The Monkey Bread Tree

Just a cherry stone’s throw from London’s Crystal Palace in the Upper Norwood neighbourhood, The Monkey Bread Tree is working some weird and wonderful culinary magic for the more adventurous type of diner. Monkey Bread’s menu is thoroughly international, the kitchen is attuned to a diet-conscious ideology, and what’s on offer obeys the laws of the prevailing season – and a restless, horizon-seeking approach to food on behalf of the restaurant’s curators. Find The Monkey Bread Tree along Westow Hill, book ahead, and keep an open mind when it comes time to dine.

The Monkey Bread Tree takes its name from the edible fruit of the African baobab tree, a tenacious and very odd-looking specimen indeed. This internationally-inclined Crystal Palace restaurant is certainly an oddity, but it’s good-looking too, with premises along Westow Hill in southeast London’s Upper Norwood that are supremely inviting, if eclectically and colourfully decorated. Mixing things up even more, The Monkey Bread Tree offers a schedule of live entertainment to help guests keep pace with the syncopation at work in the kitchen.

The Monkey Bread Tree specialises in, well, being highly specialised. It’s here at the restaurant’s Upper Norwood premises, close to Crystal Palace station, where you can find an eccentric menu packed with esoteric dishes like Ancient Market or Middle Ages pate, the mysterious Babylon Garden that will have you hanging on for more, a fine selection of bold antipasti platters, burgers made according to The Monkey Bread Tree’s understanding of burgerology, and deeply hermetic dishes that go by names like Courageous Lemon Bird and Merry Monkey. Curious? These guys are, so make a booking for this London culinary curio and begin your exploration.