BISTROTHEQUE

There’s no sign in front of Bistrotheque. They don’t need one. Anyone with a finger on the pulse of the East End already knows that this unashamedly urban restaurant, bar and cabaret is the hottest ticket between Hackney and the City. There are no signs inside either – you’ll have to use your intuition to work out which door takes you to the bar and cabaret hall and which door leads up to the minimalist restaurant on the first floor.

Despite the hidden-away location, in a disused clothing factory on a gritty backstreet in Bethnal Green, Bistrotheque is a need-a-reservation-even-in-the-week kind of place, particularly when the cabaret is in full swing. This is the kind of dinner show that would have stirred Dean Martin’s martini if he’d been born 60 years later with a taste for drag shows and gourmet fish and chips. A tip – if you just come for dinner, the three-course prix fixe menu (served before 7.30pm weekdays) is a guaranteed winner.

Drinkers are a mix of arty professionals and informed day-trippers from outside the borough. Things kick off in a big way on Friday and Saturday – and any night with a cabaret show – but staff know their drinks, so you won’t get cognac in a cold glass unless you want it that way. Whichever room you end up in, expect to be rubbing shoulders with editors, architects and street-wear fashionistas.

The brains behind Bistrotheque was Pablo Flack of House of Jazz and Bricklayers Arms fame, and he roped in a few old friends to help out with the project – David Waddington for the interiors and wine list and Will Broome for the murals in the WCs. Plenty of East End bars have spent millions trying and failing to achieve this kind of post-industrial chic.