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The best restaurants in Hackney

You'll find some of this city's most forward-looking restaurants in Hackney, whether they're zero-waste pioneers or seafood-based innovators.

Leonie Cooper
Edited by
Leonie Cooper
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Head to Hackney and you've got a seriously exciting evening of dining ahead of you, as some of the city's boldest chefs have set up shop in this rapidly-gentrifying patch of east London. High-end restaurants sit alongside chic brunch spots, inviting gastropubs and long-established neighbourhood joints. Whatever you're after, you'll more than likely find it here. Go east(ish) and eat. New additions to the list include smoke and fire fun at Lagom, Michelin starry-ness at Behind, chef Abby Lee's incredible Mambow – which recently moved to Clapton from Peckham and canal-side standout, Sune

Recommended: Here are London's 50 Best Restaurants.

Leonie Cooper is Time Out London’s Food and Drink Editor. For more about how we curate, see our editorial guidelines.

The best restaurants in Hackney

  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • Restaurants
  • Malaysian
  • Clapton
  • price 2 of 4
  • Recommended

Abby Lee's first proper restaurant space is truly sensational. A relatively chilled open kitchen on Clapton's main drag churns out showstopping Malaysian food, full of fun, fragrance and heat. Order the lor bak – supremely crispy five spice pork and bean curd rolls with potent chilli vinegar jam – otak-otak prawn toast, and whopping big kam heong mussels, sensational in their messy, lip-smacking sloppiness. Wash it all down with juicy glasses of natural wine. 

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Leonie Cooper
Food and Drink Editor, Time Out London
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • Restaurants
  • Contemporary European
  • Haggerston
  • price 3 of 4
  • Recommended

Gripe all you want about east London’s current preponderance of boho bistros specialising in small plates and natural wines – but when it’s done right, it’s still a knockout formula. And Sune, just over the bridge from Broadway Market in Hackney, absolutely nails it. The level of depth, detail, thought and skill in some of these dishes is honestly staggering, and they’re picture-pretty. It opened in autumn 2023, but will come alive in summer, with big windows that open all the way, a scattering of pavement tables, and even potential plans for a canalside sunset terrace.

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James Manning
Content Director, EMEA
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  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • Restaurants
  • British
  • Hackney
  • price 3 of 4
  • Recommended

Finally the fevered hype which surrounded the opening of Hackney’s Cafe Cecilia has died down a touch. What remains is what head chef Max Rocha set out to create in the first place; one of London’s most effortlessly immaculate new restaurants, with a vibe that’s at once chic neighbourhood bistro and heartfelt tribute to his Dublin roots. Cafe Cecilia’s sage and anchovy fritti has become one of London’s most whispered about dishes and it’s easy to see why; this tempting tempura popped in the mouth, oily, salty and addictive. Don't miss the onglet and forget the fries at your peril.

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Leonie Cooper
Food and Drink Editor, Time Out London
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • Restaurants
  • London Fields
  • price 2 of 4
  • Recommended

An ideal neighbourhood restaurant, with a handful of perfect pasta dishes and an extremely chill ambience. It's a bakery in the day, but they do elite sit-down dinners at night. There are usually five pasta dishes on offer, such a signature doppio ravioli, split exactingly with half filled with beetroot, the other with potent gorgonzola, which is obscenely indulgent and swimming in a pool of liquid butter. Also make room for a sleek selection of starters and snacks, such as oak smoked trout pate, and fried palline al parmigiano with lovage and speck. Gorgeous.

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Leonie Cooper
Food and Drink Editor, Time Out London
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  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • Restaurants
  • Contemporary European
  • Hackney
  • price 3 of 4
  • Recommended

The abundantly charming Pidgin has been calmly serving up a different weekly tasting menu since opening in 2015. No dishes are ever repeated – even if they’re really, really tasty. Which makes what you’re reading right now almost redundant. We’ll be joyfully singing the praises of a delicate hake and kohlrabi egg drop soup or a zingy lime and apple choux bun, but by the time you scroll through these words, they’ll have been razed from the menu, never to be seen again. But frankly, none of that matters when you find that Pidgin values quality just as much as the constant churn of novelty.

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Leonie Cooper
Food and Drink Editor, Time Out London
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • Restaurants
  • Scandinavian
  • Hackney
  • price 2 of 4
  • Recommended

The Hackney Church Brewing Company is home to Lagom: chef Elliot Cunningham’s rustic, smoke-wafted paean to his dual Brit/Scandi heritage, operating from an infernal little counter kitchen behind the bar proper. Blitzing stuff over wood-fire is the USP here: birchwood for the fragrant notes it imparts, and oak for its longer burn. The house burger is infamous; a humming puck of 60/40 ratio of aged beef to fat, in a milk potato bun with a slick of mustardy mayo, Yank cheese and a vinegar slaw. 

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  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • Restaurants
  • Italian
  • Clapton
  • price 2 of 4
  • Recommended

With its wood-panelled walls, masterfully tiled flooring and mammoth 1960s posters for Italian vermouth brands, this chic little cafe is like something out of a Wes Anderson movie. In the daytime you can grab lasagne, milanese sandwiches and coffee, but in the evening, Leo’s transforms into restaurant serving Sardinian-inspired pasta, and sardines fired on the wood hearth. The chef is Giuseppe Belvedere, who formerly plied his trade at the dearly departed Bright down the road in Hackney.

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Leonie Cooper
Food and Drink Editor, Time Out London
Uchi
  • Restaurants
  • Japanese
  • Clapton
  • price 2 of 4

The surroundings are as eye-catching as the sushi at this Japanese spot on the fringes of Hackney, where the brushed gold countertops, soft lighting and dainty crockery are all worthy of a Pinterest board. Raw fish aside, top picks include the piping-hot chicken karaage and charred pork belly skewers, although veggie combos are also an unlikely standout here – don’t miss the fleshy, earthy mushroom and spinach nigiri with hints of sesame.

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  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • Restaurants
  • British
  • Haggerston
  • price 1 of 4
  • Recommended

Wing a summer's day table at this Regent’s Canal towpath hotspot and you might end up staying for hours. Open from spring (hours are 9am until 5pm, Wednesday to Sunday) Towpath is always extremely popular. Come here for breakfast and the menu will usually include fried eggs on toast or granola with yoghurt, fruit and maple syrup. In the afternoon or early evening, choose from a range of alluring cakes (the beautifully light olive oil and lemon cake is a favourite) or savoury dishes such as pork tenderloin or own-made quiche from a bountiful blackboard menu. 

 

  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • Restaurants
  • Fusion
  • Homerton
  • price 2 of 4
  • Recommended

An Indian-Irish fusion restaurant where you'll get delightful things like Spuds & Butter, a cocktail served in a coupe that looks like melted Kerrygold, as well as chaat potatoes; crispy cubes that are silky-smooth inside and come slathered in a turmeric and poitín butter, turning oily and lightly spicy and finding a surprisingly cooling foil in a green chilli chutney. Like every dish at the fantastic Shankeys, it’s a beautiful, colourful mess, served on floral crockery straight off Grandma’s dresser.

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  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • Restaurants
  • Seafood
  • London Fields
  • price 4 of 4
  • Recommended

Awarded a Michelin star in 2020 after being open for only 20 days (a tantalising bit of lore that most chefs would kill for), Behind is a seafood-focussed, chef’s table restaurant in London Fields. Dealing squarely in fine dining, done with a personal, laid-back air, expect imaginative dishes such as a fish pie croquette, ingeniously fried in a coating of fish scales, and comically presented on a gilded structure that looks a bit like The Arm from Twin Peaks: The Return. 

 

  • Restaurants
  • Contemporary European
  • Dalston
  • price 3 of 4

Billed as a fermenting kitchen, this sibling of Ducksoup (and Rawduck, RIP) is dominated by a giant marble table and various pickling projects – there’s even a muslin bag of home-produced labneh hanging from the ceiling. The scribbled blackboard lists natural wines, home-brewed infusions and a daily changing roster of seasonal small plates – many involving cured or fermented ingredients, of course (mackerel under oil with purple sprouting broccoli and pickled kumquats is typical). Weekend breakfasts and great-value lunch deals are available too.

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  • Restaurants
  • Contemporary European
  • Hackney
  • price 3 of 4

Hackney Coterie is a collab between seasoned sommelier Kelvin McCabe and Anthony Lyon, who's also behind hyped seafood spot Lyon's in Crouch End. Here, the regularly-changing food offering is very much omnivorous, serving up well-honed Modern European dishes that are designed to share.

  • Restaurants
  • Chinese
  • Clapton
  • price 2 of 4

A former pop-up offering dim-sum-style dining for local hipsters, MNTD’s watchword is definitely not ‘authenticity’. Still, the dumplings are excellent, with handmade pastry and irreproachable fillings such as lamb and coriander or courgette and wood ear mushrooms. We’re also fans of the fusion salads and hot dishes including roasted chicken thigh with miso sauce. There are some cracking sake-based cocktails too – great while you’re waiting for a table (no bookings, obvs).

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  • Restaurants
  • Contemporary European
  • London Fields
  • price 3 of 4

Bambi is one of those east London wine bars with small plates and exposed brick work. There is only so much whipped feta and chilled red a borough can take before it is completely consumed by a low-intervention cabernet sauvignon tsunami, but this is a great example of the genre. Here is a comfortable room full of good looking people (you might remember the space from its days as Bright), a solid playlist, and some serious snacks, such as cauliflower cheese arancini, beans with kale and goat’s curd and a god-like chicken parm. 

Finn McRedmond
Contributor
  • Restaurants
  • Italian
  • London Fields

It’s a pizzeria, but not as we know it. Named after the cured back fat of a pig, Lardo is a cool industrial-chic space complete with a disco ball oven and an Italian-themed menu that mixes wood-fired Neapolitan-style pizzas (gluten-free if required) with handmade pasta, trendy salads, spuntini, salumi, small plates and fish specials. Lardo is bang on for weekend breakfast and brunch in Hackney too, while drinks have a distinct organic and vegan bias.

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  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • Restaurants
  • British
  • London Fields
  • price 3 of 4
  • Recommended

Papi’s journey from pandemic pop-up poster boys to a bricks-and-mortar restaurant of almost immediate repute has been action packed. Chef Matthew Scott made his mark in the midst of post-lockdown chaos under the Hot 4 U name, with a dedicated delivery service and playful residencies at esteemed Hackney boozers The Plough, Prince Arthur and The Haggerston. Scott has left behind the more childish leanings of Hot 4 U in favour of regeneratively reared meat, sustainable seafood and a sturdy commitment to seasonality. In wingman position is Matthew Scott’s buddy Charlie Carr, whose giddy enthusiasm for natural wines could make even the most hardened supermarket plonk drinker put down their glass of Casillero del Diablo in favour of something a little more funky. 

  • Restaurants
  • British
  • Hackney Wick
  • price 4 of 4

Zero-waste eating is the order of the day at this stylish Hackney restaurant from chef Doug McMaster. Everything is sustainable, with many of the dishes made from ingredients otherwise destined for the bin. But that doesn't mean it's dour or preachy. Pick from a lively collection of modern British dishes, or go for the all in set menu.

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  • Restaurants
  • Haggerston

This suave 14-seater chef’s table restaurant offers a night of seriously sexy and intense crustacean worship. Walk past uplit glass pickle jars containing frondy ferments, and a room full of bubbling filtration tanks called ‘the lobster hotel’, to enjoy a meal that elevates fish cookery to an art form. Pricy, but worth it. 

  • Restaurants
  • British
  • Hackney
  • price 3 of 4

This solo Hackney venture from former Pidgin chef Adolfo de Cecco serves up one of the best-value tasting menus in town (including a full vegetable option that’s guaranteed to get those vegan juices going). If cutting-edge combos such as duck liver with black bean and hoshigaki or asparagus, lovage and green strawberry float your boat, head to Casa Fofò and soak up its down-to-earth homely charms. The whole set-up is a totally unpretentious delight and, no big deal, it's got a Michelin star. 

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The Duke of Richmond (dining room)
  • Restaurants
  • British
  • Dalston
  • price 2 of 4

Given a lift following the arrival of chef Tom Oldroyd, this Hackney hostelry is a now a foodie pub with a vengeance – tables in the bar are laid with cutlery and there’s a jolly dining room for those who want to avoid the boozy scrum. The food has flashes of brilliance (chunky roast squash with goat’s curd, roscoff onion, toasted hazelnuts and oregano, for example), but some dishes can lack finesse. Even so, this is still a grand old place to hang out if you’re a local.

Hill & Szrok
  • Restaurants
  • London Fields

A master butcher and cookshop by day (look for the carcases hanging the window), Hill & Szrok morphs into a no-bookings suppertime haunt with its massive marble slab becoming a communal table and counters gaining high stools – all primed for a nightly parade of walk-ins. A short menu spells out the evening’s free-range rare-breed cuts – steaks, rack of lamb, pork chop and so on – which are preceded by, say, duck rillettes or fried pig’s head with sauce gribiche.

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  • Restaurants
  • London Fields

Some of London’s hottest kitchens get their breads from Ben MacKinnon’s tiny bakehouse, and E5’s hand-baked wares are top stuff if you’re stocking up on the staff of life. You can also use the place as a drop-in café for (organic) breakfast or lunch during the week (veggie black-bean chilli with roast squash and lime salsa, say). On weekends, take the brunch route with sausage rolls, spanakopita and suchlike.

El Ganso
  • Restaurants
  • Spanish
  • London Fields

With its exposed brickwork, Moorish tiling and a healthy smattering of Spanish-speaking customers, El Ganso (‘The Goose’) feels like the real thing – only transported to Broadway Market. The chef hails from Valencia, although he gives traditional tapas a modish, contemporary spin when it comes to presentation: fried octopus might come with smoked paprika, chimichurri and purple potato purée, while chopped pears add a surprise to spicy chorizo in cider. El Ganso also serves an Anglo-Spanish breakfast every day.

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Violet
  • Restaurants
  • Bakeries
  • Dalston
  • price 1 of 4

Run by Californian-born cook-designer-stylist Claire Ptak, who made Harry and Meghan’s wedding cake, this backstreet bakery and café has a laidback vibe that’s topped off by a cavalcade of twee, pretty treats decorated with real flowers. As a sampler, try the gorgeous cinnamon buns, the moist, swirly halva tahini brownies or something seasonal from the line-up of US-style mini buttercream cupcakes. You can buy to take home or eat upstairs in a pretty space done out like a 1960s living room.

Temple of Seitan
  • Restaurants
  • Vegan
  • Hackney
  • price 1 of 4

London’s first vegan ‘chicken shop’ (yes, you read right) was born out of Hackney’s Temple of Seitan street stall. It’s all about ‘meaty’ wheat gluten (aka seitan) here, whether you order peppery popcorn-style nuggets, battered strips or a burger. Add-ons such as zingy red slaw or vegan mac ’n’ cheese with smoky ‘facon’ cubes are bang on-trend too. There’s no indoor seating here, the music’s deafeningly loud and you can’t buy booze, but the place still gets packed.

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  • Restaurants
  • Vegan
  • Hackney

The name stands for We Are Vegan Everything, and this trendy café from the team behind Cupcakes and Shhht proves its point with a menu of brekky bowls, Bali bowls, mac ’n’ cheeze, mock-salmon bagels, innovative salads and mighty looking freakshakes. With its chic but cosy tropical-meets-Scandi decor, this is a strong shout for a vegan lunch in Hackney, especially if you stick to the savouries.

  • Restaurants
  • Caribbean
  • Hackney
  • price 1 of 4

A blast of totally tropical sunshine on south Hackney’s grungy Mare Street, this happy and utterly charming joint does a banging trade in no-nonsense Caribbean fare at knockdown prices. All the usual suspects are present and correct: jerk pork and chicken, curried goat, chickpeas in coconut milk, plantain, patties, rice ’n’ peas… you get the picture. To drink, knock back a Guinness punch or a homemade sorrel and imagine you’re in a Tobago beach shack.

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  • 3 out of 5 stars
  • Restaurants
  • Contemporary European
  • Hoxton
  • price 3 of 4
  • Recommended

In certain parts of east London, you can hardly nip to Tesco without passing at least one friendly oenophilic bistro, and it’d be churlish to complain about that: these places are independent businesses run and staffed by earnest, passionate people, and they’re usually really nice places to spend an evening. Eline does a (relatively) affordable, very approachable set menu and the plates are big. No sharing, no as-it-comes, ‘let me explain the concept behind our menu’ – just two or three decently-sized dishes of food per person, arriving one after the other. It says more about modern London dining than Eline itself that this feels like a small waft of fresh air.

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James Manning
Content Director, EMEA
Morito Hackney Road
  • Restaurants
  • Spanish
  • Hackney Road

A completely different kettle of salt cod to the original Morito in Clerkenwell, this branch of the Spanish-North African hybrid is an expansive, high-ceilinged concrete-chic space – civilised and minimalist, with a menu of sassy small plates backed by dukkah for dipping and pomegranate cocktails for sipping. With acres of space, an enormous horseshoe counter for walk-ins and a bevy of cute staff straight out of charm school, this place is an all-round winner. Note that it’s vegan-only on Mondays.

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