Bistrotheque.
It’s the perfect place for a dinner party.
For the past 15 years, this achingly cool eatery, housed in an unmarked warehouse somewhere between Hackney and Bethnal Green, has been delighting both locals and restaurant pilgrims alike with its inimitable mix of edgy industrial interiors; suave, fine-dining style dishes; and amicable in-house pianist, Xavier.
Planted on the definition of an unassuming backstreet facing industrial business parks and an old gas holder peering over the horizon, knock on the right door and you’ll find yourself ushered upstairs. The main dining room is a whitewashed gallery of a space, with an airy, vaulted ceiling, original 30s warehouse windows, and clusters of neat, tableclothed tables dotted beyond a retro, wood-panelled bar.
Tasty stuff.
Not as tasty, however, as the French-accented bistro fare awaiting you. The menu looks drunk, and is better approached after a pre-dinner Fig Fizz or Seabuckthorn Sour. You can then begin to muse on twice-baked soufflés and cured trout with pickled peas; crab with celeriac remoulade and steak tartare… before scaling up to Swaledale sirloin with horseradish cream; potato and comté pie; or chicken with confit garlic and salmon in miso broth, washed down with copious amounts of excellent Old World wine.
Brunches here are the stuff of East London legend, with Xavier playing Beyoncé on keys, and tables groaning with spinach and ricotta Benedict; eggs with maple candied bacon, bacon butter hollandaise and smoked bacon salt; pancakes; Black Forest sundaes; and… green eggs and ham.
You do not like them, so you say. Try them! Try them! And you may.
NOTE: Bistrotheque is open daily for dinner, and brunch on weekends. You can find out more, and book a table, HERE.
Bistrotheque | 23-27 Wadeson Street, E2 9DR
Like breakfast? We have a brunch bucket list for you.