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).

One of our Top-100 Best UK Restaurants in the 2025 edition: Gabriel Waterhouse and Patricia Wakaimba’s stylish high-ceilinged space near Regent’s Canal inspired a disappointing lack of feedback in our latest 2026 annual diners’ poll: so we’ve removed its top 5/5 rating not on the basis that there has been any lack of excellence this year, but for simple lack of data. He serves four seasonal menus each year, and the limited space makes this a very personal, supperclub- style experience: with 11 servings of the Wednesday evening and Saturday lunch ‘Discovery’ menu (at £85 per person); and 15 servings of the fuller ‘Signature’ menu (at £110 per person) served in the evening from Thursday-Saturday. More reports please!

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.

“Perfect local restaurant in a cute location” – across the canal from Hackney’s Broadway Market: a “surprisingly romantic”, Scandi-esque dining room with “inspired dishes, fab wine list and a wonderfully friendly team”, headed by its founders (hospitality power couple Charlie Sims – ex-Noma; plus sommelier and natural wine proponent Honey Spencer). Top Menu Tip – “if the monumental pork chop is on, go for it! (and I don’t even like pork chops)”.

This “bustling place with great small plates and wines” in Cambridge Heath, from Freddie Sheen & Zac Whittle, is “one of the many dotted around the Hackney/Tower Hamlets borders” and “delivers exactly what you want from a good neighbourhood restaurant – tasty dishes, warm service and a comfortable environment”. Three years on from launch, it is “largely a word-of-mouth success and seems always busy still, despite a relative lack of PR compared with others nearby”.