Where to eat in Hackney
13 places to eat in Hackney, each one on the Guide on merit.
Behind
Seafood tasting menu · European
Eighteen seats around a horseshoe counter in Hackney, where the chefs plate and serve the fish in front of you. Andy Beynon took the star twenty days after opening.
Lunch is 54 pounds against 98 at dinner. Wednesday to Saturday only.
Cafe Cecilia
British restaurant · European
Max Rocha's pared-back canalside room in Hackney, where the fashion crowd and stylish septuagenarians eat the same simple, faultless plates. Few openings in recent years have landed this well.
Book a canalside table and start with the fritti and the Guinness bread.
Casa Fofó
Fine dining restaurant · European
Adolfo De Cecco rewrites the tasting menu every morning in a bare-brick Hackney sleeve named after his grandfather, and earned a Michelin star doing it.
There is no a la carte and the menu turns over daily, so go open-minded and let the kitchen drive.
DALLA
Italian · European
A backstreet trattoria the size of a living room, doing obscure regional dishes better than most do the famous ones. Book ahead, it is small.
Tables are tight and it fills fast, so book early and order whatever pasta is on the short list.
Elephant Hackney
Italian · European
Southern Italian in a cinematic Victorian-pub room. The ex-Manteca kitchen delivers.
It is still pub-shaped and family-friendly early on, so come later for the grown-up cocktail-and-wine version.
Facing Heaven
Sichuan · Asian
A tiny cult vegan Sichuan from the Mao Chow team, all numbing chilli and heat.
It is tiny and named for the Sichuanese facing-heaven pepper, so expect real numbing heat.
HELMA Café + Wine
Café & wine bar
A small family cafe doing seasonal veg and natural wine with serious kitchen pedigree behind it. Dog friendly.
Daytime only and closed Sundays, so it is a brunch-into-afternoon spot rather than a night out.
Little Georgia
Eastern European restaurant · European
A Hackney cafe serving Georgian home cooking from family recipes. It runs cooked breakfasts and sandwiches by day, then switches to traditional dishes at night including khachapuri cheese bread, khinkali dumplings, and spicy beef stew. The Hackney branch is BYOB.
Miga
Korean · Asian
Modern Korean with real family lineage behind it rather than concept-restaurant gloss.
It is BYOB, so bring your own bottle rather than expecting a drinks list.
Ornella
Italian restaurant · European
A Milanese-leaning room in London Fields going for cosy and low-key over big-opening noise.
It is a small, cosy room, so book a table rather than relying on a walk-in.
Rocola
Modern European · European
Twenty-four seats on Mare Street, ten of them at the counter, named after the Spanish for jukebox. A rotating guest chef keeps the menu from settling.
Shankeys
Indian-Irish fusion · Asian
Like a wedding reception two hours after the free bar opened, with the spice turned right up.
Book without a fixed date in mind. Tables go fast and rarely on the night you wanted.
Teal by Sally Abe
Modern British · European
Sally Abe's first solo restaurant, seasonal British finesse at neighbourhood prices in Hackney. A well-pedigreed chef cooking with confidence on her own terms.
Take the set menu and trust the seasonal specials.
Questions
Are these all in Hackney?
Yes. Every place on this page is in Hackney.
Does anyone pay to be on this page?
No. Nothing on the Guide is a paid placement.
Is this list kept up to date?
The page is built from the live Guide, so a place that closes or leaves the Guide leaves this page too.
How are the places chosen?
How the Guide picks places is set out in How Vana chooses.
The whole Guide is in the app, and it is free.
A free, independent guide to London. Nothing here is a paid placement.