RestaurantsLondonHackneyE8

Harden's says

Former Pidgin head chef Adolfo de Cecco serves up globally ranging - and daily changing - tasting menus at this Hackney newcomer.

survey result

Summary

£90
 ££££
5
Exceptional
4
Very Good
3
Good
* Based on a three course dinner, half a bottle of wine, coffee, cover charge, service and VAT.

“Favourite restaurant of all time!”“Stunning flavours and textures, offered by the fixed-price, no-choice, but ever-changing taster menu” inspire adulation for Adolfo de Cecco’s “unpretentious” shop-conversion in Dalston. It may be one of East London’s true culinary heavyweights, but the style is “totally informal and allows the food to be the star”. “Service is impeccable and the food is brought to your table by the chefs themselves”. And “how does he do it for the price?” – £122 for the eight courses plus wine pairing (a meal might run – roasted beetroot tart; bread and butter; monkfish with bergamot sauce; pig skin congee with XO sauce; Jerusalem artichoke with umeboshi sauce and tahini; cheese with onion ice cream; yuzu granita; dried mushroom and frozen tofu). One report in particular typifies the love the places generates: “we eat out in proper restaurants twice most weeks, so we don’t stint ourselves, and from the receipts can count a full 50 visits to Casa Fofó since the beginning of 2023, and we never seem to be offered the same dish twice!”

Summary

£80
 ££££
4
Very Good
3
Good
3
Good
* Based on a three course dinner, half a bottle of wine, coffee, cover charge, service and VAT.

“The depth of flavour which Adolfo brings out in his ever-changing menus means we visit at least once or sometimes twice a month: nowhere else would we ever dream of doing the same!” – Adolfo de Cecco’s Hackney shop-conversion is “always a pleasure for its inventive dishes”, which meld Asian influences with European ingredients into an intriguing and individual culinary mashup. At any one time, there is a single tasting option, and he “manages to maintain high standards with each iteration”. “The front room is arguably more dull than the very light rear area, which is a sort of conservatory. And there are interesting choices of music at low levels”.

Summary

£75
 ££££
5
Exceptional
4
Very Good
3
Good
* Based on a three course dinner, half a bottle of wine, coffee, cover charge, service and VAT.

“Not prioritising form over substance” – Adolfo de Cecco’s well-reputed three-year-old is “fairly un-smart for a foodie hotspot” but “cosy and romantic”, especially in the “covered back garden, which is gorgeous as the sun sets (a very ‘London’ setting)”. “Outstanding food is brilliantly and passionately served” from an “eclectic tasting menu” (“and they’ve lightened up since Grace Dent accused them of being too serious a couple of years ago!”)

Summary

£73
  £££
5
Exceptional
4
Very Good
4
Very Good
* Based on a three course dinner, half a bottle of wine, coffee, cover charge, service and VAT.

“Such a shame I moved from Hackney, so this fabulous place is no longer within walking distance!”. Ex-Pidgin chef Adolfo de Cecco’s “eclectic” cuisine is focused on a “chef-delivered tasting menu” and provides food that’s “always interesting with wonderful flavours”. Aside from all the “innovation”, “the service offers that wonderful mixture of professionalism and friendliness which makes it such an enjoyable evening”.

For 33 years we've been curating reviews of the UK's most notable restaurant. In a typical year, diners submit over 50,000 reviews to create the most authoritative restaurant guide in the UK. Each year, the guide is re-written from scratch based on this survey (although for the 2021 edition, reviews are little changed from 2020 as no survey could run for that year).

Have you eaten at Casa Fofó?

158 Sandringham Road, London, E8 2HS

Restaurant details

No dress code

Casa Fofó Restaurant Diner Reviews

Reviews of Casa Fofó Restaurant in E8, London by users of Hardens.com. Also see the editors review of Casa Fofó restaurant.
Alistair N
This is our favourite restaurant of all tim...
Reviewed 8 months, 25 days ago

"This is our favourite restaurant of all time, we suddenly realised yesterday that we hadn’t been for a very long time, over a month so we just had to try and book again for this coming Wednesday but were told that the restaurant itself was fully booked, so we had to postpone until Thursday. There is little point in giving you chapter & verse about any meal, but the pre-starter of 90 day aged, retired ewe tartare was very special, though of course Adolpho, the patron, had an alternative ready for my wife Silvia (Note the move to ewe is enforced due to a shortage of retired Spanish dairy cows)"

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Alistair N
The 20/12 being our 54th wedding anniversar...
Reviewed 11 months, 17 days ago

"The 20/12 being our 54th wedding anniversary we chose to dine in our very favourite restaurant of all time rather than travel as we normally do on this occasion travel into town by LRT to have lunch in one or other of the 3star Michelin restaurants there. You can judge how full of variety Casa Fofó’s menus are that this was our 25th visit in 2023 and the 45th since the start of 2022! Because we visit so often the chefs know my wife’s preferences in minute detail, but then Adolpho Di Ceccio brought knowledge of them with him when he moved from Pidgin to open his own place! We chose one vegetarian and on fish based pre-starter, each were very tasty, and we were extremely impressed by the delicacy of the paper thin pastry cases they were each served in. The sweet potato starter was also very enjoyable, then the pasta course was tasty but the mussel sauce was slightly too “fishy” for wife’s taste though I thought it was excellent. Knowing my wife’s aversion to fishy tastes the fish course was described to her as as being “fishy” but in fact to my own mind the pollock hadn’t been salt aged aged long enough to develop even a slightly strong flavour and the sauce that was served with it was quite bland and would probably have been mild enough for her tastes, whereas I might be unusual in tending to prefer a more distinct flavour of the fish itself. However, had she taken the fish then she would have missed out on the “pickled?” fennel which she though was very nice. I tried a small piece and thought both the taste and particularly the texture was very good. The meat course was slightly disappointing in that neither of us thought that the “fish” sauce that accompanied the steak was an ideal accompaniment, and my steak had been cooked longer than I prefer and was just a wee bit tough. The ice-cream pre-dessert was tasty, but the dessert itself was too bland. The post-dessert snacks were very nice as usual. "

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Prices

Availability 2 courses 3 courses coffee included service included
Always   £68.00
Drinks  
Wine per bottle £20.00
Filter Coffee £4.00
Extras  
Bread £0.00
Service 10.00%
158 Sandringham Road, London, E8 2HS
Opening hours
MondayCLOSED
TuesdayCLOSED
Wednesday6 pm‑9:30 pm
Thursday6 pm‑9:30 pm
Friday6 pm‑9:30 pm
Saturday1 pm‑2 pm, 6 pm‑9:30 pm
Sunday1 pm‑2 pm, 6 pm‑9:30 pm

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