Haggerston, British, Modern Restaurant Guide

2022 Review: The wild and wacky French chain opened this eclectically designed 194-room hotel in late 2019, complete with clashing fabrics, retro gaming machines, füsball and karaoke rooms. The loungy restaurant offers an easy-grazing selection of dishes to suit the tastes of globe-trotting hipsters: initial feedback suggests it's better than you might expect (given all the competing attractions).

“Cool places rarely fit the hype… but this one does!” Max Rocha’s “low key and informal” Hackney two-year-old is going from strength to strength. “A light airy space by the canal, it’s great for a relaxed meal”, with service that – “though achingly hip – is very good”. The “slightly unusual” food is all about small portions of intense flavours and “super-fresh seasonal ingredients”, and results are “excellent”. “Bonne chance getting a table!” Top Menu Tip – “the Guinness bread is very tasty”.

“Wow! Terrifically innovative, technical cooking and a lovely supper club concept of common tables, complete with a welcome and farewell from the chef” inspires ongoing acclaim for Gabriel Waterhouse’s excellent Bethnal Green venture (which relocated a couple of years ago to an airy new space). It’s £155 for his 10-course menu with drinks pairings (and on Wednesday nights and Saturday lunchtimes a shorter selection is served for £100): “for this standard of cuisine, it’s a great price when so much London serious ‘fine’ dining is nowadays just unaffordable”.

2022 Review: Although it’s from the Anchor and Hope stable, this all-day operation near Hoxton tube is not a pub: it’s a new café (opened May 2021) within the rebranded Geffrye Museum (which features exhibits on domestic living since 1600). On offer – breakfast, lunch and buns, and – in the fullness of time – a dinner service.