Mixing east London cool with cosmopolitan north London, Stoke Newington is without doubt one of our favourite London ‘hoods. Close enough to Dalston that you can pop in if you need to but far enough away from the carnage to stay sane, N16 is full of leafy quiet streets, cute cafes, and one of London’s best green spaces, Clissold Park.
Our favourite places to eat in ‘Stokey’ as it’s affectionately known include The Good Egg, Perilla, Primeur, Wolf and the best of all Turkish restaurants, Cirrick II. If you’re cooking at home, there’s so many places to pick up ingredients including the incredible Stoke Newington Fruit and Veg, and the organic butchers Meat N16. It’s also home to some of the best pubs in London, including The Shakespeare, The Axe, The Auld Shillelagh, and The Three Crowns.
Residents are famously hostile to big brands and chains moving in so you’ll find a wealth of independent shops including Hub, Mint Vintage, and Search & Rescue.
The Shakespeare is a local’s local where everyone knows everyone. Hidden in the middle of a residential street you’ll find beer by the bucket load, wine by the barrel load and a jukebox – yes a flipping real one – that will rock your socks off. There’s a beer garden, tables out the front and you can even bring in your pizzas from next door and eat them in the pub.
Housed in an old 1920s garage (the faded Barnes Motors sign is still visible on the outside), Primeur is one of the best restaurants in Stoke Newington. Heavily influenced by the French bistronomy movement which promoted good simple food served in unpretentions surroundings, the space is pretty bare, with white walls and big wooden sharing tables – and when the weather’s nice, the old garage doors open right up. The menu is chalked up on a blackboard each day, you might find dishes such as rabbit, white beans, carrots and mustard, or hake with butter sauce. Whatever you choose, Primeur is nearly always on point. The wines are all natural and low intervention, with lots available by the glass, making it a great place to try some more unusual varieties and styles. The team also have Westerns Laundry and Jolene but Primeur is where it all began.
Perilla is fine dining without the fuss and their tasting menu is the best way to try a bit of everything. Although the menu changes regularly, expect dishes to include cuttlefish ‘bolognese’ and duck egg with mussels and parsley.
Luminary Bakery is one of our fave bakeries in London… and not just because they make some of the best cinnamon swirls we’ve ever had! The bakery is a social enterprise designed to offer opportunities for women from an economic and social disadvantage to build a future for themselves – and that means you can feast on cake guilt free!
Moio is named after an old Portuguese unit of measurement used in the salt trade between Portugal and Sweden, which is where chef João Ferreira Pinto and sommelier Carolina W Seibel are both from. The menu is probably best described as modern European sharing plates, with a fair few Portuguese influences thrown in. Highlights from the menu to look out for include the beetroot soup, spiked with orange and buttermilk; morcilla with plum sauce; lamb tartare mixed with cured egg yolk; a very tangy 48 month aged Ilha cheese; and the creamiest ball of burrata topped with cured slivers of beetroot. If you live in Stoke Newington, Moio is definitely one you need to check out.
If you’re after brunch in Stokey, there’s really only one place to go – The Good Egg. The Breakfast Burrito and Shakshuka are our faves, but if you’re after something sweet the Challah French Toast with a side of bacon will really hit the spot.
Search & Rescue is one of our fave shops in Stokey to poke about. Whether you’re looking for pressies or bits to fill your home, Search & Rescue has you covered – they literally do everything from ceramics to skincare.
We love a good Turkish and Cirrick is our go to spot in Stoke Newington. The menu is long, but we suggest going for a kebab and pidde to get the most out of this place. With reasonable prices, you won’t break the bank having a Turkish feast here either.
Hub is our go-to for new threads in Stokey. Stocking some of our fave brands including YMC, Wood Wood, Our Legacy, Ganni and Mads Nørgaard, it’s hard not to splurge here, but we all deserve a treat every now and then right?!
Wolf might possibly be our fave restaurant in Stokey. The seasonal Italian spot has got the food down and their Danish 60’s style interiors are more than insta-worthy. The menu changes regularly but if their cuttlefish braised with nduja, chickpeas, squid ink with lemon and chilli is on the menu order it and their tiramisu is to die for!
Clissold Park might not be the most well known or biggest park in London, but we love it. Whether you want to catch some rays, have a workout or see the animals (yes, they’ve got deer!) they’ve got it all.
The Restoration is a bit of a hidden gem in Stoke Newington. The vintage furniture shop is a bit like a maze and filled with restored pieces and retro lighting – it’s great for inspo even if you can’t afford it.
Stoke Newington Farmers Market is one of the best in town and it happens every Saturday. Everything sold is 100% organic and you’ll be able to pick up all your groceries with fruit, veg, meat, bread, cheese, raw milk, chocolate and more on sale. All the produce is also sourced from sustainable farms within 60 miles of London, so you’ll be supporting local in every way possible too.
Searching for a place to get your Chinese fix in Stokey? Lu Lu is the place. The restaurant chefs are from Shanghai and there’s a decent dim sum section. The dumplings are all made fresh and by no means are they perfect – the casings are pretty thick but they are tasty and there’s no added MSG. They’re not badly priced either at just under £4 for three. Shout out to their lip numbing cucumber salad too.
In need of a cocktail? The Mint Gun Club is the place to go, and it ain’t no dimly lit basement bar. Themed as a tea room and aperitivo bar, the space is bright and airy thanks to huge windows and it makes for a nice change from the usual east London set up. The cocktails are inspired by the owner Richard Hunt’s travels around the globe. Original cocktails and a fresh vibe – grabbing a drink won’t feel like the same-old-same-old here.
We once heard a rumour that a young lady approached the bar and asked the barmaid, ‘‘Do you have prosecco?’. The barmaid nodded and poured Guinness into a champagne flute. Yes, this is an Irish bar through and through. You’ll find characters from all walks with stories, there’s live traditional Irish music, and lots of loud, loud, enjoyable singing. Oh, they like football here too, so it’s not one for quiet pint.
The Axe is what we like to call a new breed of pub. It’s all about the beer, but with a quirky, forward thinking mentality that will make beer lovers weep with joy. Expect mind bending and unpronounceable guest beers that are so rare, so limited, you’ll feel so lucky that you’ll spend a tenner on a lottery ticket. They do support local brews too so check the boards and ask questions, take a seat and enjoy the education. Sharing beers are a bit spenny though, just saying.
Despite some epic lampshades, it’s very dark in this Stokey pub, which can be good and bad, depending on how hungover you are, but they’ve got outside street seating too and the music is always good. They do Thai food too, which ain’t bad either. Except you can’t pay by card for your food, or order it from the bar…you’ll soon pick up how it works, just go ask someone.
Be-Bop-A-Lula is Stoke Newington’s latest pub on the scene, with a strong 50s rock ‘n’ roll theme and an even stronger Sunday roast. It’s one of the best value roasts around, with £14.50 getting you a big old portion of beef, pork, chicken, or lamb served with tasty roasties, Yorkshire pud and veg. We particularly like that the plate is covered in gravy and they give you another pot of gravy on the side as standard – you can never have too much gravy folks. They also have the footy on, so you can have the double winner of the Sunday games and a good feed to banish that hangover.
The team behind Westerns Laundry and Primeur (no involvement from Dolly here) are responsible for bakery and restaurant Jolene. Bakers Jeremie Cometto-Lingenheim and David Gingell work with farmer Andy Cato to source grain from two UK farms to be milled daily for breads, croissants, buns, madeleines and sausage rolls. There’s a daily changing daytime menu of eggs, toasties, pastas and salads, and come evening, you can expect dishes like grilled cod on the bone with olives and artichokes; T-bone with parmesan and rocket; and bread, apricot and butter pudding. Like Westerns Laundry and Primeur, the wine list feature natural bottles with in-house ferments and juices available for those off the sauce.
