Why it exists

Restaurant discovery in London is broken by review inflation: the same fifty SEO-optimized places fill every "best of" list. This map is the antidote — a small, opinionated set of pins where each entry earned its place by being visited and liked by a real person. It doubles as a tidy tech demo: no framework, no backend, just one HTML file loading Leaflet and OSM tiles, with a frosted-glass sidebar that filters the pins and a fullscreen button.

Main features

• Hand-vetted pins — every marker is a restaurant the author has been to and recommends, from Toby Cottage to Zen Garden — the map covers central London plus the Surrey satellite towns (Leatherhead, Great Bookham…).
• Sidebar with filters — browse the list, click to fly the map to the pin; the panel collapses on mobile behind a toggle.
• Leaflet + OpenStreetMap tiles — open-data mapping with attribution done properly; no Google, no API keys, no rate limits.
• Fullscreen mode and a responsive layout that works on a phone while walking.
• Zero infrastructure — one static file, openable offline with tiles cached; the kind of project you can fork over a weekend.

Who it's for

• Anyone who plans a food itinerary on a phone, or uses OpenStreetMap tooling like StreetComplete and feels at home on the tiles.
• Developers looking for a minimal, copyable Leaflet example with sensible mobile behavior.

How it compares

• Google Maps saved lists — infinitely bigger data, but algorithmic ranking and ad pressure; this map has ~tens of pins, all good ones.
• The Infatuation / Time Out London — professional coverage with SEO creep; a personal map stays opinionated.
• Google My Maps — the usual tool for this job; embedding your own Leaflet page is lighter, faster and iframe-free.
• OpenTable-style discovery — transaction-first; this is curation-first.

Notes

• The map data lives in the same HTML file (laurenleek.eu/map.html) — view source to see the markers array; there's no public repo, so treat it as inspiration rather than a library.
• Cuisine coverage skews Italian, Indian and Chinese around the M25 corridor's commuter belt — consistent with a Florence–London life.
• Content updates are whenever-the-author-eats-something-good; the map is dated by nature, so check a restaurant still exists before crossing the city.
• Honest attribution throughout: Leaflet and OpenStreetMap contributors credited in the page source.

Useful links

• The map: https://laurenleek.eu/food-map
• Author's home page: https://laurenleek.eu/
• Leaflet: https://leafletjs.com/
• OpenStreetMap: https://www.openstreetmap.org/