London Shoreditch Restaurant Guide

With its big, high-ceilinged basement restaurant looking out onto a cool sunken garden – this style-conscious Shoreditch hotel (launched in 2017) never felt like it fully established itself fully prior to the pandemic. It closed from 2020 till June 2022, just after the conclusion of our survey, so our rating will have to wait till next year.

“Superb food with a real eye for detail and quality” – Ruth Hansom’s “outstanding modern cuisine” is really “going places” at this well-established gastroboozer, just off Great Eastern Street. The pleasant-enough dining area is quirkly located on the mezzanine, up a spiral staircase from the main bar: choose from either a five-course or eight-course tasting menu.

“A fun, cheerful Mexican atmosphere” and “enjoyable, fresh tasting” street food dishes can still make “an excellent standby” of this stalwart chain, which has 10 sites in London nowadays. “Even if nothing on the menu is going to wow, its consistent quality and value are reassuring”, with ratings and popularity starting to regain their historic high standing since a majority stake was sold to Nando’s owner, Dick Enthoven, a couple of years ago.

These “groovy Peruvian late-night bar/restaurants” make “a stylish and fun way to end a night out, with a multiplicity of delicious small dishes on the tasting menu”. Best to go in a party mood: they can be “too noisy for conversation”.

For a meat-free burger, this tiny brand (the first vegan restaurant in Europe to use ‘Beyond Meat’ in its patties) is well worth a try if you need a bite near the Old Street roundabout, or are down Pop Brixton way.

“One of the best meals I had all year” – this “noisy, little spot in Shoreditch” showcases “simply great cooking” from kickboxer-turned-chef Jon Lawson, who prepares “awesome sharing-style Italian plates” with Spanish and North African touches. “Perfect for a date night if you want to impress, while still keeping it hip and intimate”. The occasional duff note concerns the low-intervention wines: “interesting” to some, to others “expensive” or “an acquired taste”. Top Tip – “grab a seat at the counter for the best ambience/experience”.

It’s hard to review this funky Shoreditch five-year-old without mentioning its star from the French tyre firm – the latter setting up expectations that are not always met. Many reports do give the highest praise to its creative small plates and well-curated selection of wines. But there’s a disgruntled minority, who stumble on their feelings that it’s over-egged. (“I’m not a star chaser but I do want to have a good time, and somehow the whole experience felt a bit Spartan…”; “the food is indeed tasty, but is VERY overpriced. Is part of the problem that their Michelin star has pushed them into cramming as many tables in as possible?”)

“You can’t really go wrong with the plates of meaty delicious chops” (“nothing delicate or subtle just full flavours doing the meat full justice”) at these “no-frills but hearty” pit stops, which provide a “vibrant” and “excellent-value” option for an inexpensive meal out. “It’s great to be able to choose how many chops you want to eat and the sides and sauces are the absolute best”. “They deliver an impressively consistent performance”, and “given that there is nowhere to hide when the food is this simple, it’s hats off to the chefs here!” “Don’t go for a quiet night”, though, as they “can be rather rowdy”. Top Tip – “the Monday night Butcher’s Block offer is super value, especially when teamed up with £10 corkage to BYO”.

“It’s such a lot of fun” (whether you eat “upstairs – think explosion in a china/flower shop; or downstairs – sexy booths”) at the Big Mamma Group’s “kitsch-but-in-a-great-way” Italian, which imports the brio of an imagined Amalfi coast, circa 1972, to this Shoreditch corner site. “You need to love a party” though – the filling cod-Italian cuisine is “not bad” but “doesn’t match the buzz or the queues”.

“Still some of the very best pasta in London at half the price of most places” continues to inspire rave reviews for these genius pit stops, where “pound for pound the great value for money is always good” (“and extends to the drinks”). “For an unplanned midweek supper there’s nothing better”, although at the mega-popular Borough Market original it can feel “like a conveyor belt” at busier times. At “the funky newish premises in Shoreditch” there’s “rather more space than in SE1, with proper booking… what’s not to like?”. Top Menu Tip – “just go for the cacio e pepe… but everything else is good as well”.

“Intriguing twists on the kebab theme” (plus “good beer brewed on site” at the Kraft Dalston branch) continue to win consistently good ratings for this expanding chain, which in September 2022 adds a 20-seater in Brixton to its roster of locations. See also Kebab Queen.

Some of the “tastiest Vietnamese food in town” is found at this pair in Hoxton and Soho from Hieu Trung Biu, a pioneer of pho and other southeast Asian specialties in the capital over two decades. Popularity means they can be “deafeningly loud”.

“What they do – a limited repertoire – they certainly do well” at this “no-nonsense” steakhouse chain (which serves no starters or puds, just five or six mains and sides, plus “a tiny key they give you at beginning of meal to exchange for a delicious ice cream cornet to take with you as you go!”). It amounts to “amazing value for a good (ish) steak” – “tasty, not mind-blowing, but dependable and fairly priced, and elevated by the sides and sauces”. On the site of a former Byron, the 10th branch opens in Waterloo in 2022.

“Genuine Japanese-style ramen and dumplings” from Japan Centre owner Tak Tokumine hit the spot with “generous portions, excellent flavours” and “very good service” at his expanding group based in the West End. There are now seven venues in London, plus Ichiba food hall in Westfield Shepherd’s Bush and offshoots in Oxford and Manchester. The summer 2022 launch of a branch in Kensington High Street was expected to be the first of several under a new franchising arrangement.

Bibos in Madrid, Marbella, Cádiz and Doha have pre-dated this latest opening for celeb Andalusian chef Dani Garcia, within the newly opened Mondrian Shoreditch (on the site of Red Rooster, RIP). Perhaps because of the drubbings it’s received from press reviewers, not very many reporters visited. One or two that did found it “all-round exceptional”, but others were “fairly underwhelmed, first by the lengthy explanation of the tapas, and then by the pretty pedestrian-for-the-money food”.

“Simple food and amazing produce served with a smile” is the premise at this Irish restaurant just south of Silicon Roundabout, backed by a team including chef Richard Corrigan, éminence grise of Irish gastronomy in London, and run by his son Richie. The beef is from Peter Hannan in Northern Ireland, and downstairs in the basement there’s an outpost of Gibney’s, a famous pub in Malahide near Dublin.

“Dead hippie sauce is a must” at these “very loud” operations, which “remain at the head of the gourmet burger pack” for many fans with “lots of options available”. After 14 years of growth from a food van to a national chain with 10 venues in the capital, they “don’t seem to have lost their way yet”. “The dark and grungy ersatz New Orleans interior vibe” is of the love-it-or-hate-it variety.

“Doing what they do very well” – “top burgers” are presented with a veneer of Parisian sophistication at this seven-strong chain, popular not just for their value but their “lovely” styling too.