London Dalston Restaurant Guide

“A wide variety of techniques” is behind food of “scrumptious flavour” and “rare visual beauty” at this “top-class experience”: a stylish neighbourhood haunt with large, leafy pavement terrace discovered “off the beaten track” in Dalston. The cooking is usually described as ‘fusion’, which in effect means broadly Italian dishes presented Japanese kaiseki-style, with multiple small courses chosen each day by the chef, in response to the best available produce.

2021 Review: A short stroll from Hackney Downs station, this year-old sibling to Ducksoup operates as a ‘fermenting kitchen and eatery’ (and you can buy the results by the gram or bottled as part of their The Picklery range). It also operates as a kitchen from breakfast on, serving a short menu, which varies throughout the day (you might have squid risotto, or steak in the evening); and it’s later in the day that its “great list of natural wines” comes to the fore. “It feels very relaxed, serves lots of pickled stuff and the food’s all good: it’s a bit like going around to a friend’s house, who’s a very good cook and has a lot of very nice wine”.

2021 Review: ‘Pickled’ author Freddie Janssen launched a Kickstarter campaign for this new, August 2019 venture in hip Dalston – an all-day café sitting alongside a co-working space and urban farm, and delivering a funky-sounding menu which reads like a ‘pick ’n’ mix’ of global inspiration.

“Delicious food” and “attentive service” are the order of the day at this ambitious gastropub on the Dalston-Haggerston border, where the kitchen is headed by chef Tom Oldroyd, whose self-named restaurant in Islington closed down during the pandemic.

“They succeed in making vegan food interesting!” at this successful chain, founded in Soho in 1988 and which is no longer merely veggie but since 2021 fully plant-based. “While packed and buzzy in set-up, it’s nevertheless a good destination for a healthy stopover” according to the many who commented on it in this year’s annual diners’ poll: “as a meat-eater, I was taken under sufferance but impressed!”. In May 2024, they added a new branch near Victoria coach station.

2023 Review: This Dalston two-year-old from MasterChef: The Professionals 2019 semi-finalist Arbinder Dugal is a “very solid representative of the by-now-not-quite-so-new wave of modern Indian restaurants – probably the best in this part of town”. Named after the owners’ home village in the Punjab, it serves a short menu of tasty north Indian dishes.

Outstanding and creative sandwiches, “fresh pastries” and “delicious brews” make this social-enterprise (it supports at-risk young East Londoners) one of the capital’s highest-rated café-bakeries. The “wonderful brunches” mean “it can get very busy round midday”, both at HQ in Dalston Junction and at the Green Lanes, Harringay offshoot. At the former, its street cred is enhanced by a grungy location down a side street from off the main drag. The latter is more civilised, with evening service, pizza and wine.

“Busy at times, but still with a great vibe” – this converted Victorian factory in Dalston (opened in 2013) will be familiar to some as the location for the 2021 hit film ‘Boiling Point’; and wins acclaim for its grills and other modern British dishes. In June 2024, they launched a new two-floor spin-off in South Woodford: this time in a fine-looking Georgian building – a large site with 150 covers and a 50-seat outside terrace. It has a similarly flexible menu, with options for snacks, brunch, and Sunday lunch.

“Excellent fried chicken with a Korean twist” and “good cocktails” earn a “hallelujah” for this upbeat duo, whose original Haggerston branch celebrates its tenth anniversary in 2025; the Covent Garden branch came later. Although their punchy cocktails are a big part of the attraction, it’s also “great for kids, with a special offer every half term”, and the “beef dripping chips” go down well.

“Favourite restaurant of all time!” – “Stunning flavours and textures, offered by the fixed-price, no-choice, but ever-changing taster menu” inspire adulation for Adolfo de Cecco’s “unpretentious” shop-conversion in Dalston. It may be one of East London’s true culinary heavyweights, but the style is “totally informal and allows the food to be the star”. “Service is impeccable and the food is brought to your table by the chefs themselves”. And “how does he do it for the price?” – £122 for the eight courses plus wine pairing (a meal might run – roasted beetroot tart; bread and butter; monkfish with bergamot sauce; pig skin congee with XO sauce; Jerusalem artichoke with umeboshi sauce and tahini; cheese with onion ice cream; yuzu granita; dried mushroom and frozen tofu). One report in particular typifies the love the places generates: “we eat out in proper restaurants twice most weeks, so we don’t stint ourselves, and from the receipts can count a full 50 visits to Casa Fofó since the beginning of 2023, and we never seem to be offered the same dish twice!”

This 10-year-old group with six sites offers a “good-value and tasty” take on the Middle Eastern kebab, served with a “modern twist” alongside “noteworthy cocktails”. “A seat at the counter is fun” at the original Kingly Court branch in Carnaby Street, which has a ‘fine dining’ option downstairs, Kebab Queen (see also).

2023 Review: “Great value and unusual tasting menus, nice wines & lovely service” win all-round applause for this yearling in a Hackney Downs warehouse from Anthony Lyon (of Lyon’s in Crouch End). Head chef Giuseppe Pepe (ex-Pidgin and Marksman) is responsible for the seasonal, minimal-waste menu, and his “food is beautifully presented and served”.

“Exceptionally curated, mouthwatering Turkish cuisine” – “I DREAM of the food!” – has won fooderati fame for this 30-year-old Dalston fixture, which Ferhat and Sertaç Dirik took over from their father Ali in 2020 to relaunch in a contemporary idiom. Their efforts were recognised by the publication of their first cookbook by prestige publisher Phaidon in October 2024.

2021 Review: “Try and snag a corner banquette for great E8 people-watching” if you visit this quirky venue – the dining room of a Dalston (technically speaking Shacklewell) events venue where ex-St John chef Chris Gillard delivers some excellent, gutsy dishes. On nights when the venue has a noisy gig though, it can fall down as a foodie experience: “they need to decide if they’re a bar and disco, or a restaurant, because diners don’t want both at once: the waiters were sidetracked mixing cocktails and the DJ an irritant”.

2021 Review: This “buzzy”, well-known Italian (in the Arthaus building near London Fields) continues to inspire relatively limited feedback. Pizza is the most popular option foodwise, and reports say it “ticks all the boxes” for a good time. Its sibling Lardo Bebe is no more.

A live-fire restaurant at 40FT Brewery in Dalston, from Andrew Clarke and Daniel Watkins, where the BBQ offers “an emphasis on veg (although meat is also available)”, and where beer by-products are used to make ferments and hot sauces. It’s a “fun” and “innovative” place, but not always a consistent one. Top Menu Tip – “Coal Roast Leeks and Pistachio Romesco were amazing. Marmite/Pecorino on Sourdough a must”.

On a site that was Rotorino (RIP), this year-old music venue (named for a jazz album) is from the brothers behind Hackney’s ‘Brilliant Corners’. It has yet to generate much in the way of survey feedback, but London needs more jazz diners; and its Japanese-inspired robata cuisine received a big shout out from the Guardian’s Grace Dent in November 2022, who found it be “far grander and ornately executed than it needs to be”.

An old Dalston boozer, the Marquis of Lansdowne, has been revamped with Art Deco-inspired interiors as a restaurant and 'listening bar' with a late licence by the team behind Docklands nightclub The Cause. The menu features British pub classics combined with Southeast Asian influences – think Thai-style sausages and mash.