Bethnal Green, British, Modern Restaurant Guide

Chef Rafael Cagali’s “take on Brazilian food with a fresh and fine-dining perspective is absolutely sublime” – one of London’s most culinarily exciting – at this East End three-year-old: the worthy successor on this site in Bethnal Green’s old Town Hall that’s also housed The Typing Room and Viajante. The setting is “characterful”, “the open kitchen gives you a great view of the kitchen” and it’s “brilliant to be served by the chefs” (“allowing you to really understand the restaurants’ focus and philosophy”). “What other Michelin place allows you to add your own chillies to a fish curry so you spice it to your liking? Bread is a course in its own right: a large lump of roasted bone marrow with three different butters that you could just live off and be happy. A short but interesting beer list means you can keep costs down if you don’t fancy wine”.

“No fuss, not a lot of choice but solid food and good-value wine list” – that’s the deal at this 30-cover, bistro-esque venue, in a light-filled room on the first floor of Bethnal Green’s Town Hall Hotel.

The wild and wacky French chain opened this eclectically designed 194-room hotel in late 2019, complete with clashing fabrics, retro gaming machines, füsball and karaoke rooms. The loungy restaurant offers an easy-grazing selection of dishes to suit the tastes of globe-trotting hipsters: initial feedback suggests it's better than you might expect (given all the competing attractions).

On the move again… chef Gabriel Waterhouse (ex-Galvin La Chapelle) opened his first permanent HQ, perched by the canal in Hackney in January 2020, after four years of running a supper club. Now – having closed in Hackney in June 2021 – he’s reopening in Bethnal Green in autumn 2021. The format will be similar, with only one option: a 9-course tasting menu (with paired wines optional). We’ve rated the new venture on the basis that it scores similarly to the last, which won praise for “a fantastic tasting menu, with innovative and precise dishes”. The only critical comment? – “some delicate and well-conceived dishes but some (such as the heralded pheasant doughnut) came out as confused and incoherent”.

Down by the canal in Hackney, this new café is part of the new WME8 development. Opened in August 2021, it’s the work of Dubliner Max Rocha (an ex-River Café chef and son of Irish fashion designer John Rocha) who has run a series of supper clubs in recent years. Breakfast (with Guinness bread and potato cake advertising his origins) is served from 9am, then it’s on to fairly simple lunches (onglet and chips, rabbit tagliatelle…), with dinner opening promised for later in 2021.