The 2012 Summer Olympics transformed this patch of East London, cleaning up the industrial wasteland and controversially displacing people and businesses to make way for the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and its Zaha Hadid-designed London Aquatics Centre and Anish Kapoor-designed ArcelorMittal Orbit tower. Today, the area looks very different again. The Olympic Stadium has become the London Stadium and is now home to West Ham United Football Club (be warned: the area is heaving on match days); a whole new waterfront cultural hub area, East Bank, comprising Sadler’s Wells East, V&A East, and more, is in its opening stages; and ABBA Voyage has arrived at Pudding Mill Lane, seeing scores of sequin-clad Björns and Agnethas descend on Stratford and Hackney Wick every weekend.
Whether you’re in the area for the music or the footie, the shops or the parkland, follow our local’s guide to all the best places to eat and drink in and around London’s Olympic Park.
Starting in Hackney Wick, to the west of the park, you may find yourself on Fish Island. Though not actually an island, Fish Island is bordered by the Hertford Union Canal on one side, the Lea River on the other. The best places to sit by the water are Crate Brewery and newcomer Unlock. Both serve pizza. Ask any local resident and they’ll tell you the area is not exactly underserved when it comes to pizza but there are worse things to have too much of. Crate’s pizzas are thin and crispy, with toppings such as potato, sage and truffle or sweet, potato and walnut. They go down a treat with an ice-cold pint of fresh Session IPA or Crate Lager brewed on site. Unlock, meanwhile, run by a collective from Naples, does some off-the-wall variations, such as tomato with black garlic powder and white garlic cream, and shrimp tempura, smoked under glass cloches, alongside its more conventional margheritas and diavolas.
Locals have embraced newcomer Inis, set up by Lynsey Coughlan and Lindsay Lewis, with head chef Craig Johnson (ex-Arbutus). The modern, glass-fronted spot is open for breakfast and lunch only for now and does a mean Irish breakfast with potato farls and black and white pudding. Coffee is by local roaster Bad Coffee which is, in fact, very good. Staying on Fish Island, you also have two deli-cafés: Tuck Shop and Bakery 4, good for a light lunch or pick up a bottle of natural wine.
Over the water is where Hackney Wick comes to life every night. Crate, mentioned above, is packed with drinkers inside and out, as is Howling Hops tank bar next door. Sit at German beer hall style tables for a pint and some food from whichever resident chef is currently in the kitchen (right now, it’s La Cumbia for Latin fusion tacos, rice bowls and buns). Above Crate is Hackney Wick’s biggest hitter, gastronomically speaking: Silo, said to be the world’s first zero waste restaurant. Douglas McMaster is a culinary Rumpelstiltskin who spins straw into gold, transforming humble ingredients into dishes of great complexity. The ‘all in’ menu at £75 (£45 until 7pm or Saturday lunchtime) features the signature koji quaver, treacle and goats’ cheese, and sublime Siloaf ice cream sandwich.
The industrial estates and old warehouses are prime pop-up territory. Right now, the big story is Uncle Hon’s BBQ currently in residency at All My Friends bar and music venue. London’s BBQ fans cross town for the short ribs and glazed pork belly.
One last stop before we cross the River Lea: Barge East, a quirky and atmospheric floating restaurant in an old Dutch barge, strung with fairy lights. Much of the produce is grown in the restaurant’s own gardens on the canal. Expect creative and not crazily priced cooking such as a Cornish crab sando; Loch Duart salmon with beetroot gel and a squid ink cracker; and wild Devon rabbit loin with rabbit boulangere.
The Olympic Park itself has a brand-new all-day eatery in Riverside East, opened earlier this summer. SSAW’s Lulu Cox consults on a menu that encompasses everything from fry-ups, breakfast baps and truffle toasties to cocktails and flatbreads by night.
Gordon Ramsay’s new branch of Bread Street Kitchen occupies the dramatic three-storey timber structure (purpose-built originally for D&D London’s Haugen), beyond which lies Westfield and any number of all the usual chain restaurants.
If it’s more of a drop-in spot you’re after, look to Hackney Bridge and its street food kitchens (Tamila for South Indian, Made in Puglia for Pizza); or, in the East Village, try Hand for excellent Square Mile coffee and ‘Greekish’ pies; Fish House for reliable fish and chips; and La Gelatiera for a scoop of pistachio gelato or mango sorbet, churned on site.
