Turkish grills, natural wine bars, and Broadway Market weekends.
Daytime
(1)Broadway Market (Sat), London Fields park, Turkish breakfast on Kingsland Rd
Evening & Night
(6)Natural wine bars, Dalston clubs, late-night Turkish grills
Three Sheets
Max and Noel Venning's Dalston bar that proved a world-class cocktail programme could operate from a neighbourhood bar with no pretension, no speakeasy gimmicks, and no door policy. The menu is short — six or seven drinks — and each one is built with the kind of technical precision that comes from stripping everything back to what actually matters in the glass. The room is small, the furniture is simple, and the atmosphere is the atmosphere of a bar where your neighbours happen to be drinking some of the best cocktails in London. Three Sheets defined a category: the neighbourhood cocktail bar that competes at the highest level without asking you to dress up, book ahead, or pay Mayfair prices.
Editor's Pick$$
Order: The entire menu, in order, if you're staying. The list is short (six or seven drinks) and every one earns its place. The Vennings' approach is reductive — fewer ingredients, more precision — so each drink has the clarity of something that has been edited rather than decorated. Ask what's new if you've been before; the menu rotates. The simplicity is the point: this is cocktail drinking without performance.Best: Early evening on a weekday when you can sit at the bar and talk to whoever's making drinks. Weekend nights are busier but the room absorbs the energy well. The Dalston location means the surrounding Kingsland Road restaurants provide context for a full evening — Turkish grills, Vietnamese, and the general productive chaos of E8.
Viktor Wynd's Absinthe Parlour
A genuine cabinet of curiosities in Hackney — taxidermy, occult objects, Victorian medical equipment — with a small, very dark absinthe and cocktail parlour hidden downstairs. The proper absinthe service, with the fountain and sugar, is exactly what the place is for; this is where in London to take it seriously. Come in the evening, once the museum upstairs has closed and it becomes purely a drinking den. It is not for everyone — strange, dim, and theatrical — but it is genuinely unforgettable, the rare bar that doubles as an expedition into the macabre.
Editor's Pick$$
Order: Proper absinthe service with the fountain and sugar. This is the place for it.Best: Evening when the museum upstairs is closed and it becomes purely a drinking den.
Behind This Wall
A hi-fi listening bar and cocktail den in a Hackney basement, where a proper vinyl-focused sound system is as much the point as the drinks. The Japanese bar influence runs through everything — whisky highballs are the order, and the cocktails are built to pair with the aesthetic rather than shout over it. Come in the evening, when the vinyl is spinning and the intimate basement fills, and treat it as a place to listen as much as to drink. It is focused, low-lit, and a little serious about sound — exactly as a listening bar should be.
Inked$$
Order: Japanese-influenced cocktails pair with the hi-fi aesthetic. Whisky highballs are perfect.Best: Evening when the vinyl is spinning and the basement fills up.
Bright
Seasonal, produce-driven cooking above the P. Franco wine bar in Hackney — a short menu that changes constantly with the market, focused and excellent. Trust whatever is on; the kitchen builds around what is good that day, and the wine selection downstairs is worth a visit in its own right. Come in the evening, and consider the wine bar below before or after. It is East London's idea of neighbourhood fine dining: unfussy, ingredient-led, genuinely seasonal, the sort of small room where the brevity of the menu is a sign of confidence rather than limitation. Quietly one of the area's best.
Inked$$$
Order: The menu is short and changes constantly. Trust whatever's on. The wine selection downstairs is excellent.Best: Evening. The wine bar downstairs is worth visiting too.
Cat & Mutton
A Victorian corner pub on Broadway Market, with the original character intact and the whole street's Saturday-market energy spilling through its doors. Good cask ales and solid pub food make it classic pub drinking, and it is the natural starting point for a market crawl. Saturday is the event, when Broadway Market buzzes and the outdoor tables become contested territory — get there early to claim one. The rest of the week it settles into a proper neighbourhood local. It is Hackney pub-going at its most characterful, anchored to one of London's best market streets.
Inked$$
Order: Good cask ales. Pub food is solid. Classic pub drinking.Best: Saturday market day - the whole street buzzes. Get there early for outdoor tables.
Off Broadway
The anchor of Broadway Market's bar scene — a Hackney cocktail bar with vinyl DJs, a loyal local crowd, and a back garden that comes into its own in summer. The cocktails are reliable, but the draw is the backyard and the neighbourhood energy. Come on a Saturday after the market, when the whole street is alive, or in the evening for the DJ sets. It is a proper local rather than a destination — the kind of bar a neighbourhood builds its weekend around, with vinyl on the decks and a garden out back that everyone wants a piece of when the sun is out.
Inked$$
Order: Cocktails are reliable. The backyard is the draw in summer.Best: Saturday after the market. Or evening for DJ sets.