/ 23 September 2025

Alexandra Dudley’s Working Lunch

We’ve all been there – stuck for weekday lunch inspiration the moment Monday morning arrives. In her monthly column, SheerLuxe contributor Alexandra Dudley is serving up fresh, easy ideas – whether you work from home or like to take a lunchbox into the office. For this instalment, she’s sharing her perfect tuna salad…

Alexandra Dudley

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STAYING IN

A Really Good Tuna Salad

Ingredients

2 small bulb of fennel

2 medium-sized carrots

Roughly 120g of good quality tuna

Handful of fresh mint leaves, roughly chopped

Handful of dill or parsley, roughly chopped

1 tbsp of capers

40g of pumpkin seeds

For the dressing

3-4 tbsp of olive oil

Zest of 1 lemon, juice of ½

Heaped tsp of Dijon mustard

Method

Step 1

Toast the sunflower seeds in a dry frying pan over a gentle heat until golden then allow to cool.

Step 2

Make the dressing first. Zest the lemon into a large bowl, add the olive oil, mustard and half the lemon juice. Whisk together with a fork and adjust, adding more lemon juice or oil as needed.

Step 3

Finely slice the fennel or use a mandolin (keeping hold of any fronds), then use a vegetable peeler to peel in thin strips of carrot. Add to the bowl with the herbs, capers and seeds, any fennel fronds and toss.

Step 4

Break in the tuna and loosely toss again.

GOING OUT

Noisy Oyster, Shoreditch

Noisy Oyster might genuinely be the coolest restaurant to have opened in London this year. As the name suggests, it is primarily a fish restaurant, but far from the white tablecloths and muslin wrapped lemons which are characteristic of so many seafood establishments. Noisy Oyster has fluorescent cocktail menus and an almost entirely chrome interior. The menu takes playful inspiration from all over the Mediterranean and serves exactly what I like to eat. We ordered caponata, crudo and a Hasselback potato covered in bottarga and sour cream. The music is loud enough that you feel like you could go dancing after but not so loud that you can’t hear your dining companion. The team are laidback but attentive, with no five-minute preamble on how a sharing menu works but there to encourage you to try one of the mini martinis (an increasingly popular menu trend that I am definitely on board with).

Visit NOISYOYSTERLONDON.CO.UK

For more from Alexandra, follow her @ALEXANDRADUDLEY or visit ALEXANDRADUDLEY.COM