Stratford Restaurant Guide

2022 Review: This ‘Philadelphia dive bar’ in Cleveland Street, Fitzrovia, has certainly “got the American vibe”, with “US-style beer and bar food” giving a real taste of the City of Brotherly Love. Philly street food classics such as the hoagie and cheesesteak are on the menu – and “it’s not health food, that’s for sure”. Reporters are divided on the results – “defining the category” for fans, “pretty underwhelming” for sceptics. There’s now a second site at Westfield Stratford, complete with baseball batting cages, but a 2021 crowdfunding bid to raise £150,000 for a massive bar under the railway arches in Leake Street, Waterloo, struck out.

This 15-strong London noodle chain (now with branches in Brighton, Birmingham and Bristol) is “a good stand-by” – perhaps it’s “not as good as some of its competitors”, but it is widely seen as “good value”: in particular “the lunch-time meal deal” is a winner.

2022 Review: By the Stratford entrance to the Olympic park, this all-day Italian restaurant and café arrived in autumn 2019 and has since spawned a couple of Essex-based spin-offs. The space – with big windows – is modern, but the food is traditional: arancini, pasta, pizza from the oven…

2023 Review: “You get the best fried chicken, but practically nothing else” at this new Westfield Stratford outlet serving Louisiana-style fried chicken sandwiches: the first location of a big US fast-food chain that breezed into town in November 2021 and is aiming for 350 branches in no time flat. “There were huge queues even months after it was opened” and “the ambience is that of a food court”, but fans (unexpectedly including The Times’s Giles Coren) say “the chicken is worth it”.

These “huge American-style diners” win solid ratings for their rock’n’roll (and blues and country) delivery of a “meat-heavy menu”, washed down by bucket-loads of ice-cold beers or two-pint jugs of ‘slushy’ cocktails, designed for raucous partying. The “great-value surf ’n’ turf” and lunch deals go down well, too. The original Chelsea venue opened 35 years ago, and has been joined more recently by spinoffs in Covent Garden, Canary Wharf and Westfield Stratford.

Nisha Katona’s Liverpool-based operation has two branches in London (Charlotte Street and Westfield Stratford) offering her “very tasty” Indian street food – “with the occasional hint of raw spice”. The Lancashire-born former barrister launched the business in 2014 and now has 28 outlets around the country, whose “enjoyable, authentic food” is “really great for a chain”.

Accomplished Japanese chef Daisuke Shimoyama (best known for the restaurant Hannah that he previously ran in the old County Hall and closed for this new venture) took over the 7th-floor dining room (previously Allegra) at The Stratford design hotel in summer 2025 to launch his latest project – based on cooking high-grade Japanese and British ingredients over a wood-fire grill, alongside a selection of sushi and sashimi. This is now potentially one of the most accomplished dining destinations in East London – reports please!