Where to go in Waltham Forest

24 places in Waltham Forest, each one on the Guide on merit.

Blackhorse Road

• 40FT Brewery Taproom

  Brewery taproom

  Brewed on site in a Blackhorse Road shed and poured under exposed steel. If you do the Beer Mile, plan the crawl around this one.

Chingford

• Gina

  European

  Ravneet Gill's Chingford restaurant, a small art-hung room on the edge of Epping Forest doing precise, unshowy cooking that is worth the Overground.

Leyton

• Azra

  Afghan

  Contemporary Afghan in the Tilbury Road arches, built around the mehman khanah, the guest room. All-female kitchen led by the founder's mother.

• Marmelo Kitchen

  European

  Leyton's confident neighbourhood restaurant, Mediterranean-leaning and more local secret than scene. Hit after hit.

• Swirl

  Wine bar

  A railway-arch natural wine bar in Leyton, low-intervention bottles with charcuterie and small plates.

• Yardarm

  Wine shop & bar

  A serious wine shop in outer east that's also a nice place to sit and drink. More dinner-party pantry than concept.

Leytonstone

• Filly Brook

  Event Venue

  A wine bar and taproom in a former Air Cadets lodge on Grove Green Road. It runs a long-term Japanese residency serving izakaya dishes like bouncy udon, gyoza skin tostadas topped with citric tuna, and potato salad spiked with chilli oil. The courtyard garden was designed by landscape architect Sam Breed.

• Homies on Donkeys

  Caribbean & Latin

  A taqueria from Sandra Bello and Erik Smokey Bautista. Tacos stacked high, 90s hip-hop on, a bill that won't sting.

• Le Regret

  Natural wine bar

  A tiny natural-wine bar with a lived-in, regulars-and-good-bottles quality.

• Wild Goose Bakery

  Bakery

  An outer-borough community bakery where the South African koeksister doughnut is the draw.

Walthamstow

• Beaten by a Whisker

  Bakery

  A Walthamstow bakery with a cult cake following. Get there before the good stuff goes.

• Burnt Faith Brandy House

  Brandy distillery & bar

  England's first dedicated brandy distillery, with a Walthamstow tasting bar. Cocktails built on their own spirit, and a genuine one-off.

• Exale Taproom

  Brewery taproom

  A bright brewery taproom on the Blackhorse Beer Mile with a big garden and a food pop-up that keeps changing.

• Forest Wines

  Wine shop & bar

  A Walthamstow wine shop and bar with a low-intervention list and a backyard for summer. Drink in, or take a bottle home.

• Gnarly Vines

  Wine merchant & bar

  A Walthamstow wine merchant and bar with a characterful list and a willingness to open anything. Bottles to stay or go.

• Mother's Ruin

  Gin distillery & bar

  A Walthamstow gin distillery with a bar attached: small-batch gin, tastings, and locals who treat it as theirs.

• Olfaclub

  Natural wine listening bar

  A dim, Japanese-inspired listening bar pouring low-intervention wines by the glass, ranked by how easy they are to love. Hi-fi on vinyl, plus a mineral-water menu for the drivers.

• Pho + Family

  Vietnamese cooking class

  A cooking class that turns into a supper club, in Xuan and Paddy's Walthamstow home. Chicken pho from a long-simmered broth, pickled cabbage salad, family recipes, then everyone sits down to eat together.

• Renegade Urban Winery

  Urban winery

  A working winery on a Walthamstow industrial estate, face-label bottles, styles that rarely repeat. Drink something made fifty feet away, with seasonal plates from Leo, the modern British bistro that cooks inside it.

• SlowBurn

  European

  Big, veg-led sharing plates inside London's only craft-jeans factory. Candlelight, hanging bulbs, the smell of starch. Friday to Sunday only.

• The Lacy Nook

  Balkan restaurant

  A Balkan Peninsula-inspired restaurant in Walthamstow that operates from a covered terrace beside a community garden. The kitchen is housed in a shipping container. Charred vegetables and meze dishes include fire-baked feta with confit tomatoes, and feta Caesar dip with artichokes and anchovies.

• Today Bread

  Sourdough bakery-café

  A neighbourhood bakery that takes its ferment seriously and still feels like the local.

• William Morris Gallery

  Gallery

  Morris's boyhood home in Walthamstow, free, set in Lloyd Park: textiles, wallpaper and the whole arts-and-crafts story, with a good tearoom. A former Museum of the Year.

Walthamstow Village

• Hometipple

  Wine bar

  Small and wine-led, grown-up and social. Worth knowing if you're out this way.