Epping, British, Modern Restaurant Guide

“A favourite restaurant of all time!” – this “very consistent” Essex institution first opened in 1958 and its performance over many years has earnt it a special place in the hearts of its dedicated fan club (which includes Rod Stewart, the Beckhams and other TOWIE notables). “The food is always to a very high standard with the best seafood” – “it can feel very crowded but the fish is always well cooked”.

2024 Review: “In the heart of Essex, this fabulous fish restaurant” (est. 2010, and revolving around the “plush conversion of an old pub”) “offers amazing dishes and attentive service in a truly beautiful setting”. “It can be fun watching the TOWIE types amongst fellow diners”, but if that loses its appeal, divert your eyes to the “pleasant views from the terrace on a sunny day”.

After working alongside Gary Rhodes and serving as Head Chef at Tom Conran’s Notting Hill venue The Cow, chef James Rix launched this smart Home Counties pub (replete with a large beer garden and heated gazebo) together with wife Bianca in 2004. Its rustic Italian- and French-inspired cuisine attracts reviews ranging from “good quality” to “excellent” – with meat (including Josper-grilled steak) a standout, and starters and desserts that are “not too shabby” either.

2023 Review: “A good-to-find culinary outpost in an area with few interesting eating spots” – this “welcoming” gastropub is well worth remembering: “a steady hand in the kitchen meets good ingredients, and if food and wine both tread a relatively safe path, it’s no less enjoyable for that”.

2022 Review: Leyton deli and bottle shop that’s a fave rave for anyone living within striking distance (but we also received a very good report on it from a reporter living in SW19!). In autumn 2019, they opened an adjoining café serving snacks and small plates.

2025 Review: “Love this restaurant which we’ve been going to regularly since it opened!” – this large, modern brasserie has established itself over eight years as one of the best bets for a meal in Stratford’s East Village, thanks to its “friendly service” and a selection of dishes majoring in steaks and roasts from the charcoal oven. “First time and the hard surfaces made the restaurant very noisy, but the food is very tasty!”

“Innovative, with a fantastic zero waste ethos” – Douglas McMaster claims to have created ‘the world’s first Zero Waste restaurant’ in this high-ceilinged post-industrial space, in Hackney Wick’s ‘White Building’ (above the Crate brewery). It’s currently celebrating its 10th year, although about half that time was spent in Brighton, and – notwithstanding its Green Michelin Star – it’s never made quite the waves in the capital that it perhaps deserves. Feedback remains limited on its funky sustainable fixed menu for £75 per person. (A main dish might be the choice of Merit mushroom, koji porridge, electric dairy or Fosse Meadow chicken, buttermilk, and sea kale.). For fans, though, this “…couldn’t be better. Service is awesome and the dining room has a top vibe. Great value too”.

“A brilliant pub to have in Stokey”, with “consistently delicious” Franco-Mediterranean food. Like its thoroughbred stablemates south of the river – the Anchor & Hope and Canton Arms – it gets very busy: “if you want to have any conversation, make sure you book a table in the dining area as the tables by the bar can become incredibly loud”. Top Menu Tip – “worth the trip for the potatoes dauphinoise alone”.

2023 Review: “Great value and unusual tasting menus, nice wines & lovely service” win all-round applause for this yearling in a Hackney Downs warehouse from Anthony Lyon (of Lyon’s in Crouch End). Head chef Giuseppe Pepe (ex-Pidgin and Marksman) is responsible for the seasonal, minimal-waste menu, and his “food is beautifully presented and served”.

2024 Review: Consistently one of London’s better-performing gastroboozers, this substantial Victorian tavern near Victoria Park in Hackney was iconic in the area’s gentrification over twenty years ago, and “just keeps delivering as a local pub and place to eat”. It does a “perfect Sunday roast” while also catering well for non-meat-eaters.

“Sunday lunch where the plates of traditional roast dinners are overflowing” typify the “great meat dishes” which are a highpoint at this East End duo, run by a firm of outside caterers. Both occupy fine spaces, be it a Victorian factory in Dalston (the original, opened in 2013, and famous to fans of the 2021 hit film ‘Boiling Point’); or a fine “airy” Georgian building in South Woodford, complete with large outdoor spaces. Vegetarian options, though, win less praise. Top Tip – bottomless brunch is a feature in both locations.

2022 Review: This “buzzy” Highbury wine bar specialises in hip low-intervention wines, backed up by “great food and service”. The menu is predominantly small-plate bites to accompany the interesting bottles being quaffed, so “they could do with more main course options – but the atmosphere is fantastic”.

“An oasis in North London” for 25 years – Austrian-born Julius Oberegger’s “excellent local restaurant” in Whetstone is “the closest to fine dining without going to the West End” – with a “well prepared and imaginative menu” that skips round the world from fresh Jersey rock oysters and English rack of lamb to chicken Milanese, wok-fried noodles, and chilli and soy-glazed tofu.

“Impeccable…”, “phenomenal…”, “best in ages…” – these are the typical descriptions of the “perfect fish cooking” from an “ever-evolving” menu at Andy Benyon’s Hackney venue (near London Fields). It feels “original”, “the counter dining has an excellent vibe” and “service from the chefs is a highlight” too, all contributing to the “passionate” ethos that underpins this “top gastronomic experience”. But while it’s “high-end cuisine, pricing is down-to-earth”. “Great music too!”

“The food is wonderful, the vibe is lively” – so say fans of Tomos Perry’s long-running wood-fire spinoff in a covered courtyard adjoining the well-known coffee roastery in a London Fields railway arch. On the menu, dishes like roasted chicken rice, whole crab with hay butter, and fresh shellfish. One less enthusiastic reporter found prices “sky-high considering we weren’t drinking” but even so said “the food was certainly delicious”.

2022 Review: This hipster Newington Green bakery and restaurant from the founders of Primeur and Westerns Laundry is every bit the archetypal, achingly on-trend East End operation. As well as coffee, bread and bakes it provides a short and simple blackboard menu of bistro-esque dishes: for example, grilled sardines, pasta with tomato and mussels, baked custard. Sceptics, though, find the whole scene just too right-on: “there are queues around the block, so taking yourself too seriously is clearly popular!”. Its undisputed success has spawned a new flagship brand ‘Big Jo Bakery’ (see also) and later in 2021 there are three other satellites promised in Islington, Shoreditch and Crouch End.

Somewhat eclipsed nowadays by its upstart younger sibling, Morchella in Exmouth Market (see also), this casually stylish and easygoing venue in Newington Green remains a worthwhile destination, serving a focused menu high-quality dishes that are “full of oomph and prepared with lots of care”. “And who doesn’t love their own cutlery drawer?”