Restaurants

Laxeiro

A smattering of Alhambra-style tiling, a terracotta colour scheme and the odd potted plant give Laxeiro a homey, honest feel. This unassuming little restaurant is busy...

Shoreditch: 93 Columbia Road, E2 7RG

Distance: 0 mls

Royal Oak

The upstairs dining room at the Royal Oak has come a long way from its days as a Mexican-themed bar. These days the airy space is all muted Farrow & Ball tones, and on...

Shoreditch: 73 Columbia Road, E2 7RG

Distance: 0 mls

Jones Dairy Café

When the hubbub of Sunday’s Columbia Road Flower Market gets too much, take a turn at the eastern end, down this cobbled lane. You’ll find overhanging ivy, rickety...

Shoreditch: 23 Ezra Street, E2 7RH

Distance: 0 mls

StringRay Globe Café, Bar & Pizzeria

When the flower market fills Columbia Road on Sundays, an impressive queue snakes out of StringRay. Granted, the prices are low for such decent food, but the biggest...

Bethnal Green: 109 Columbia Road, E2 7RL

Distance: 0.1 mls

Taste of Bitter Love

Hackney Road café

Hackney: 276 Hackney Road, E2 7SJ

Distance: 0.1 mls

Premises Café/Bistro

The music studios attached to this eaterie have seen everyone from Nina Simone to Spiritualized go through the mixing desk, though an appetite-dampening picture of...

Shoreditch: 209 Hackney Road, E2 8JL

Distance: 0.2 mls

Frizzante@City Farm

Arrive early enough at the weekend and you can enjoy a peaceful, supremely laid-back breakfast before, come late-morning, groups of young Hackneyites become penned in...

Shoreditch: Hackney City Farm, 1A Goldsmith's Row, E2 8QA

Distance: 0.2 mls

E Pellicci

Not just a caff, but a social club, taxi drivers’ meeting room and unofficial matchmaking service, E Pellicci has been warmly welcoming customers since 1900. The...

Bethnal Green: 332 Bethnal Green Road, E2 0AG

Distance: 0.3 mls

S&R Kelly

Few London restaurants can match the city's last remaining pie and mash shops for simple authenticity. Their menu has altered little since the mid 19th century: a...

Bethnal Green: 284 Bethnal Green Road, E2 0AG

Distance: 0.3 mls

Mai'da

Surrounded by the regulation urban kebab and tikka takeaways, Mai’da – with its cream walls, calligraphic paintings, mood lighting and dark-wood furniture – has...

Bethnal Green: 148-150 Bethnal Green Road, E2 6DG

Distance: 0.3 mls

Rochelle Canteen

To reach Narnia you went through a wardrobe; here you press the buzzer on the door of this former school to enter another world. Grimy Shoreditch is left outside, and...

Shoreditch: The Canteen, Old School Building, Arnold Circus, E2 7ES

Distance: 0.3 mls

Hanoi Café

In its owners’ own words, Hanoi Café offers ‘homemade Vietnamese cuisine in a relaxed atmosphere’, which is a pretty accurate description of this charming...

Shoreditch: 98 Kingsland Road, E2 8DP

Distance: 0.3 mls

Mien Tay

Regional fare on Kingsland Road

Shoreditch: 122 Kingsland Rd, E2 8DP

Distance: 0.3 mls

Que Viet

Taking over the former site of Au Lac, this newcomer has a completely new look, making it the most elegant Vietnamese restaurant on the block. A heavy, leather-bound...

Shoreditch: 102 Kingsland Road, E2 8DP

Distance: 0.3 mls

Tay Do Restaurant

Shoreditch: 60-64 Kingsland Road, E2 8DP

Distance: 0.3 mls

Viet Hoa

Once a Kingsland Road institution, often credited with introducing Londoners to authentic Vietnamese cooking in the 1990s, Viet Hoa had become a shadow of its former...

Shoreditch: 70-72 Kingsland Road, E2 8DP

Distance: 0.3 mls

Tay Do Café

The façade of this tiny café does it no favours. The frontage is often obscured by a bus stop directly in front of the doors, and its fluorescent sign speaks more of...

Shoreditch: 65 Kingsland Road, E2 8AG

Distance: 0.4 mls

Leila's Shop

Recently-expanded café-deli

Shoreditch: 17 Calvert Avenue, E2 7JP

Distance: 0.4 mls

Lennie's

On a sunny Sunday morning, Lennie's is the place to go for a fry-up. Set out along the pavement, its wooden tables soon fill up with hungry – and hungover –...

Shoreditch: 6 Calvert Avenue, E2 7JP

Distance: 0.4 mls

Little Georgia

Conjure up a stern auntie lovingly preparing all your favourites in her kitchen in downtown Tbilisi: that’s Little Georgia. There’s no licence, which means no...

Bethnal Green: 87 Goldsmiths Row, E2 8QR

Distance: 0.4 mls

Nando's

Bethnal Green: 366 Bethnal Green Road, E2 0AH

Distance: 0.4 mls

Brick Lane Beigel Bake

The competitor two doors down does better sausage rolls, but this charismatic, 24-hour East End institution all human life is here nevertheless wins out in every...

Brick Lane: 159 Brick Lane, E1 6SB

Distance: 0.4 mls

Fika

'Fika' is the delightful Swedish expression for a coffee break - a form of social interaction that Swedes take seriously. Having enjoyed many a fine fika in Sweden, I...

Bethnal Green: 161A Brick Lane, E1 6SB

Distance: 0.4 mls

Hung Viet

The newest addition to Kingsland Road

Hoxton: 134A Kingsland Rd, E2 8DY

Distance: 0.4 mls

Song Que

After all this time, Song Que still sets the benchmark for exceptional Vietnamese cooking in London. It’s an efficient, canteen-like operation commanding the corner...

Shoreditch: 134 Kingsland Road, E2 8DY

Distance: 0.4 mls

Beach Blanket Babylon

Our two visits to BBB were an education in how hospitality should not be done. Which is a shame, because it's a gorgeously designed open-plan bar and restaurant, with...

Shoreditch: 19-23 Bethnal Green Rd, E1 6LA

Distance: 0.4 mls

Green & Red

Tequila bar Green & Red is miles away from the world of studenty tequila slammers. The staff’s knowledge may be patchy, but only 100% agave tequila is served....

Shoreditch: 51 Bethnal Green Road, E1 6LA

Distance: 0.4 mls

Les Trois Garçons

Although Les Trois Garçons resembles a happy collision between a taxidermist’s (it’s a toss up between the giraffe’s head and the whole swan for the most OTT...

Brick Lane: 1 Club Row, E1 6JX

Distance: 0.4 mls