Finn McRedmond

Head to Hackney and you've got a seriously exciting evening of dining ahead of you, as some of the city's boldest chefs have set up shop in this rapidly-gentrifying patch of east London. High-end restaurants sit alongside chic brunch spots, inviting gastropubs and long-established neighbourhood joints. Whatever you're after, you'll more than likely find it here. Go east(ish) and eat. New additions to the list include modern Korean marvel Miga, Sesta in the old shell of the much-loved Pidgin, smoke and fire fun at Lagom, Michelin starry-ness at Behind, chef Abby Lee's incredible Mambow – which has moved to Clapton from Peckham and canal-side standout, Sune.  RECOMMENDED: Here are London's 50 Best Restaurants. Leonie Cooper is Time Out London’s Food and Drink Editor and thinks Hackney restaurants are some of the best in London (but don't tell the other boroughs, they'll only get jealous). For more about how we curate, see our editorial guidelines. So east London it hurts? Follow our Time Out East London WhatsApp channel for the latest news, openings and goss from the coolest bit of the capital. (Yeah, we said it.) 

London is gripped by an epidemic of identikit wine bars. Any day now Hackney will crack under the weight of all those small plates and exposed brick work. There is only so much whipped feta and chilled red a borough can take before it is completely consumed by a low-intervention cabernet sauvignon tsunami. And yet, the natural wine and dine bar hegemony shows little sign of abating. Oranj, Westerns Laundry, Planque, 107 (neé P Franco) and Cadet epitomise the genre. And of course, the format is not bad: simple menus, a comfortable room full of good looking people, a wine list that tends to showcase small producers. Finch in Brixton, Forza Wine at the National Theatre and Little Cellars in Camberwell have all recently added to London’s rapidly expanding roster. And so the question for London Fields’s newly opened Bambi is whether it can differentiate itself from the masses. How to justify its existence in such a crowded market? Eating a sandwich for dinner was weird but the chicken parm was a runaway hit. Perhaps it doesn’t have to. On a Thursday evening Bambi was full, with hopefuls milling by the door in search of a last minute seat. London’s appetite for this kind of restaurant is large, but very few offer a new perspective on a wearying format. No matter if you cannot get a table at Westerns Laundry, Primeur is only around the corner and you will hardly notice the difference. There is only so much you can do with courgette and feta. And though there is nothing to criticise