Shoreditch, British, Modern Restaurant Guide

Just off Great Eastern Street, this characterful boozer has been a waxing and waning star of the Shoreditch culinary scene since the get-go; with a mezzanine dining room – up a spiral staircase from the main bar area – that’s been a springboard for numerous well-known chefs. Though only inspiring middling praise in recent times, in August 2024, one of only two female winners of MasterChef: The Professionals – Nikita Pathakji – arrived at the stoves, promising an uptick in performance, with dishes such as cured sea bream with coal-smoked aubergine, harissa and preserved lemon.

Daniel Willis, Isaac McHale & Johnny Smith helped establish the East End as a credible culinary destination, with the launch over a decade ago of this trailblazing venue (est. 2013) in Shoreditch Town Hall. “It is one of those tasting menu restaurants” – a no-frills (fairly uneventful) chamber whose cuisine on launch seemed dazzlingly weird and wonderful, and which is nowadays a key pillar of London’s foodie hall-of-fame, with two Michelin stars and – until this year – the UK’s leading position on the World’s 50 best ranking. However, the verdict of our annual diners’ poll has for some years been more cautious than the general critical consensus, and this uneven pattern continues this year. The main event is an eight-course tasting menu for £195 (with wine pairing at £175), which is hailed as “faultlessly executed” in upbeat feedback but seen in sceptical commentary as merely tolerable-to-disappointing. But most striking this year was a general lack of interest full stop: feedback was notably scant compared with the venue’s stratospheric media profile. Perhaps this good-but-no-longer-great view is beginning to become more widely held? The venue lost its World’s 50 Best ranking this year (slipping to 80th position).

2022 Review: We have Tracey Emin and Madness front-man Suggs to thank, along with the rest of the OPEN campaign, for saving this iconic (for once the word is merited) Shoreditch landmark north of Liverpool Street, which – after its original launch in 2000 – became a seminal venue for emerging hipster East London. It closed in 2014 when it was about to be flattened for a skyscraper, but this 5,000 sq ft former rail power station (built in 1893) reopened in April 2021, initially with its terrace in operation. This was followed in May and June by its ground-floor ‘Engine Hall’ bar and restaurant and first-floor ‘Timber Loft’. Survey feedback was too limited for a rating, but all-round extremely positive.

Tomos Parry’s phenomenally successful haunt occupies the first floor of a converted Shoreditch pub (over the Smoking Goat, see also), but with its own separate entrance. Somehow, he brilliantly captured the zeitgeist with his Basque-influenced cooking over fire, producing food that’s as “simple” as it is “outstanding”. “Ingredients are carefully sourced, prepared with care and the flavours really come through”. Many reports recommend you “order the turbot!” (‘Brat’ meaning Turbot in Parry’s native Welsh), but it’s a rather large dish if you are just a couple and the rest of the menu is just as worthy of exploration. “The room is casual and buzzy” and tightly packed, but “despite the cosy tables it still feels like you have your own space”. Top Menu Tip – “Basque cheesecake is a highlight: great flavour and so light”.

At the foot of the ‘Tea Building’ in Shoreditch and launched by James Lowe a decade ago, “Lyles has remained at the top of its game for many years” and is “a restaurant that works for romance, lunch with friends, client dinners and all points in between”. Notwithstanding holding a position on the World’s 50 ranking till 2023 – it has gradually “faded from the media glare since its launch”, but has lost none of its culinary fizz, and a visit can still be “an eye-opener” as amongst “the best sharing-plates restaurants in London”. “Seasonally rotating menus” produce “well-rounded and fresh-tasting” British dishes, “with high-quality ingredients pushed to the foreground”; and with “daring paired wines”. “The bare, utilitarian setting with an open kitchen makes for a loud and buzzing experience, but creates a relaxed vibe”, which is boosted by the “consistently friendly and knowledgeable service” (“staff give you as much information as you want and have a clear love of the place – you do not think they are temps!”). Top Menu Tip – “the menu changes but the bread and the brown butter madeleines thankfully never leave”.

2021 Review: This pair of “casual”, well-located all-day brasseries serve an “eclectic menu” from breakfast on, but it’s the “friendly ambience that’s a real winner”. The Sloane Square branch is “very Chelsea” – “great for lunch” and “wonderfully convenient pre- and post-show for Cadogan Hall or Royal Court”.

“Proper British food” of the “sort that isn’t fashionable any more” is the USP of this pub near the entrance to the Barbican arts centre. The “seasonal fare with some wonderful dishes you rarely see in other restaurants” is “filling and tasty”, and the Sunday roast is particularly recommended. Top Menu Tip – “try the cod’s head: absolutely amazing, but not for the faint-hearted!”

“Hidden away by a walled garden, with simple food from a tiny open-plan kitchen” – Melanie Arnold & Margot Henderson’s (wife of St John’s Fergus) well-known venue near Spitalfields occupies the converted bike sheds of a former school. “Surprisingly tranquil for this part of London”, “on a summer’s day the garden room is the perfect place to eat” (there’s also an indoor space). “Simple , well-chosen food comes from a tiny open-plan kitchen” – “not flash but always interesting” with “fresh flavours”. There was still the odd duff report this year, but inconsistency was much-reduced on last year’s feedback.

Dominic Hamdy has followed up Soho’s Bar Crispin with this fashionista-friendly Shoreditch bistro, where – as often happens in NYC – an old-school French formula somehow tickles the fancy of the hip crowd. It’s very ‘now’, even though its cream walls and candles stuck into bottles would have looked retro 40 years ago, as would many of the traditional French inspirations on chef Anna Sogaard’s hand-scrawled menu (e.g. grilled bavette in peppercorn sauce; plaice meuniere in capers and dill). Top Tip – pie!

A glass-roofed atrium dining room that’s part of a new boutique hotel (created from six Georgian townhouses) on the City/Shoreditch fringes, that opened last year. No survey feedback as yet, but it looks well styled and potentially a useful option in the area either for a cocktail, or for a meal with a flexible all-day menu served: first a breakfast selection; later in the day of small and sharing dishes. (There’s also a restaurant here serving South East Asian food called Quercus).