The best restaurants in Hackney

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. 

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.

Head chef Drew Snaith has taken over the building that once housed Pidgin and things are going rather well. At Sesta, silliness sits comfortably alongside seriousness, with nduja-scotched olives, coastal cheddar and cider scones, smacked cucumber drizzled with sweet raspberry hot sauce, beef ragu toasties and funky-looking prawn and stone bass dolma with ouzo butter. It’s food dreamed up deep in the middle of a Saturday night session and then bought into reality with little concern for judgement from the purists.

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.

With its wood-panelled walls, masterfully tiled flooring and mammoth 1960s posters for Italian vermouth brands, this chic little spot 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. A treat.

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.

Whyte Rushen has serious kitchen chops, working everywhere from Brat and Scully St James to Kerridge’s before setting out on his own. With his high profile pop-ups now behind him, Whyte’s latest experiment is his most mature yet; he’s opened an actual restaurant by London Fields. Inside, the set up is simple verging on the basic – a handful of tables and a long L-shaped counter where you can watch the all-smiles Whyte serve forth whatever happens to interest him at that particular moment in time. Our visit follows his whirlwind trip to San Sebastian. As a result, Whyte is cooking an entirely Basque-inspired menu for the next few weeks. By the time you make it there, he’ll be serving up something different entirely, but that’s all part of the fun. 

Wing a summer's day table at this Regent’s Canal towpath hotspot and you might end up staying for hours. Open from spring, 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. 

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. 

Head to the first floor of this East End trendsetter for the light, white restaurant, which has been a hipster hub since 2004. There's queer cabaret downstairs in the Cockatoo space (where you can feast on the Bistrotheque menu), and the menu (and short wine list) is more French-leaning than truly Gallic: a cheeseburger with pancetta and caramelised onions sits alongside onglet with chips and béarnaise sauce, and treacle tart with clotted cream next to crème brûlée. A popular weekend brunch adds the likes of (US-style) pancakes with bacon and maple syrup to the mix. 

Planque roughly translates to ‘hideaway’ in French and that’s exactly what you can do at this wine drinker’s clubhouse and restaurant nestled under a pair of railway arches in Haggerston. Seb Myers (who came from P Franco and Chiltern Firehouse) is in charge of food, so you’re in very good hands, and will get some sublime modern French cooking that’s smart with textures and balance.

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.

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.

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. 

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).

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. 

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.

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. 

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.

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. 

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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.

The fact that Barge East is a floating restaurant on a canal is perhaps the least interesting thing about it. Instead, what's great about this Hackney Wick spot is the fact that most of the veg is grown at the adjacent Barge East Gardens meaning it's got some serious sustainability chops. Sit in the breezy canopy up top, or get all cosy in the hull. Want a private dining room with a difference? The eight-seater captain’s cabin comes with a phone line straight to the bar.