East London’s London Fields is so clouded with clichés that even observing them is something of one. They put Monster Munch on their oysters here, the mad bastards. Their wine is turbid and full of sediment. Perhaps there’s something in the water here. There’s certainly something in the soil…
London Fields – the grassy stretch, not the neighbourhood – is a sprawling plot that dates back to the 16th century. The park’s rather prosaic, quite beautiful name comes from its historical role as a place where farmers would bring their cattle to graze before heading to the city markets. It has transformed over the centuries into South-Central Hackney’s most cherished public space, becoming a byword for the wider area in the process, as well as a certain sensibility, of stripped back swagger, experimentation, and a kind of studied, strained style.
The cows have gone now, replaced with grazing, bathing humans, the latter found at the iconic Lido, an outdoor swimming pool that has been a community staple since 1932, the former in an ever-growing array of cafes, bars, and restaurants that cater to the eclectic tastes of its residents and visitors (they bloody love salty fingers in this part of town).
At the south end of London Fields park, the historic Broadway Market has been a cornerstone of the local community since the 1890s. Originally a bustling marketplace for fresh produce and household goods, Broadway Market has undergone something of a makeover in recent years, with its main drag now dominated by a string of bricks and mortar, food-adjacent operations.
Formerly known simply as ‘The Broadway’, the strip has evolved from its role as the final stretch of a cattle route leading from Essex into the slaughterhouses of London to a fully fledged shopping street and venue of a weekly farmer’s market, with many ups and downs in between. According to Layers of London, “Broadway was a thriving daily market until it declined steeply in the 1970s and 80s. A graffito stated: ‘Broadway Market is not a sinking ship – It’s a submarine. ‘ Recovery began in the 1990s and in 2004 Broadway Market Residents and Traders Association (BMRTA) established a Saturday farmers’ market.”
Fast forward to 2024, and every Saturday, the market explodes into life, its vendors offering everything from ‘gourmet’ street food (with plenty of tasters being handed out on little cocktail sticks) and organic produce to handmade crafts and vintage clothing.
But you can’t make a meal out of these cocktail stick tasters, however useful they are for picking your teeth afterwards, so instead we’re widening our scope to the restaurants both on the Broadway Market strip and the wider London Fields area. There’s plenty of great stuff to eat in this neck of the woods, so let’s get into it; here are the best restaurants in London Fields and Broadway Market.
Hill & Szrok
Attention to detail is everything at butcher-by-day, restaurant-by-night Hill and Szrok. With a space this tight and places this sparse, it needs to be.
Now in its tenth year on Broadway Market, it’s a cosy, unpretentious space. In the centre of the room, a single, stool-high dining table that doubles as the butcher’s counter in the day reminds you of where you are. If you’re not the sociable type (or you don’t want to share a single beef fat chip), then book one of the counter tables that form the circumference of the room.
Wherever you park your carcass, you’re in for a treat. From a tight kitchen with just a couple of inductions, a compact charcoal grill and combi, chef William Gleave, formerly of P. Franco and Bright, brings out the very best from these carefully treated ingredients, with a myopic, masterful vision of just how plates in such a hybrid space should taste.
This place has plenty of devoted regulars, many of them ‘industry’, and it’s easy to see why; the food is generous, precise and just downright gorgeous.
Come for one of the most memorable meals of your year. It certainly was one of ours. You can read our full review of Hill and Szrok here.
Website: hillandszrok.com
Address: 60 Broadway Market, London E8 4QJ
Chakana
Another Broadway Market beauty, Chakana is the second act of the popular Birmingham restaurant of the same name. Serving up photogenic plates of precision engineered Peruvian food and drinks from Europe’s most extensive range of pisco, it shouldn’t come as a huge surprise that Chakana has already hit its stride in the capital. The kitchen is headed up by chef Robert Ortiz, who previously earned Lima London its Michelin star, the first Peruvian restaurant in Europe to be bestowed with the honour.
A ceviche of thick, pronounced dice of seabream bedded deep in a bowl of house tiger milk is one of many highlights. Singing with just-squeezed lime, coriander and chilli, it’s masterfully balanced. Equally good, slices of raw Orkney scallop in a comedically vivid dragon fruit tiradito was sweet, refreshing and just a little intriguing.
You can read our full review of Chakana London here.
Website: chakana-restaurant.co.uk
Address: 41 Broadway Market, London E8 4PH
Miga
A little further south and onto Mare Street, modern Korean restaurant Miga has been making major waves since its opening in June of year. It’s already been recognised in the MICHELIN Guide, has been the recipient of several glowing national reviews, and is talked about in Vittles using exalted terms more often reserved exclusively for suya. Even the restaurant themselves talk a big game, with ‘The History Of Miga’ etched on the whitewashed walls outside the restaurant.
It’s a story that began in 1970s Seoul, where the family matriarch sold her own recipe of ox-bone broth. The family’s first UK restaurant opened in New Malden 22 years ago, and their current venture continues to honour their heritage while offering a contemporary take on traditional Korean cuisine. The father’s extensive training under Korean and Japanese master chefs in the 90s is evident in the quality and gentle creativity of the dishes. Come full circle, a version of that broth as a savoury closer is the highlight of a meal at Miga.
Already, the place exudes a familial warmth, with the father attending to the open kitchen and younger family members (chiefly, the two sons) attending to guests in a bright, airy dining room, all shades of simultaneously stark yet soothing whitewash and walnut.
It allows attention to fall on the food, and a tight menu that features soul-stirring dishes like soy-braised short ribs and sticky glass noodles with crispy beef jeon, sanchaeg bibimbab topped with vegetables selected for their crunch and freshness, and a soy vinaigrette, and cucumber and spinach rolls with a miso sauce.
The ox bone broth is, unsurprisingly, also ace; a real restorative number blessed with generations of seasoning. Perhaps our favourite dish, though, is the spiced beef tartare, lifted and lightened with slivers of pear, all pulled together with a soy cured egg yolk.
It’s thoughtful, it’s interesting, and it’s downright delicious, a world away from your YORIs and the rest. Do be aware that, currently, Miga does not have a liquor licence, but you’re welcome to bring your own.
Instagram: @miga
Address: 1 Mare St, London E8 4RP
Sune
We wish they’d let us know about the pronunciation sooner, as we’d been going around calling it ‘S-you-n’ until we heard…
Anyway, the proposition at Sune, however you want to say it, has all the hallmarks, superficially at least, of an increasingly ubiquitous kind of London restaurant; somewhere with pockets of pleasure that ultimately ends up being incoherent and unsatisfying. The whole ‘wine bar that happens to do food’ thing going on. A restless, globe trotting menu with the threat of too much umami (too-mami?) lingering across it. There’s no central character around which the other dishes should orbit. There’s a danger that things are going to get confusing, fast..
But make the journey south over the bridge from Broadway Market onto Regent’s Canal, and you’ll be richly rewarded with a meal that does end up making perfect sense. That Sune is coherent shouldn’t actually come as a surprise; there’s plenty of pedigree behind the restaurant, with esteemed sommelier and natural wine enthusiast Honey Spencer and ex-Noma manager Charlie Sims leading things from the front, and former-Pidgin chef Michael Robins at the stoves out back, putting his delicate touch to dishes like pork, fig and cashew nut terrine with apple mostarda and pickles, or fried quail with harissa yoghurt and smoked apricot.
Really, any disparate elements here are pulled together by the impeccable winelist. Sune is named after Honey Spencer’s mentor Sune Rosforth, a renowned sommelier, signalling the restaurant’s dedication to the good stuff, first and foremost. The wine list is predominantly natural, featuring around a dozen types by the glass, starting a just £7 for a very nice 2022 Artefact #2 Tempranillo from Toledo. Spencer has also curated a selection of low-intervention kombucha-style brews for those not on the sauce.
That pork terrine from a paragraph or two previous currently features on a remarkably good value set lunch menu, featuring two courses for £25 or three for £29. If you don’t mind a double porking, you can follow that terrine with a dish of pork loin, grilled greens and lobster sauce. They’re missing a trick not having pork in their set menu dessert, too, but the affogato is bracing and lovely.
Finally, and kicking off at 11:30am each Sunday, the Sune brunch is popular and really, really nothing like your usual eggs on toast and the rest. There’s half lobster tails with calamansi lime and redcurrant, scallop ceviche with plum and salted chilli, cucumber salad with lavender and holy basil, and a reuben sandwich with dairy beef tartare laying across its surface. Yes, it’s idiosyncratic and at times inexplicable. But somehow, in their capable hands, it works.
Website: sune.restaurant
Address: 129A Pritchard’s Rd, London E2 9AP
Sichuan Fry by Dumpling Shack
Down at the south side of London Fields, close to the Westgate Street exit of the park, Sichuan Fry are experts in all things spicy fried chicken, with a commendable attention to detail that really makes the dishes here sing. Sing and numb, we should say; there’s ‘mala’ all over the shop here, that beloved Sichuan sensation of hot and numbing that’s a signature of the region’s cuisine.
Let’s row back a bit, to the Dumpling Shack bit of the name. Founded by John and Yee Li in Old Spitalfields Market to bring a taste of Hong Kong to London, the ‘Sichuan Fry’ was originally just a special menu item at the aforementioned Shack. Crispy, crunchy and assertively spicy, its popularity quickly led to it becoming its own beast, and so the restaurant – developed with former Xu and BAO chef Haydon Wong – was born. It’s already one of the best places to eat in London Fields.
That singular menu item is now named the ‘Sichuan Classic’, and features a 24-hour brined chicken thigh, deep-fried in a secret, spicy coating, and served with homemade Sichuan sauce, mala honey sauce, smacked cucumbers, and sesame slaw, all housed in an enriched potato roll. It’s magic – as the queues along Mare Street only confirm.
Don’t stop at the classic order though. Get some wings in, too, which can be tailored to diners’ heat preferences, ranging from mild to the intense ‘Super Sichuan Scorcher’. Additionally, the Shake Shake Fries, inspired by a popular McDonald’s side option in Hong Kong and parts of China, are customisable with seasonings such as seaweed powder, salt & pepper, chilli, or curry powder. What’s not to love?
Primarily a click and collect operation, there are a few seats inside, too, but Sichuan Fry has a sprawling, grass decked dining room just in front of it. London Fields; we’re talking about London Fields.
Website: sichuanfry.com
Address: 2 Westgate St, London E8 3RN
Koya Ko Hackney
Broadway Market’s Koya Ko – here since 2021 – is positioned as the more casual, faster-paced “little sister” to Koya Soho and their City branch, with a whip-smart ordering system and focus on tachi-gui (or, ‘vertical dining’) that encourages punters to stand whilst slurping back a bowl of noodles rather than settle in for the long haul.
Indeed, whilst Koya Ko is very much tailored to the needs of speed and efficiency, the same love and attention to both noodle and broth that the brand has become known for remains, and the breakfast – served from 10am at the weekends – is as good as ever.
The Triple Pickle remains one of London’s finest pick-me-ups that doesn’t arrive via a ZipLoc. Instead, a bowl of udon noodles, slippery and silky, soft and chewy, is dressed with pickled beetroot and wakame, as well as soy cured chillies, bringing bites that soothe and invigorate in equal quantities. Yours for £12, and only served (as with all the breakfast dishes) until 11:45am.
Not to worry if you pitch up a little later; from midday onwards the larger lunch and dinner menu is in operation, with great value udon and rice bowls taking centre stage. The tempura prawn udon is as good as ever, and remains one of our favourite prawn dishes in London. Pair it with a glass of warmed choya umeshu – that complex, delicious ume plum liquor – and enjoy a moment of well-deserved mono no aware, as the steam from both mists up your glasses and you gently contemplate what to do with the rest of your day.
Website: koya.co.uk
Address: 10 Broadway Market Mews, London E8 4TS
Cafe Cecilia
Chef Max Rocha wears his influences proudly. His time at St John Bread and Wine is there in Cafe Cecilia’s austere plates that celebrate beige, brown and yellow in all their illustrious shades, and in the bare bones dining room, dark wood dining chairs, whitewashed walls, chalkboard and all.
Rocha’s stint at the River Cafe is also clear, with a recent dish of rabbit cavatelli as good as we’ve had out west on Rainville Road. His Dublin roots are represented too, with gusto, in the now iconic Guinness bread ice cream, sometimes scooped over another showstopping sweet treat, the Cafe Cecilia deep-fried bread and butter pudding. Both embody the cafe’s commitment to making just a few ingredients truly sing. Both are fucking delicious.
All this minimalism could come across as style over substance if the cooking wasn’t so precise and on point. We certainly wouldn’t blame you for making that assumption; as son of John Rocha and sister of Simone, both designers, Max Rocha has a deeply ingrained connection to the world of fashion and a keen sense of composition. Fortunately, he’s put those familial sensibilities to good use in contriving suave plates that never sacrifice on flavour.
And true to the inclusive nature of the name, Cafe Cecillia is open for breakfast on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, between 9am and 10:45am. We’re still dreaming about the marinated, blackened peaches and goats curd on toast we had there recently. Yours for just £9.50.
Website: 32 Andrews Rd, London E8 4FX
Address: cafececilia.com
E5 Bakehouse
We fear that we’ve been venturing further and further south on our tour of the best places to eat in London Fields, and that we’re starting to take liberties with the title. So, we’re heading back up through the park, exiting at Martello Street, and making for e5 Bakehouse. Founded by Ben Mackinnon in the spring of 2010, and now well into its second decade, it’s never been more popular.
The bakery’s beginnings were humble. Mackinnon, once a sustainability consultant specialising in renewable energy systems, decided to shift gears and pursue his passion for baking. After a short course in sourdough bread-making at the School of Artisan Food, he set up a clay oven in the corner of a railway arch and started making bread. What began as a modest bakery soon flourished, thanks to the support of local chefs and the wider community who were drawn in by the smell of just baked loaves, a bit like Mickey Mouse following his nose to a freshly baked pumpkin pie sitting on a window sill.
The use of heritage grains is central to the baking here, and it’s well apparent in the deep, nourishing undertone of the bread at e5. The sustainability thing isn’t just marketing here; e5 Bakehouse is certified organic by the Soil Association, the bakery pays the London living wage, and all of the power used at the bakery is sourced from renewable energy sources, including at Fellows Farm, which is off-grid and uses an electric van to deliver produce to the Bakehouse. Nicely done.
All this needs to be backed up by an amazing product, of course, and e5 Bakehouse more than delivers on that front, whether it’s in the absurdly moreish E5 Cheese Toastie that deploys tangy Keen’s cheddar, melty mozzarella, Glastonbury salted butter and spicy housemade vegan kimchi, or the famous, indulgent scrambled eggs doused in more of that raw, cultured butter. Of course, it’s the excellent bread that anchors both of these creations, but the bakery does excellent sweet stuff too. A late summer black and red currant galette recently was a revelation.
Unsurprisingly, the morning pastries are gold-standard. Pick them up on weekdays from 7:30am and at the weekend from 8am. There’s plenty of seating inside this surprisingly cavernous space, and great coffee, too, if you prefer to dine in.
Check out the team’s Poplar Bakehouse in Tower Hamlets while you’re here. An extension of the Just Bread refugee training programme that they ran in collaboration with the Refugee Council until 2017, the aim of this cafe and coffee roastery, which is now also a shop and bakery, us to employ and train people from refugee communities whilst investing profits back into projects which support and welcome refugees arriving in the UK.
Website: e5bakehouse.com
Address: 396 Mentmore Terrace, London E8 3PH
Green Papaya
Next up, we’re crossing Lamb Lane for a quick pitstop at Green Papaya, whose Xi’anese (Chinese Xi’an province and Vietnamese) cuisine has been gaining a devoted following in this corner of Hackney in recent years.
Start your meal here with an order of cha la lot – minced beef and pork wrapped in betel leaves and grilled, served with rice vermicelli, lettuce and herbs. The subtle, peppery flavour of the leaves (actually wild piper not ‘betel’, but who’s getting pedantic?) once smokey from the grill is intoxicating.
Don’t stop there. Any of the spicy noodles from the ‘Xi’an Noodles’ section of the menu will make you happy. Our go-to order is the Mount Qi pork noodles – think chunks of pork belly sautéed in a spicy sauce, tossed with our house chilli oil and Sichuan peppercorns, served with soya tofu and mixed with noodles. This bowl’s beautiful mélange of flavours and textures is worth a visit alone.
They also serve up satisfying bowls of pho. We’ve written more about the restaurant in our guide to the best pho in London. Do check it out.
Website: green-papaya.com
Address: 191 Mare St, London E8 3QE
Brat x Climpson’s Arch
Tomos Parry is one of London’s most celebrated chefs, praised just about everywhere for his mastery of open-fired grilling, inspired by Northern Spain’s Basque country and his Welsh roots, at Brat.
Before that, Parry was earning plaudits for bringing fresh energy to legendary restaurant Kitty Fisher’s, and before that before that, he won the Young British Chef of the year at the YBF Awards in 2014 for his cooking at Climpson’s Arch in London Fields. Parry has come full circle then, with the second iteration of his Michelin-starred restaurant Brat. It’s a satisfying career trajectory, and also a satisfying way to finish this article, so there you go…
Now, when someone mentions ‘the second Brat’, they’re probably referring to the Charli XCX’s remix album, but it wasn’t always that way. Four years ago, it was a different story; Brat x Climpson’s Arch originally opened as a winter pop-up in 2020, but its overwhelming popularity swiftly secured its permanence.
The restaurant is named after the traditional Northumbrian word for turbot, reflecting its homage to simple yet profound culinary roots, and is further emphasised by the elemental (see: ‘wood-fired’) focus of the cooking here.
The menu at Brat x Climpson’s Arch epitomises British seasonal cooking with a focus on high-quality ingredients. Signature dishes include whole crab with hay butter, roasted chicken rice, and the star attraction, grilled turbot, which is a must-try. The big, beautiful fish kinda exemplifies Parry’s ethos: unadorned, high-quality food cooked under unpredictable conditions to a type of no-one-plate-is-the-same perfection.
The dining space continues this sensibility arguably even more succinctly than the original warehouse in Shoreditch vibe, with a large covered courtyard ideally suited for al fresco dining, and an indoor space featuring a long bar for walk-ins.
Sure, Brat has been so hyped – so imitated – that its initial impact has been somewhat lessened. But this second, more laid back version has arguably breathed new life into the concept. Think we might be talking about the album again, but…
Website: bratrestaurant.co.uk
Address: 374 Helmsley Pl, London E8 3SB
Now, we wish someone would breathe similar new life into us – after such an extensive eating tour of London Fields’ best restaurants, we’re ready to die. Fortunately, Bunhill Fields is just down the road.