For years, Clapton existed in the shadow of its flashier East London neighbours. While Shoreditch and Dalston grabbed all the headlines and handlebar-moustached cliches, E5 just went about its business, quietly nurturing one of London’s most interesting food scenes – one built on the foundations of longstanding Turkish, Vietnamese, and Caribbean communities rather than fleeting trends.
The revival of Chatsworth Road Market in 2010 marked a turning point (just this year, it has been pedestrianised), but it’s the past five years that have seen Clapton truly flourish as a dining destination. Young chefs priced out of Central London discovered not just affordable rents but a neighbourhood with soul and character, where a Michelin Bib Gourmand winner can sit comfortably alongside family-run cafés that have been here for decades.
What makes Clapton special is how it’s balanced its growth with community preservation. The Chatsworth Road Traders & Residents Association actively works to prevent displacement whilst fostering new business, creating that rare London phenomenon: a genuinely diverse dining scene where a £5 bánh mì shop thrives alongside natural wine bars.
Getting here couldn’t be simpler (hmm, perhaps that’s over stating it). Clapton Station sits on the Overground’s Weaver line, with trains to Liverpool Street taking between 10 and 20 minutes depending on the service. The 106, 253 and 254 buses connect to surrounding areas, whilst new segregated cycle lanes make it a breezy 20-minute bike ride from Shoreditch.
Today, we’re checking out the very best of Clapton’s dining scene. With that in mind, here are the best restaurants in Clapton.
Mambow, Lower Clapton Road
Ideal for modern Malaysian cooking that’s earned a Michelin Bib Gourmand…
When chef-owner Abby Lee relocated Mambow from Peckham here at the tail end of ’23, she brought to Clapton the kind of cooking that makes food writers run out of superlatives. Now settled on Lower Clapton Road in the former Le Merlin space, this 40-cover restaurant has been awarded a Michelin Bib Gourmand for 2025 and was named one of the Good Food Guide’s Best Local Restaurant in London last year.
Lee trained at Le Cordon Bleu and worked in kitchens across Italy, including Michelin-starred Pashàn in Puglia. Now she draws on that experience and her Peranakan heritage to create a monthly-changing menu focused on Malaysian street food culture, with standards sky-high without diners paying Mayfair prices.
The current menu showcases Lee’s continuing evolution as a chef, with dishes that demonstrate the implicit, astonishing balance of Malaysian dishes, but with the odd global technique and British ingredient thrown in to keep things interesting and ground the restaurant in Clapton rather than KL.
The umai presents Sarawak-style cured fish with tamarind granita and chive oil, whilst the octopus terrine (such a satisfying slice, visually) comes with green tomato sambal and a rasping green Sichuan pepper vinaigrette. These aren’t phoned-in versions of Malaysian classics because of sourcing or importing issues, but complex compositions that make total sense.
The sambal skate wing is a current highlight, the fish grilled and stuffed with signature sambal then wrapped in banana leaf and grilled. Open that leaf up like a present, and revel in the aromatic steam. The vegetable dishes show similar ambition. We’d go as far to say that the newly-introduced gulai lemak pucuk – rainbow chard coconut curry with tamarind and makrut lime glazed tempeh – was the best thing we’ve eaten here. So complex, so well-balanced. And at £17, fine value too…
Wipeable stainless steel tables bring a little hawker centre energy, though you’d be hard pressed to find a pandan tequila with grapefruit soda at Gurney Drive, I suppose. There’s a pleasing, predominantly natural wine list too, with the chilled reds (our favourite, the Mencía from Bodega La Senda) going particularly well with those coconut-based curries.
Whichever way you play it, it’s almost obligatory to end with the caramelised cassava cake and toasted jasmine ice cream; a signature that doesn’t leave the menu.
Reservations are essential, especially for weekend slots.
Website: mambow.co.uk
Address: 78 Lower Clapton Road, London E5 0RN
Leo’s Bar & Restaurant, Chatsworth Road
Ideal for Italian cooking in London’s most photogenic new dining room…
In May of 2023, the team behind Juliet’s Quality Foods joined forces with chef Giuseppe Belvedere (ex-Brawn and Bright) to transform a 1960s greasy spoon into Leo’s. In just two years, it’s become the kind of place that makes you want to move to Clapton, just to enjoy the convenience of the inclusive 9am to 10pm opening, and all the different possibilities of meal that those hours bring.
The preserved mid-century interior is a design magazine’s dream: terrazzo floors, wood-panelled walls, vintage vermouth posters, and a back dining room dominated by a wood-fired hearth beneath a dramatic skylight. Every detail feels considered, but perhaps without anyone being too precious about it. It’s suave but soothing.
Belvedere brings his Sardinian background to a menu that changes with the seasons but features certain constants. The saffron supplì showcases textbook technique with molten centres, crisp shells, and that hit of saffron making them distinctly theirs. But when it’s on, the riso al salto is even better. Arriving as a crispy, bronzed puck of risotto rice, a recent iteration was anointed with a taleggio fonduta so funky that it divided the crowd.
The fettuccine with duck ragù has already become a fixture for regulars who know what they want before they’ve even sat down, though such a myopic view on the pasta courses would mean missing out on a beautiful tranche of turbot or brill, cooked in the wood fire in the dining room hearth. It’s served with nothing more than a simple tomato salad. Whole fish are an ever present staple of the dinner menu, usually slowly roasted and served with a sauce made from their bones, olive oil and lemon. To us, it’s the epitome of simple cooking that celebrates the best ingredients about.
Operating as an all-day spot, Leo’s is open for breakfast and lunch from 9am-3pm, Wednesday through to Sunday. You can drop in for Italian coffee culture and boiled eggs, anchovy butter and soldiers for breakfast, then take a little break, before returning to the cafe for an unfussy Italian staple like lasagne for lunch, then back again for dinner for something broader.
Sunday’s six-course set lunch at £42 works particularly well for families, especially when the weather cooperates and kids can spill out into the back garden. The wine list leans heavily Italian, showcasing natural producers like Nino Barraco alongside more classical options. Unsurprisingly, the bar does a serious line in Negroni, with the Sbagliato a highlight. It’s impossible not to order a second.
Website: leosrestaurant.bar
Address: 59 Chatsworth Road, London E5 0LH
Elephant Hackney, Lower Clapton Road
Ideal for Southern Italian cooking from an ex-Manteca chef…
The newest arrival to Clapton’s Italian contingent shows that good things happen when serious restaurant people decide to have some fun. Elephant Hackney, a collaboration between Rum Kitchen co-founder Stevie Thomas and ex-Manteca chef Francesco Sarvonio, has only been open a couple of months, but it’s already hit its stride.
Taking over a Victorian pub on Lower Clapton Road (you’ll notice a theme building here), the duo have created something unexpectedly lighthearted and frivolous-feeling. That mood isn’t harmed by the dining room’s centrepiece; a 25-year-old skylight salvaged from an East End cinema that casts theatrical light across the space. The southern Italian menu delivers on all that sunny promise.
Sarvonio’s Neapolitan pizzas come with leopard-spotted crusts and just the right amount of chew. Do be warned; they’re a touch smaller than your usual pizzeria. Not to worry; it’s a fine excuse to supplement your order with the superb ox cheek croquettes with anchovy mayonnaise, which show emphatically that this isn’t just another pizza joint. The ziti Genovese ragù, sweet with slow-cooked onions, is comfort food, sure, but it also requires a judicious hand with the caramelising, and pinpoint seasoning to ensure it doesn’t end up too sweet. It’s such a good bowl.
A Hackney restaurant with a growing cult following needs a signature drink to stand out. The Elephant knows this, and they’ve partnered with Climpson and Sons for a custom espresso blend that goes into what might be East’s best espresso martini. There’s also Grolsch on tap, served in frosty glasses and smelling curiously, as it always seems to, of ganja.
Instagram: @elephanthackney
Address: 43 Lower Clapton Road, London E5 0NS
107 Wine Shop & Bar, Lower Clapton Road
Ideal for natural wine and whoever’s cooking in the kitchen this month…
When P Franco closed in spring of 2023, devastated regulars launched a crowdfunding campaign to bring it back. The result is 107 Wine Shop & Bar, which reopened just three months later, and seems to be going down just as well as the original. Which is really saying something…
It’s the same tiny space beneath half-Chinese, half-royal blue signage, same communal wooden table for 15, same shelves groaning with natural wine,and same (and, indeed, ever changing) rotating chef residencies. Every six months, a new chef completely reimagines the food offering. Current resident Marcelo Rodrigues’ (Portuguese, previously of Brawn and The Marksman) rissol de camaro has left us longing for a permanent venue for his cooking Sadly, his time at 107 is just coming to a close. We’re keeping our eyes keenly peeled for who’s next.
Though it differs by chef, small plates run around £5 to £15 here, designed for sharing whilst you work through bottles of whatever the staff are excited about that day. The wine selection focuses on small European producers, many of whom the owners visit personally. This direct relationship approach keeps prices reasonable and bottles novel and exciting.
Operating Thursday-Sunday from 5pm with no reservations, 107 captures what makes Clapton special. Turn up, squeeze in where you can, prepare to make new friends and discover new drops. That’s what it’s all about.
Website: 107winebar.com
Address: 107 Lower Clapton Road, London E5 0NP
Hai Cafe, Lower Clapton Road
Ideal for Vietnamese home cooking from Mama Hai herself…
Only open Thursday, Friday and Saturday night, nabbing a seat at this five-table Vietnamese restaurant requires a little patience or an uncivilised dinner time. But Hai Cafe rewards those concessions handsomely.
Run by Mama Hai from Hai Duong in Vietnam’s north, this compact spot does a splendid line in Vietnamese homestyle cooking. Everything is made from scratch. Mama Hai prepares all her bases weekly, sources produce from New Spitalfields Market at dawn, and adds Vietnamese twists to British ingredients when the originals aren’t available.
The fresh summer rolls are textbook examples of a much-murdered classic. Here, they’re bouncy and pert, their duo of dipping sauces suave and punchy rather than cloying. Even better is the signature ‘bun bo Hai’, a gentle twist on Central Vietnamese staple bun bo Hue that features three cuts of beef, each simmered diligently until tender and giving. The broth boasts that much-needed, low slung thrum of shrimp paste, anchoring the whole thing in umami funk. Coming in a bowl deep enough to drown in, it’s yours for £17. They also do a fine pho, which features in our roundup of the best pho in London, incidentally.
The BYOB policy with modest corkage (£3 for the table) keeps costs down further. Clapton is so lucky to have Hai Cafe.
Website: hai-cafe.com
Address: 120B Lower Clapton Road, London E5 0QR
My Neighbours The Dumplings, Lower Clapton Road
Ideal for communal dining over handmade dumplings…
My Neighbours The Dumplings has been bringing strangers together over baskets of shumai since 2016. Soon to enter its second decade on this stacked strip (and now with a second, keenly-reviewed outpost in Victoria Park), the local favourite seamlessly evolved from pop-up to permanent fixture, all while keeping the community spirit that made it special. The sharing tables certainly help…
The hanging lanterns and laundry cultivates an atmosphere somewhere between Beijing hutong and East London warehouse party, and the communal benches encourage a pleasing boisterousness in line with both. Handmade dumplings at laughably low prices justify any wait (sometimes, admittedly, an hour or more) for a table should you choose to walk-in, though the restaurant has started taking reservations recently.
The prawn shumai and crispy wontons lead the charge at £6.90 and £7.50 for 4 and 5 pieces respectively. For the quality lurking under the cover lid, that’s some serious value. But despite the restaurant name, it’s not all about the dumplings here. A must try is the signature turnip cake – always cooked crispy and topped with a soft boiled egg, crispy Lap Cheong and a good dollop of herby mayo. It’s a textural treasure and fine brunch if you’re up late and the midday opening signals your first meal of the day.
Don’t sleep on the cold small plates, either; here is a smacked cucumber several notches more accomplished than the ubiquitous versions on the high street. There’s also a perky cured trout number, dressed in julienned kohlrabi, chilli and lime. Finally, if they’re on the menu, order the chocolate dumplings – warm, melting dark chocolate in a crispy pastry shell, they’re served with tea ice cream and salted caramel. You won’t be sorry.
Weekend waits can stretch, but turnover stays relatively quick. Go midweek if you can, or resign yourself to a drink at one of the bars nearby whilst waiting.
Website: myneighboursthedumplings.com
Address: 165 Lower Clapton Rd, Lower Clapton, London E5 8EQ
Yard Sale Pizza, Lower Clapton Road
Ideal for NYC-style pizza from the brand that started in a Clapton backyard…
Before Yard Sale Pizza became a London mini-chain, it was just a couple of mates making pizzas in a Clapton backyard. The original at 105 Lower Clapton Road (next door to 107 from a few paragraphs previous), which opened back in 2014, maintains a certain special status. This is where Macaulay Culkin chose to launch his Pizza Underground band, after all.
Their NYC-adjacent pizzas use 48-hour cold-fermented dough, creating light, foldable crusts that helped spark London’s American pizza renaissance. The Holy Pepperoni with hot honey remains the signature order, though the Notorious P.I.E does the whole vodka sauce thing better than most. Both (and all the pizzas here) are available as either 12 or 18 inchers, the former feeds one, the latter two.
What sets the original apart from other locations is the inclusive feel of the place. Staff know regulars by name, the playlist hasn’t been corporately approved, and there’s still something gloriously DIY about the whole operation. They do three excellent vegan options without fanfare, too, and the soft serve is worth saving room for. This is unfussy neighbourhood pizza done exactly right, from people who clearly still care about every pie coming out of the oven.
Website: yardsalepizza.com
Address: 105 Lower Clapton Rd, Lower Clapton, London E5 0NP
People’s Choice Caribbean, Chatsworth Road
Ideal for jerk chicken from an oil drum on the pavement…
The yellow shopfront is visible from the end of the road, sure, but you’ll smell People’s Choice before you see it. Over on Clapton’s Chatsworth Road, it’s the smoke signals you’ll sense first, as they lick up from a traditional jerk drum that stands proudly on the pavement outfront. It’s the best kind of marketing, make no mistake, bolstered by owner Lenny’s infectious click-clacking of the tongs.
The headlining jerk chicken (just £9 for a large portion, including rice, cabbage and plantain) is just the right balance of charred and tender, with a scotch bonnet heat that builds, then undulates, rather than attacks. There’s ackee and saltfish, and curry goat too, both exemplary versions.
Saturday is the big day here, when the queue often snakes down the road. It’s takeaway only, but on good, bright days, customers eat on the pavement, creating impromptu community gatherings that capture what Chatsworth Road is about. Generous portions, fair prices, and flavours that don’t compromise, this is what it’s all about.
Address: 51B Chatsworth Road, London E5 0LH
Uchi, Clarence Road
Ideal for Japanese small plates done with precision…
In a neighbourhood that can occasionally favour substance over style, Uchi offers both. This Clarence Road spot brings precise sushi preparation and creative small plates to Clapton, but at prices that won’t require remortgaging your flat.
What began as a responsibly-sourced sushi delivery service has evolved into one of Hackney’s most serene dining experiences. Step through the noren curtains into a warmly lit space with low traditional seating where you’re encouraged to swap your shoes for slippers at the door. It’s the kind of thoughtful detail that transforms dinner into something approaching ritual.
Uchi opens up as a café (@uchibake ) in the mornings and lunch time, 8am through to 4pm, serving delicious cakes and sandos. Then in the evening it becomes one of our go to place for Japanese fare in London. The restaurant proper is open Thursday through to Monday with variable hours.
The menu spans the izakaya classics: robata-grilled skewers, karaage chicken, vegetable tempura, and an extensive sushi selection. The hijiki seaweed salad with sweet beancurd delivers that pleasantly briny funk that marks proper Japanese home cooking, whilst the sashimi arrives at precisely the right temperature. More inventive touches appear in the form of eryngii mushroom nigiri and spinach nigiri with black rice, showing Uchi takes its vegetarian options seriously. They are, in fact, the best bites we’ve had here.
The soft shell crab rolls showcase the kitchen’s technical skill, though it’s the daily specials – chalked on a lattice board – where things get particularly interesting. The fish quality is consistently good rather than museum-piece spectacular, but that misses the point of what Uchi does well: unfussy neighbourhood Japanese cooking executed with care and without fanfare.
Premium sake grades run from standard honjozo (£7) through to junmai daiginjo (£15), whilst the umeshu mojito makes a refreshing alternative. Asahi on tap comes cold in the kind of beer glasses made for cheersing with. Kanpai
Uchi operates without the marketing bluster of newer openings. It’s simply, quietly, reliably excellent – exactly what lovely Clapton deserves.
Website: uchi.london
Address: 144 Clarence Rd, Lower Clapton, London E5 8DY
Back down the road and into town, join us as we eat along Broadway Market and into London Fields next. Go on, you know you want to…
