The best restaurants in Shoreditch
The best restaurant in Shoreditch is The Clove Club in Shoreditch Town Hall on Old Street, and it costs accordingly: £285 for the full tasting menu at dinner, £185 at lunch. For everyday eating the answer is St John Bread and Wine on Commercial Street, Brawn on Columbia Road and Rochelle Canteen behind Arnold Circus, three places that cook British and European food with nothing to prove. Here is where to book this week, from the special occasion to the Tuesday night.
The Clove Club, Old Street
The Clove Club occupies part of Shoreditch Town Hall at 380 Old Street. It is a tasting-menu restaurant: £285 at dinner on Monday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, a £225 midweek menu on Tuesday and Wednesday, a shorter £245 menu on Monday and Thursday, and £185 at lunch from Wednesday to Saturday. A four-course festive lunch at £155 starts on Wednesday 4 November, and the restaurant closes on 23 December, reopening on 5 January. Tables go up to three months ahead and late changes cost £125 to £155 a head, so be sure before you book. If that is too much, the bar and lounge does a changing menu of snacks and small plates.
St John Bread and Wine, Commercial Street
St John Bread and Wine at 94-96 Commercial Street, E1, is the most reliable lunch in E1. The menu changes daily and goes online at 11am for lunch and 5pm for supper. Lunch runs every day from noon with last seating at 3pm, there is a bar menu from 3pm to 5pm, and supper runs until 9.30pm. Groups of eight or more can book autumn and Christmas feasting menus. If you bring your own wine, corkage is £32 a bottle, and a 12.5% service charge goes to the team.
Brawn, Columbia Road
Brawn at 49 Columbia Road, E2, calls itself a neighbourhood restaurant, which undersells it. Lunch runs Tuesday to Saturday from noon to 2.15pm, and dinner Monday to Saturday from 6pm. It is the place for a long weekday lunch on the flower market street, when Columbia Road is quiet and the Sunday crowds are a rumour.
Rochelle Canteen, Arnold Circus
Rochelle Canteen has been cooking at 16 Playground Gardens, E2, since 2004, inside a walled garden off Arnold Circus. Lunch is served every day from noon to 2.45pm, and supper Wednesday to Saturday from 5.30pm, with everyone out by 10pm. On a dry day, a table in the garden is the nicest seat in Shoreditch.
Som Saa, Commercial Street
Som Saa at 43A Commercial Street, a minute south of Spitalfields Market, cooks regional Thai food with uncompromising flavours. There are set lunch and set dinner menus and a vegan menu, and the festive menu runs from 17 November to 30 December. The kitchen does lunch and dinner Tuesday to Saturday, and 12pm to 3pm and 5pm to 9pm on Sunday.
Smoking Goat, Shoreditch High Street
For Thai food with a louder soundtrack, Smoking Goat is a bar and grill at 64 Shoreditch High Street, with the kitchen open from noon until 11pm Monday to Saturday and until 10pm on Sunday. Reservations are taken through its site.
Steak: Hawksmoor and Blacklock
The first Hawksmoor is still on Commercial Street. Hawksmoor Spitalfields at 157a Commercial Street is, by the group's own account, where the Hawksmoor spirit lives; it opens from 5pm on Monday and Tuesday and from noon Wednesday to Saturday. Round the corner on Rivington Street, Blacklock Shoreditch at 28-30 Rivington Street, EC2A is a steak and chop house in a former East End furniture factory, with a Sunday roast and a Butcher Price Monday.
Pasta and Bombay breakfasts
Two chains that earn their place. Padella at 1 Phipp Street, EC2A, just off Great Eastern Street, rolls pasta in an open kitchen, with plates from £9.50 and a large terrace; it takes bookings up to four weeks ahead and runs a virtual queue. Dishoom at 7 Boundary Street is open all day, every day, from breakfast to late.
A note on Lyle's
One correction to older lists. If a guide sends you to the Tea Building, Lyle's is gone. James Lowe closed it on 18 May 2025 after eleven years. For more, see our guides to brunch, cheap eats and Brick Lane curry.
