Oren

Oren is the kind of place that greets you like an old friend – albeit an old friend who has done significantly better in life than you might have. You’ve possibly already staggered past this tiny, tea light-lit restaurant while swaying over to the Shacklewell Arms (insert your favourite alternative backstreet Hackney boozer here), or peered through its airy open windows after taking your emotionally distant border terrier for a walk on Hackney Downs. The fitting response to passing Oren in both scenarios is akin to a Dickensian urchin gawping at a lavish Christmas dinner outside from a cold pavement. It looks so nice, so perfect, that you feel it’s definitely not for the likes of you. Which is where you’re wrong, because if ever a modern restaurant has screamed ‘approachable date night cool’, it’s Oren.

Opened in 2019, Oded Oren’s namesake restaurant might look like a hip kids club from the outside – not helped by its Shacklewell Lane location – but step inside and you’ll find a stylish, cross-generational crowd who look like they’re refuelling before yet another gallery launch party. They ask friendly servers for the ‘crispest white wine you have’ over a soundtrack of smooth, vaguely banging grooves, in a room that’s so effortlessly elegant it has been featured by The Modern House, and, with its grey concrete plaster walls and cream-coloured barn door tables, comes over like The Barbican by way of a cottage in the Cotswolds. 

The most intriguing starter was a salad of plump cherries, coriander, chunks of spicy Turkish sivri pepper and chopped almonds

Oren’s menu delves into Tel Avivian roots, where he was head chef at waterfront seafood joint Turkiz, before moving to the UK and hosting a series of pop-ups and residencies across the capital. His own restaurant offers the kind of Mediterranean Israeli food that bristles with flavour and ferments. Crisp bottomed and stone baked flatbread ringed with red onion was accompanied by classic baba ganoush and creamy labneh with sumac, but the most intriguing starter was a salad of plump cherries, coriander, chunks of spicy Turkish sivri pepper and chopped almonds, while fat, cured sardines in a shimmering pool of oil offered a lighter take on the ubiquitous cured anchovy.

The coriander-phobic might need to think twice before passing the threshold of Oren. It’s not just used generously here, it feels like the kitchen has actual shares in the stuff. A sumptuous piece of butterflied horse mackerel, with charred skin and mouthwatering splashes of preserved lemon, was served in disguise, covered by a mountain of coriander, while excellent house grilled spuds came with a lavish sprinkle of stalks.

The unrivalled highlight though was a Jerusalem mixed grill pita, available for an extremely reasonable £9. The poetry of sweetbreads in a sweet bread was evidently not lost on Oren, and its offal-y mixture of hearts, spleens and unidentified innards in a tomato-spiked yoghurt, all piled into a perfectly fluffy pocket, was enough to overshadow the slapdash, unloved pavlova which came at the end of the meal. 

Don’t waste your time being intimidated by Oren – it’s more relaxed than you think.  

The vibe A deeply cool but extremely friendly neighbourhood restaurant on the backstreets of Hackney.

The food Middle Eastern and Israeli flavours, including perfectly grilled fish, freshly baked breads and an array of amazing dips. 

The drink Get stuck into a confident cocktail menu full of tequila and mezcal-centric twists on the classics.

Time Out tip Order whatever filled pita is on the menu and experience sheer bliss.