Where to go in Tower Hamlets

42 places in Tower Hamlets, each one on the Guide on merit.

Bethnal Green

• All My Gods

  Cocktail bar

  A modern dive bar on Paradise Row, tapped and signature cocktails with a sly polish.

• Bad Boy Pizzeria

  European

  Two-time National Pizza of the Year, now slinging slices from a Bethnal Green home.

• Bistrotheque

  European

  A hard-to-find converted warehouse on a Bethnal Green backstreet, no sign, French-British bistro food and a cabaret downstairs. Twenty years on, still the creative set's room.

• Burnt Arches

  Bakery & restaurant

  The Burnt team's railway-arch bakery and canteen, brunch by day and dinner four nights a week.

• Clara's

  European

  Part deli, part wine bar, an easy all-day room on Bethnal Green Road.

• Crown Works Pottery and School

  Pottery studio

  Bookable pottery in a Victorian mews, taught in groups of ten or fewer by working potters. The real-craft answer to the paint-a-pot chains.

• HOKO Bakery

  Bakery

  A Cantonese bakery from the team behind Hoko Hong Kong Cafe, baking everything on site in full view. The menu took a year to develop and includes Hong Kong egg tarts, Ovaltine cream buns, soft milk bread, and char siu buns. For anyone after proper Hong Kong bakery goods in Bethnal Green.

• Rain Dogs Bar

  Cocktail bar

  A Tom Waits reference made real, all analog sound and lived-in leather. Stays open late at the weekend.

• Renegade Wine Bar

  Urban winery wine bar

  The arch where Renegade started making wine, now an intimate candlelit bar pouring their London-made bottles alongside guest pours from other urban wineries. Charcuterie boards, low light, wine barrels, and a few tables out in the alley when it is warm.

• Rogue Sarnies

  European

  A dedicated sandwich shop from the Rogue crew, and one of the hottest tickets going.

• Rogues

  European

  A pop-up that earned its room, now in the Michelin Guide. Small plates, natural wine, no fuss.

• Satan's Whiskers

  Cocktail bar

  A Bethnal Green room that looks like a dive and pours like a classic cocktail bar. A daily menu, fresh juices, taxidermy on the walls and a hip-hop soundtrack. Walk-in.

• Story Deli

  European

  Yeast-free pizzas on a base thin enough to argue about, built from certified organic ingredients. Thirty covers, cash only, and a room assembled out of scrubbed wood and salvage. It won the global pizza category at the Chowzter awards.

• Tempo

  Asian

  Eric Wan's Southeast Asian small plates and natural wine, with seasoning that does the talking.

• The Natural Philosopher

  Cocktail bar

  A repair-shop door, a rotating set of whiskies, and no reason to rush home.

• The Sun Tavern

  Cocktail bar

  Raw brick, Irish whiskey and a wall of poitin you cannot get anywhere else.

Boundary Estate

• Umbrella Workshop

  Cocktail bar

  An old atelier workshop on Boundary Street, restored and run as the Umbrella Project's development and tasting room. You can taste what the shop sells, and Saturday brings an Irish whiskey tasting with a poitín in the line-up.

Bow

• 9 Morgan Street

  Bakery

  From the Breid team, a bakery and bottle shop stocked with their classic loaves.

Cambridge Heath

• Knees Up

  Café

  Coffee, fashion and a run club under one roof, with a garden for the morning after.

Canary Wharf

• Arc

  Sauna and ice-bath club

  The UK's largest sauna, tucked under Crossrail Place: tiered sofas round a central bar, eight ice baths, and guided contrast-therapy classes. Built with more care than most wellness fit-outs.

• Mystery Cinema Screening

  Mystery film night

  A free weekly mystery film night aboard a floating arts centre, and it is legit.

Columbia Road

• Tiella

  European

  Dara Klein's trattoria in a revamped pub, new-wave and old-school at once. Regional Italian cooking, a warm welcome, and a nightmare to book.

• Waterhouse

  European

  Gabriel Waterhouse and Patricia Wakaimba run this 24-seat restaurant and wine bar in a Victorian warehouse on cobbled Ezra Street. The tasting menu draws on Northumbrian produce and traditions, with fermentation, preserving and ingredients from their own courtyard garden. Meals begin in the wine bar before moving to the dining room with its open kitchen.

Fish Island

• Simmos

  Coffee shop

  A design-led Fish Island coffee shop trading in focaccia sandwiches and very good iced lattes.

Redchurch Street

• Mad Cats

  Listening bar

  A hi-fi bar on Redchurch Street, eclectic cocktails over a curated vinyl soundtrack.

Roman Road

• People's Wine

  Wine bar

  A cosy French wine bar on Roman Road, low-intervention bottles from independent makers.

Shoreditch

• Cafe Mission

  A rooftop café on Fashion Street serving Asian-influenced contemporary dishes with vegetarian options. The menu is short and the food is fresh and carefully made, though waits can stretch past 40 minutes. There is outdoor seating on the terrace.

Spitalfields

• Dang's

  Cocktail bar

  A red-lit basement that does southern Thai fried chicken and cocktails properly, and stays open late.

• Dennis Severs' House

  Museum

  A candlelit Huguenot house frozen mid-life that you tour in silence, no talking and no photos.

• Discount Suit Company

  Basement speakeasy

  A hidden basement that does the classics well and plays Northern Soul until late.

• Nagare Coffee

  Coffee shop

  A small Japanese-leaning coffee shop in an 18th-century Spitalfields townhouse, under a 1930s greengrocer's sign the fit-out kept. House beans come from Curve, with guest roasters rotating in from Kyoto, Melbourne and Edinburgh. The Pearl 40 is jasmine pearl tea, vanilla, espresso and crushed pistachio.

• Osteria Angelina

  European

  Japanese-Italian that is darkly chic and thrilling. The pasta is made behind glass.

• Sông Quê Phở Bar

  Asian

  A focused pho spin-off of Song Que Cafe, the Kingsland Road Vietnamese cornerstone of over two decades, now on Commercial Street in Spitalfields. Eighty seats built around pho, spring rolls and bun.

• St John Bread & Wine

  European

  Fergus Henderson's pared-back Spitalfields room beside the market: nose-to-tail British cooking, the famous bone-marrow on toast, seasonal veg, and a serious bread-and-wine habit.

• Townhouse Spitalfields

  Gallery, antiques & tearoom

  Part antiques shop, part gallery, part cake in a Georgian kitchen, and all the better for the muddle.

• Two Roosters

  Asian

  Hainanese chicken rice specialists gone permanent inside Old Spitalfields Market, one dish done properly.

• Xi Home Dumplings Bay

  Asian

  Northern-Chinese dumplings from Dalian in a designed room, neon lobster on the ceiling and an open kitchen folding them by hand. The dumplings are the craft; the giant straw soup dumpling is the party trick.

• ZeroToOne Coffee

  Asian

  London's first Vietnamese specialty coffee, eight seats and the water tuned per brew. Order the salt coffee and linger.

St Katharine Docks

• Banquet 88

  Asian

  The Good Fortune Club team's premium Cantonese by the docks, where the dim sum steals the show, cheung fun section and all.

• The Melusine

  European

  Theodore Kyriakou, the chef who started The Real Greek, cooks Greek-accented seafood in a Victorian warehouse on the marina. The finesse runs well ahead of the postcode.

Stepney City Farm

• Stepney's

  Café

  A farm-and-seasons cafe at Stepney City Farm.

Whitechapel

• Whitechapel Gallery

  Gallery

  East London's pioneering contemporary-art space since 1901, free, where Londoners first saw Picasso and Pollock. Thursday Lates run to 9 with drinks at the bar.