Weekly Review: Farmer J

Designed specifically for Professional Lunch, it really delivers.

Quick hit: Healthy. Tasty. Places to sit. The perfect quick lunch spot.

Details: Walk-in or order online. Various locations. £
Restaurant website. More on Instagram.
List of locations.

Let’s get the reveal out of the way first: As far as I can tell, there are no farmers involved with Farmer J. The fast-growing London chain isn’t the product of an ambitious co-op. Nor was it developed by a visionary farmer. I don’t think Jeremy Clarkson has ever set foot in the place.

Farmer J is the creation of a former City banker, ex-Deutsche Bank analyst Jonathan Recanati.

And it shows, but in a good way. Farmer J was conceived, designed and optimised with Professional Lunch in mind.

✅ It offers well-prepared, tasty food cooked fresh, on-site at each location.

✅ There are hot options so you’re not stuck with a salad, though the salads are nice, too.

✅ It has lots of seating, so you can take a break from the office and don’t have to carry your lunch back to your desk.

✅ It’s fast and really well organised so you can get through the queue quickly.

✅ The menu changes with the seasons, so you won’t get bored.

The story of Farmer J is, in lots of ways, the perfect entrepreneur’s tale. Recanati built the place he was craving as an alternative to a parade of crappy, desk-bound sandwiches.

Farmer J was designed as an antidote to crappy sandwiches.

I decided to try it as part of my new year effort to eat a bit better.

The hot food option comes in the form of a “Fieldtray.” You get a base — rice, greens, or grains — and a protein — chicken, salmon, or tofu — plus two sides.

It’s “Meat and 3,” the typical offering of cafeteria-style places in the American south. As food historian and sociologist John T. Edge explained to Eater a few years ago, “It was food for people who plowed the back 40 [acres of a farm], reinterpreted for people who work at desks and in factories.”

The winter menu, which launched right after Christmas, includes harissa chicken, gochujang salmon, and charred flank steak. For hot sides, there’s mac’n cheese, cauliflower, sweet potatoes, broccoli, and cabbage. There are salads, too. Shaved greens, chickpeas, and slaw. Each offers bold, interesting flavours, spices, and herbs.

On my visit, I went for harissa chicken on grains. For sides, I chose roasted cauliflower, made with a sesame dressing and coriander seeds plus roasted aubergine and hispi cabbage in a miso dressing. Everything was well-cooked and really enjoyable.

My Fieldtray at Farmer J. Meat and 3 arrives in London.

My only complaint goes back calorie counts, and the point I made last week: Farmer J certainly employs more than 250 people across its 13 locations. But there are no calorie counts on the menu board. Counts are available on the website, but they are properly buried. And it turns out that some of the items I chose — most notably the aubergine and cabbage side — were not as healthy as I assumed when ordering. So the lunch I thought would be around 600 calories turned out to be more like 900.

Still, I will certainly go back to Farmer J. If there was a location nearer to my office, I’d happily go there at least once a week.

And there is much to recommend it beyond the food, speed, and atmosphere. Farmer J does make a real effort to source their ingredients from actual farmers in the UK.

Farmer J is on the move, too. In a 2024 investment round, they secured an additional £5.5 million, and they have recently opened new locations in Holborn and Piccadilly.

Recanati wants to open six more this year and get to 50 locations within five years. He’s also eyeing the U.S.

For our purposes, there’s no question that Farmer J is perfect for Professional Lunch. Healthy. Fresh. Fast. What’s not to like?

Please let me know what you think of Farmer J in the Comments. And thanks for reading Professional Lunch. I hope you’ll subscribe if you haven’t already.