London Bethnal Green Restaurant Guide

“Just blow-your-mind amazing!” – Rafael Cagali’s “thought-provoking tasting menu extravaganzas” continue to affirm the status of this “wonderful dining room in Bethnal Green’s old town hall” (previously The Typing Room and Viajante) as one of London’s foremost culinary destinations. “Brazilian influences that you’re unlikely to experience anywhere else” are “what really lift Da Terra from a splendid fine dining tasting experience to a really memorable and unique one”. “Tastes and textures are sublime” and “presentation is consistently gorgeous (like works of art), with a charming and compelling degree of theatre”. “With its open kitchen, many dishes are served by the chefs” and service is “highly professional and interactive”.

“This top-notch Bethnal Green café” is “the place to go for London’s best breakfast” – not just on account of the full English and bacon sarnies, but for the Art Deco wood panelling (Grade-II listed!) and the atmosphere created by four generations of the Pellicci family, who have run it since 1900. “What makes it different is the warm and funny staff”, who draw “a happy mix of locals, tourists and everyone in between”. Top Tip – “don’t ask for anything gluten-free or they might laugh!”

“A top choice for breakfast and coffee” – the Shoreditch and London Fields outlets of this 20-year veteran of the Antipodean speciality coffee scene have imported the chilled, high-quality approach of its branches back home in Auckland and New Plymouth. In E2, the galvanising aroma of roasting coffee wafts up from the beans being ground in the basement, adding to its superb hipster vibe.

“A really exceptional experience… a real find… a fantastic night out” – Gabriel Waterhouse inspires acclaim for his relocated Bethnal Green supper club, whose gracious permanent home occupies a high-ceilinged space in Cambridge Heath. Every night, there’s “a one-sitting, 9-course tasting menu with low-intervention wine” (or non-alcoholic pairings) delivering “some really innovative dishes”. Ratings would be even higher, were it not for one or two reports along the lines of “love the new menu, but too many foams…”

This “fabulously located” Italian on the Hackney stretch of Regent’s Canal has shades (‘ombra’ in Italian) of Venice, although head chef Mitshel Ibrahim hails from Milan, where his parents had an Ethiopian restaurant. “Terrific tastes are delivered by an obviously enthusiastic kitchen and serving team” – “if we didn’t live 200 miles away this would be a regular haunt”. Its lockdown project has turned into a permanent pasta factory next door.

By the canal in Hackney, this August 2021 newcomer arrived with high expectations thanks to the CV of chef Max Rocha and was quickly blessed by The Guardian’s Grace Dent, who felt that despite it’s “homespun edge”, it was “only just getting started on its path to being one of London most serious restaurants”. Our feedback was more cautious: split between finding it “a really nice, friendly new favourite” and “not living up to the hype”.

On the site of The Corner Room, star chef Rafael Cagali is following the strategy adopted by former inhabitants of the main restaurant space with this large Bethnal Green hotel (Da Terra, see also) by opening a spin-off in these more humble quarters. From a ‘Brazilian-Italian’ menu, ‘more rustic dishes’ will feature than those at Da Terra – ‘everything from my favourite street food to family meal celebration dishes that my grandma used to make’.