It's a trendy East London district formed around Commercial Street, Brick Lane, nearby Liverpool Street and the bustling Spitalfields Market, and it's brimming with excellent places to eat no matter what time of day. Wet your appetite with a glance at our guide to restaurants in Spitalfields, featuring quirky curry houses, boozy brunch havens, British bistros and sumptuous seafood escapes.
Last edited by Scarlett Welch
Last updated on 20th March 2025
Alfi is a beautiful Italian restaurant which looks out right over the market, flaunting a gorgeous covered terrace that's full of fairy lights and rustic wooden tables. These guys serve everything from tasty weekend brunches right through to hearty dinners, with a menu that features chilli king prawns, fennel sausage ragu, grilled aubergine and more. As for drinks? There's a whole list of cocktails or organic and natural wines to choose from.
Located on Old Spitalfields Market's mezzanine, The Loft offers a luscious oasis right in the thick of it. Featuring gorgeous, hanging flora at every corner, including leafy plants entwined around the steel columns, it's the perfect place to kick back with a load of modern British fare. The restaurant and bar, which is a sister site to Merchant and Weaver, Bermondsey Bar & Kitchen and more, showcases a tantalising selection of dishes, from pasta rigate alla norma to fillet hake with new potatoes, lemon spinach and an indulgent white wine sauce.
🥂 Bottomless Brunch: bottomless dishes + selected drinks | and 1 other offer
Yuu Kitchen is a highly acclaimed Pan-Asian restaurant led by head chef Mark Earnshaw. It comes ladorned with atmospheric hanging lanterns and fun manga illustrations along the wall, making for one of the top restaurants in Spitalfields to enjoy dishes inspired by the Philippines, Vietnam, Japan and more. Get ready for a range of creative small plates, like their signature Filipino-style sticky adobo wings, and succulent meats fired up on the robata grill, such as the iberico pork pluma. But that's not all, as you'll also find a huge range of bao, including our favourite – the crispy soft shell crab with wasabi mayo.
Started by two friends from Yorkshire who shared a love of the 80s, the TV show 'Cheers' and, most importantly, classic comfort food, The Breakfast Club is renowned across the UK for their trendy cafs which merge British and American culture. Stop by their Spitalfields restaurant to enjoy retro interiors with quirky neon signs and classic cafe seating, not to mention their secret basement bar. Breakfasts here showcase blueberry pancakes with bacon and maple syrup, as well as bean shakshuka, full Englishes and a range of Benedicts. But if you swing by for dinner? You can also sink your teeth into Philly cheese patty melts and Nashville fried chicken burgers.
After starting as a humble Brixton Market burger restaurant in 2011, Honest Burgers has gone from strength to strength, now boasting venues all across the UK. And at its Spitalfields restaurant, it serves gorgeous burgers made with British beef, free-range chicken or vegan Beyond Meat patties, nestled in a delicious, fluffy bun – our favourite is the Honest, made with beef, red onion relish, smoked bacon, cheddar, lettuce and pickles. And, of course, you can't forget to order a portion of this joint's famous rosemary salted fries on the side.
Shanghai Cocktail Lounge is a trendy, venue that promises a range of international eats. Head upstairs to discover a sleek cocktail bar decked out in Asian-inspired artwork and plush velvet sofas, serving up sumptuous dim sum selections.
Tuck into the likes of mushroom and truffle or pork and prawn dumplings, as well as tasty bar snacks like chilli rice crackers.
From the same brilliant brains that brought us Wahaca (MasterChef winner Thomasina Miers and Mark Selby), DF Tacos is inspired by the flavours of Mexico City. Although they of course specialise in tacos (make sure to try the ancho mushrooms with feta cheese), you can also dig into burritos and bowls, featuring pork pibil, beef brisket, grilled chicken and more, all in the slick, industrial-chic space. Oh, and did we mention their frozen margaritas are seriously top-notch?
Crispin is a chilled all-day restaurant which is just moments away from Liverpool Street station, situated inside a quirky asymmetric pavilion made from glass and zinc. The modern cuisine here ranges from ham hock with parsley terrine to Portland crab linguini, with cracking veggie options like burrata with tema artichoke as well.
Boasting locations in Soho, Tower Bridge, Spitalfields and even Lisbon, not to mention a Bib Gourmand, Gunpowder is a powerhouse of Indian cooking. Make yourself comfortable in the slick dining room, which features walnut tables and stools alongside wood-panelled walls, then treat your tastebuds to modern Indian small and sharing plates. From the spicy venison and vermicelli doughnut to the egg curry masala and Goan-style grilled prawns, you'll be grinning from ear to ear after a trip to this joint.
When you're not soaking up the sunshine on the luscious rooftop garden (where they grow many of their own ingredients) or sinking a pint in the pub, head to The Culpeper's grand first-floor restaurant. An atmospheric space, it showcases white-painted brick walls, huge light-loving windows, hanging plants and leather banquette seating. The Sunday roasts are absolutely divine, featuring dishes like top rump of beef and a veggie Wellington, although the regular evening menu is not to be missed either. Sink your teeth into internationally inspired bites, such as pan-fried gnocchi with pesto and burrata, as well as miso hake accompanied by pink fir potatoes and dashi beurre blanc.
After the success of their Chelsea and City outposts, Canto Corvino opened what is now one of the best Italian restaurants in Spitalfields, slinging out hearty European dishes to eager East London diners. The space, which is decked out with mid-century-style leather seats with a backdrop of roughed-up brick walls and a few pops of colour from the pretty indoor trees. On the menu? All kinds of enticing antipasti, like seared beef carpaccio and burrata Pugliese - perfect for nibbling before diving into the pasta, secondi or josper plates. One dish you certainly can't miss is the monkfish ossobuco with tiger prawn minestrone and basil.
Found in a converted fabric warehouse, Commercial Street restaurant Som Saa (from Mark Dobbie and Andy Oliver) is as trendy as you can get. The dining room is undeniably edgy, with rough, stripped-back brickwork, low-hanging lanterns and an East London buzz every night of the week. It's all about regional Thai food here, which of course comes as a regularly changing menu of dishes made for sharing; think laab muang gai, pad pak and gaeng kua fuk tong. And the drinks list? It's been meticulously crafted to pair with Thai flavours to a tee, including international wines and signature cocktails like the Mapraw Manhattan, made with coconut oil-washed Bourbon, vermouth, maraschino, orange and mandarin bitters.
What started as a series of successful pop-ups across the city has now become the beloved Bubala Spitalfields, a Middle Eastern restaurant which serves an entirely vegetarian menu. They've got a cracking range of cocktails to choose from, alongside house wines on tap from Uncharted Wines, with tasty dishes like fried aubergine in date syrup, honey-coated halloumi and oyster mushroom skewers to choose from.
