Shoreditch, American Restaurant Guide

2023 Review: “US-style dive bar” in Shoreditch “serving what may well be the finest bar-meal/hangover-cure in London – beef chili in a hollowed-out brioche bun, topped with cheese and your choice of chili sauce in varying levels of insanity”. Tim Brice, aka ‘Captain Chili’, took over the former site of Rok (RIP) to open his little corner of Americana in February 2021. Apparently the Cincinatti chilibomb was developed by Greek immigrants who adapted Tex-Mex chili con carne in the 1920s.

“A fix of huevos rancheros never disappoints” at this collection of 11 all-day London ‘cafs’ (with another four across England and two pubs), whose menu mixes British greasy-spoon fare with American diner classics (pancakes, fried chicken, milkshakes) that certainly “set you up for the day”. “Basic, but with a nice buzz”, they are also “great for oldies, with half-price mains for the over 60s”.

Game for a laugh? ‘Bottomless’ (hence the name) lasagna for £20 a head is the inspo’ for owner (aka ‘Chief Béchamel Officer’) Joe Worthington’s Shoreditch-fringe newcomer, just south of Hoxton Square. It opened too late for survey feedback, but the general buzz is that for a fun cheap eat you need look no further; with the Standard’s David Ellis declaring it an “absolute hoot… a riot of a good-time” in an “American-Italian trattoria where the shtick plays within a hair’s breadth of parody” (“better than Big Mamma, just about, and not nearly so pleased with itself!”).