The Shoreditch Guide: After Dark in E1
Warehouse kitchens, natural wine on tap and the loudest listening bars in the postcode. A field guide to the night that keeps going.
The brief
Shoreditch stopped being a scene and became a proper restaurant district, which is a better outcome than anyone predicted a decade ago. The lights are still on until three, but now there is something worth eating first.
Where to eat
Brat for turbot over fire and the best-looking dining room in E1. Manteca for the pasta and the offal you did not think you wanted. Dishoom Shoreditch for the bacon naan that has survived every trend since it opened. DUMBO and Black Bear Burger for the honest version of dinner.
Book Brat and Manteca weeks out, or do what locals do and sit at the bar at six.
Where to drink
Start in the Redchurch Street side streets, work east. The city's best cocktail bars here hide behind unmarked doors and small signs; the rule is to walk one street back from wherever the queue is.
Late
Shoreditch's talent is that nothing closes when it says it will. Kingsland Road takes over when Curtain Road gives up, and there is always one basement with the lights low and a queue of people who know exactly which door it is.
One rule
Eat before ten. After ten Shoreditch stops being a place you eat and becomes a place things happen to you.