Haggerston, British, Modern Restaurant Guide

2019 Review: Hackney oenophiles make a beeline for these this ambitious pair – “I love the wine list!”. The Paradise Row venue, in a railway arch with a large terrace, features an Italian menu, while the Hackney Road wine bar serves snacks and charcuterie. In either case the food avoids criticism, but the liquid refreshment is the main event.

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).

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.

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”.

Although it’s from the Anchor and Hope stable, this all-day operation near Hoxton tube is not a pub: it’s a new café (opened May 2021) within the rebranded Geffrye Museum (which features exhibits on domestic living since 1600). On offer – breakfast, lunch and buns, and – in the fullness of time – a dinner service.