London Haggerston Restaurant Guide

2022 Review: Charlie Mellor’s (ex-Brawn and Elliot’s) cute Hackney wine bar and merchant provides a high- quality fixed-price modern European menu, accompanied by artisan wines from small producers. There’s also ‘The Cave’, for evening DJ sets, behind the off licence.

2023 Review: The “short and desirable menu” of modern British dishes continues to win praise for this ambitious gastropub near Columbia Road Market, from former St John chefs Tom Harris and Jon Rotheram. A huge hit when it opened, it’s adopted a lower profile over the years, but remains “just the place to take hard-to-impress young adult children”.

The “lovely Moorish/Spanish sharing food” at the little sister of Sam & Sam Clark’s Moro next door in Exmouth Market – and also its spin-off in Hackney Road – makes them “a go-to place when you don’t know where to go”: “an all-round crowd-pleaser, good for meat and non-meat- eaters alike”.

Well predating the gentrification of Columbia Road, this “small, local Spanish restaurant” (est 1982) is worth remembering when browsing for blooms and designer flower pots. It probably won’t re-frame your understanding of Hispanic cuisine, but “prices are reasonable” and the “team are friendly and fun” (albeit sometimes under pressure at busy times).

2022 Review: “Outside tables in Columbia Road” help lend an air of rusticity to this former cowshed off Columbia Road Flower Market. The culinary focus is on the south of Italy, and with pasta made daily (including to buy retail), the thrust of our feedback: “what’s not to like?”.

“Not missing a beat and at the very top of its game” – this culinarily renowned East End fixture, near Columbia Road flower market, scored highly all round in this year’s annual diners’ poll, putting any doubts about its staying power to one side. Its Med-influenced, superior bistro cuisine delivers “extraordinary flavours”, service is very “charming” and all in all, it’s “a delightful, unpretentious neighbourhood place”.

“Never had a bad trip here!” – a common experience at these impressively consistent hipster grills where the “great and tasty mezze and flatbreads” are inspired by North Africa and the eastern Med: “delicious dishes with explosive flavours” that are “well-priced and extremely fresh tasting”. They “can get very noisy” (“it was as easy to talk as sitting in a rock concert!”) “but an excellent meal is your reward!”

2022 Review: In Hackney’s Broadway Market and next to the Regent’s Canal, this Japanese street food and ramen bar opened in December 2019. It’s smallish – 45 seats – mixing communal seating and some individual tables. Early reports suggest it’s an OK standby – not enough feedback for a more hearty endorsement at this stage.

“Incredible seafood in the most unique of settings” inspires outstanding feedback on chef Leandro Carreira and restaurateur Alex Hunter’s “amazing and inventive” 14-seater chef’s table experience under Haggerston railway arches, where the moodily-lit counter looks onto the gleaming open kitchen. A 12-course tasting menu involving every type of sustainable sea creature is presented at £150 per person. (Very good all-round ratings too for the original branch – a simpler and cheaper seafood bar in the bouji backstreets, off Sloane Street).

An “incredible wine list from a seriously passionate and knowledgeable team” is backed up by “lovely modern food” in this hip ‘wine drinkers’ clubhouse’ set in a pair of Haggerston railway arches. “The restaurant has been designed beautifully and it feels like serious money has been spent on the project”, even if wine is the primary focus. (Members enjoy priority booking and can store their reserves in the cellar.)

“Some of the best Vietnamese food on Kingsland Road” is to be found at this “no-frills dining room” in Shoreditch – everything is “fresh and fragrant”: no wonder “they’re always so busy”.

“Tasty, good-value noodles” in a “relaxed environment” make this 12-year-old London chain (14 branches, plus Brighton and Brum) “worth a visit”. The “ramen is deep and fabulous” if “limited in range (no fish-based dishes except prawn)”, and is augmented by “quite acceptable katsu curry”. Aficionados should head to the Haggerston branch to watch the noodles being made.

2022 Review: 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).

A “spectacular breakfast” – “the options are hard to choose from, but none are a poor choice” – is the top culinary feature at these Kiwi haunts, whose zeitgeisty vibe and in-house roasting (omg the smell in Shoreditch!) makes them a magnet for a “top notch coffee” at any time of day.

2021 Review: “As close as you can get to Buenos Aires without leaving London” – this Argentinian parrilla is one of hip Broadway Market’s longest-serving foodie hotspots, and serves “amazing steaks, and a great wine list for reds”.

2023 Review: This quartet of family-run restaurants have won a big reputation for their southwest Vietnamese dishes, including pho and their famed goat with galangal. They started out 15 years ago in Shoreditch before heading across the river to Battersea.

2022 Review: A late 2020 arrival in Hackney – this new haunt bills itself as ‘a neighbourhood oasis in east london’. It’s a large space (200 covers), complete with bar made out of recycled materials and garden courtyard. Everything is ‘curated’ including the craft pizza. No survey feedback as yet, but the general social buzz about the place is a good one.

“Cool places rarely fit the hype… but this one does!” Max Rocha’s “low key and informal” Hackney two-year-old is going from strength to strength. “A light airy space by the canal, it’s great for a relaxed meal”, with service that – “though achingly hip – is very good”. The “slightly unusual” food is all about small portions of intense flavours and “super-fresh seasonal ingredients”, and results are “excellent”. “Bonne chance getting a table!” Top Menu Tip – “the Guinness bread is very tasty”.

“Wow! Terrifically innovative, technical cooking and a lovely supper club concept of common tables, complete with a welcome and farewell from the chef” inspires ongoing acclaim for Gabriel Waterhouse’s excellent Bethnal Green venture (which relocated a couple of years ago to an airy new space). It’s £155 for his 10-course menu with drinks pairings (and on Wednesday nights and Saturday lunchtimes a shorter selection is served for £100): “for this standard of cuisine, it’s a great price when so much London serious ‘fine’ dining is nowadays just unaffordable”.

“Delicious thin-crust pizzas” win consistently high ratings for this 10-strong chain across north, east and south London. They are a socially conscious bunch who contributed 8,000 meals to NHS staff during the pandemic.