The best restaurants in Hackney

This new wave, old school-indebted trattoria dates back to the heady days of 2023, when chef-founder Dara Klein began doing alchemical things with pasta and breadcrumbs at alt-gastropub The Compton Arms in Islington. Her deceptively simple but deeply satisfying Italian food has now found a forever home inside a gorgeously gabled Victorian boozer on the eastern fringes of Colombia Road. Tiella at the Compton was good, but here it is exceptional. A more in-depth menu sees Dara dipping into rarer regional cracks of Italian cuisine. This is what eating out is all about: the warmest of welcomes, a subtle dose of glamour, incredible food, and the vague sense that nothing much else matters beyond the restaurant’s front door. A triumph. 

Opened in the summer of 2024, the fizzingly warm and welcoming Korean restaurant has quickly become one of east London’s most talked about places to eat. Branded as a ‘modern take on Korean cuisine’, the family-run Miga is all about exhilarating dishes that smash your tastebuds with integrity and sass. Try yughwe, a ballsy beef tartare accessorised with skinny batons of Asian pear and a gleaming egg yolk, or maeun saeu – three pastel pink prawns on a perfect puddle of gochujang sauce.

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.

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.

Elephant on Lower Clapton Road has peeled away various refits to reveal a striking Victorian space. With ex-Manteca chef Francesco Sarvonio in the kitchen, the food is of a southern Italian persuasion and not a single dish falters. Come for creamy seabass crudo, beef with just-stringy-enough charred chicory and magnificently murky tonnato sauce, a Sopranos Sunday luncheon-worthy dish of ziti genovese ragu, and salty, crisp-edged rib eye steak, as well as a whole pizza offering. Prices are pretty decent for the area, too.

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.

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. 

Who doesn’t love a towpath eatery? With seating for 50 out front, but also a big, grand room for those who don’t feel like an al fresco dinner before summer truly kicks in Inis offers a warm, neighbourly embrace, as well as Irish-ish food. Enjoy a raucous starter of potato scallops (aka, massive thick cut wedges halfway between crisps and chips) accessorised with a pot of creamy curry sauce. Neater, but no less delightful, is an impish winter tomato and anchovy toast; tangy, salty and pretty enough to frame. Grilled prawns, kicking back like burly, sunbathing jocks in a bowl of luminous, chill-flecked bisque, are more Med than Meath, but when the cookery is this classy, who cares?

A family-run Vietnamese cafe serving curries, pho, rice bowls and banh mi for an extremely reasonable price. The real steal, however, comes in the form of their mango salad, spiked with housemade pickles, crispy fried shallots, Viet herbs, sesame and pumpkin seeds, and their nuoc cham dressing. Made with buckets of care by head honcho Mama Hai, it’s refreshing and packed with flavour.

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.

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. Try neighbouring wine bar, Bastardo, too. 

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. 

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.

Ace Pizza is good, old fashioned fun and does a good job of breaking up the undeniable smugness of Victoria Park Village with its uber-casual attitude. The pizza is great but so are the small plates; order the crispy fried artichokes, and anchovy toast before a hot honey pizza and a parmesan-infused martini. 

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.