisely its history of independence and multiculturalism. The market has always reflected who lives in the area — and Tooting has always drawn people from across the world.

Today, the market hosts food traders serving Jamaican, Italian, Japanese, Mauritian, Lebanese, Chinese, Portuguese, and Guyanese food, among many others. It has won the Best Small Indoor Market award at the Great British Market Awards 2017, been featured in Lonely Planet’s Top 10 Coolest Places to Visit in the World, and collected TimeOut Love London recognition in 2016. These are not just awards — they are recognition that the market has built something genuinely lasting.

That combination of heritage, diversity, and quality is exactly what makes Tooting Market a food destination worth travelling across London to visit. And within that ecosystem, Mediterranean food has never had a more worthy representative than Olives Meze Shawarma.

Why Mediterranean Food Belongs in Tooting Market

The Mediterranean food tradition — with its emphasis on fresh ingredients, bold spicing, slow cooking, and communal eating — fits naturally into the spirit of Tooting Market. It is honest food, made with craft, served without pretension. It is the kind of eating that does not need a white tablecloth to justify itself.

Olives Meze Shawarma has understood this from the start. The menu is built around shawarma marinated overnight in a blend of spices developed in-house, hand-rolled falafel wraps, charcoal grills, mezze plates, and freshly made sauces — all prepared daily using quality ingredients with no shortcuts and no pre-made substitutes.

This is not a chain restaurant operating a formula. It is a kitchen with its own recipes, its own methods, and its own genuine commitment to the food it serves. That is exactly what the Mediterranean food tradition demands — and exactly what Tooting Market deserves.

What to Eat at Olives Meze Shawarma

The menu at Olives Meze Shawarma spans the full range of Mediterranean favourites, with a particular focus on dishes that showcase the kitchen’s strengths:

• Charcoal Specials — including the Lamb Adana, grilled over charcoal and served with fresh accompaniments
• Shawarma Wraps and Platters — slowly cooked chicken and lamb in overnight marinade, served in fresh bread with homemade sauces
• Falafel Wraps — crisp on the outside, tender within, and packed with fresh herbs and toppings
• Mezze Plates — hummus, baba ganoush, tabbouleh, and accompaniments made in-house daily

Everything on the menu is made fresh to order. There is no food sitting under heat lamps waiting for a customer. When you order at Olives Meze Shawarma, your meal starts when you order — which is exactly why it tastes the way it does.

More Than Just Lunch: Tooting Market as a Full Food Experience

One of the things that sets Tooting Market apart from a standard food hall is the breadth of its offer. A visit is rarely just a meal — it becomes an afternoon, an evening, a wander. 

The market hosts an eclectic mix of retail stores, a specialist record shop, an art gallery, fabric sellers, hair and beauty salons, and regular live music on Friday and Saturday evenings. Olives Meze Shawarma is open late — until 22:00 Monday through Thursday, 23:30 on Friday and Saturday — making it one of the most reliable options for late-night Mediterranean food in South London.

That late-night availability matters. When the craving for a proper shawarma or fresh falafel wrap hits after a long day or evening out, Tooting Market is ready. Olives Meze Shawarma is too.

Getting There and Ordering

Tooting Market sits at 20 Totterdown Street, London SW17 8TA, just off the High Street and a few minutes’ walk from Tooting Broadway Underground station on the Northern line. It is well served by local bus routes and easy to reach from across South London.

Olives Meze Shawarma offers eat-in and collection from the market kitchen, as well as home delivery through Uber Eats, Deliveroo, and Just Eat. However you choose to order, the food arrives exactly as it should — freshly prepared, generously portioned, and full of genuine Mediterranean flavour.

Final Word: This Is What a Food Destination Looks Like

Tooting Market has spent nearly a century proving that the best food is made by people who care about it — independent traders, family recipes, genuine craft. Olives Meze Shawarma is a natural part of that story. From its overnight-marinated shawarma to its hand-rolled falafel wraps and charcoal grills, every dish is a demonstration of what Mediterranean food looks like when it is done properly.

If you are looking for the best food in Tooting Market, come with an appetite and follow the smell of the grill. You will know when you have found it.