The restaurants I love the most: East London
From Shoreditch to Stoke Newington, with a few diversions
When I started writing this post, I tried to explain exactly why I love restaurants as much as I do. Everything I wrote felt a bit cliché and repetitive, so instead, here are just a few of the things I love about restaurants.
I love reading menus, both at the table and at my desk in the office before I go. I love people watching. I love the familiar choreography of a quiet, short cocktail before the meal begins. I love starting with bread, almonds and olives, the split second glass or bottle quandary, hearing ‘still or sparkling’ and answering ‘tap please.’ I love when something’s sold out, even if it’s the thing I really wanted to try. I love the little details that speak to a restaurant’s soul - what’s in the frames on the wall, on the playlist, the vessel the cutlery arrives in (if it’s that kind of place), and the sweets that sometimes arrive on the bill plate (my kind of place).
I love good restaurants, of course I do. But I also love almost all restaurants, really. From pot washing as a teenager to many years working in restaurant PR, restaurants have been part of the daily fabric of my life for, well, most of it.
You meet the very best people working in restaurants - people who love to make, to share, to host, to engender joy. God knows it’s a tough industry to make money in, and - while that’s a complicated conversation for another day - the economic challenges of running a restaurant point to an underlying sense of purpose that is about something much purer than just turning a profit.
Eating out is my truest treat, and it’s with a doubt my highest non-essential expenditure. From new openings by a chef I’ve followed for ages to discovering new local favourites to return to again and again, it’s an extravagance I allow myself in an otherwise pretty careful financial rhythm. I shop secondhand and am a natural economiser, but restaurants will always be - while I’m lucky enough to be financially secure, anyway - a world I am happy to spend money in. Brilliant food, brilliant spaces and brilliant service don’t come cheap, and if you care about those things, you shouldn’t expect them to, either.
And so, to some of the restaurants I love the most. Having worked in restaurants for such a long time, I often get asked for recommendations. This isn’t my favourite game - particularly when the brief is ‘I need a booking for 10, tomorrow, ideally outside and in Kilburn. Gluten and dairy free, thanks’ or another similarly puzzling and slightly problem-passing request. But I like a challenge, and I do have a list of trusted favourites that I recommend again and again. And now, I recommend them to you.
I’m splitting my London favourites into a couple of parts because, it transpires, I have quite a few!
Here are some of my favourite places to eat in East London, by which I mean everywhere in the rough triangle of Shoreditch - Hackney Central - Stoke Newington. This is the part of town I live in, and the place I rarely want to leave at weekends. If you’re new to London (or even if you’re part its furniture), venture East - I truly think it’s where you’ll find the best restaurants in the city.
Rochelle Canteen
When I’m asked what my favourite restaurant in London is, Rochelle is one of the two I struggle to choose between (the other is The French House in Soho, more on that in my next restaurants write up). It’s difficult to explain quite what it is that makes this place so magical. Hidden behind an inconspicuous gate is a garden you can sit in in the summer, a glass of house cremant in hand, dipping radishes into whipped cods roe or dunking a spoon into a bowl of oozy, tumbling fruit pavlova. I go back again and again, most recently for the civilised part of my hen do - just one of many examples of my friends being the most excellent humans to walk this earth.
www.rochellecanteen.com
Towpath Cafe
I’m loathe to recommend this place as it’s already far too popular for my liking, but to omit it would be gatekeeping, which I’m hardly in the market for at this point. Wrapped around a sleepy stretch of Regent’s canal, Towpath is the best place in Hackney for a sunny breakfast. Bright green splattered tabletops and mismatched enamel dishes are the perfect backdrop for a simple but perfect seasonal menu. The sweetest summer tomatoes, simply sprinkled with flaky salt and served with garlicky toast, or creamy coconut porridge with lightly poached floral rhubarb. Towpath’s ever changing menu is always full of things I want to eat again and again. They close in the winter, so get there in summer, and get there early - you won’t regret the alarm or the trip, I promise.
www.towpathlondon.com
Escocesa
Blink and you might miss this gem on Church Street for 10 months of the year. In the summer, however, they spill out onto the pavement, serving the most perfect seafood small plates, the most delicious oysters, and gorgeous white wines too. Before we moved, Escoscia was around the corner and was a go to for a spontaneous Friday night treat. It’s where we went the night we got engaged, and while it’s no longer stumbling distance from home, it’s still a firm favourite. Worth booking on weekends.
www.escocesa.co.uk
Jolene
My pick of a rather excellent bunch on Newington Green. In the evening - delicious plates, lots of pasta, gorgeous candle light which photographs excellently - or in the morning for perfect coffee and delicious pastries outside. Will never tire of this place.
www.jolenen16.com
Sông Quê Café
While I haven’t quite forgiven them for removing BYO, SQC will always be my go to for Vietnamese in the city. Nestled among plenty of other excellent options on Kingsland Road, its a safe space for difficult days. The summer rolls and soups are always on point. After a long week, few things hit the spot like a vat of steaming ramen, topped with Thai basil and washed down with a Tiger.
www.songque.co.uk
The Clarence Tavern
Another Stokey favourite and perfect for special occasions. This pub is really a restaurant, although I love that you can still sit at the bar and just have chips and picpoul if that’s what you’re in the mood for. The sharing pies and potato dauphinois live rent free in my heat, in the best possible way. They also do a mean bacon sandwich to take away on Saturday mornings.
www.clarencetavern.com
Top Cuvée
Unpretentious in appearance, this is the secret millionaire of Brownswood in East Hackney. The menu is excellent, and the wine list is on point too. Great for a special dinner, but also great for a few choice small plates and a vermouth spritz at the bar. A real favourite.
www.topcuvee.com
The Drapers Arms
Controversially perhaps, I don’t like roasts - but if I’m going for one, it’s at The Drapers Arms in Islington. In summer, make sure you book a table in the garden, and in winter, bed in with the house red upstairs. Order extra red cabbage, it’s the best in the city.
www.thedrapersarms.com
Leila’s Shop
I have to ration visits to Leila’s, as I’m likely to leave having unexpectedly bought several French linen tea towels, a catering sized box of prunes and a panneforte if I drop by for breakfast. Sage eggs, excellent bread, gorgeous desserts. Perfect for a post-flower market stop if you’re in the area.
www.leilasshop.co.uk
Campania & Jones
Another Columbia Road spot, this place looks like it should be a film set for a London rom com - and, I believe, it has been just that on several occasions. Spiced scrambled eggs at lunch are topped only by the tiramisu that often graces the evening menu. The kind of place you can suddenly realise you’ve spent six hours. My favourite place to dive into after a cold walk in Haggerston Park if you can nab a table.
www.campaniaandjones.com
Brawn
If you can’t get into Campania, see if you can chance your arm at Brawn - or better still, book in advance - you’ll be very glad you did. The parmesan puffs are indecently good and if you manage not to order six plates, the seasonal mains are delicious too. I made a wedding cake for a wedding dinner here a few years ago, and would have loved to copy and paste that wedding if we didn’t have two rather large families to accommodate.
www.brawn.co
St John Bread and Wine
A classic, and for very good reason. The strawberry ice cream is truly my Roman Empire and, while I’m sometimes a little squeamish about offal, if you’re going to eat it, this is 100% the place to do so. This is where I bring out of towners who love to eat. It feels traditional and comforting yet elevated and surprising on every visit.
stjohnrestaurant.com/a/restaurants/bread-and-wine
And on my East London wish list…
When planning this post, I asked you over on Instagram (catch me here - lucyburtonbakes) where you love to eat in town. Here are a few East London spots that I’m dying to visit:
Shankey’s, Well Street
Smoking Goat, Shoreditch
Cafe Cecilia, Broadway Market
Where else do I need to try? Drop me a comment or a DM!