We’re a bit envious of the creatives working away in Hackney media hub Netil House. In addition to a rooftop bar and neighbouring market, they merely have to amble down to the ground floor to dine at much-lauded restaurant and wine bar  Ellory. Occupying the building’s former nightclub, Ellory London has a coolly austere industrial look: concrete flooring, wooden tables and a monochrome bar ”“ kept light and bright by a wall of windows and hanging globe lights.

The staff are enthusiastic and the kitchen are remarkably accommodating to a request for dairy-free options too (switching buttery sauces for tomato-based), and diners are regaled with a tempting glimpse of Ellory’s future (a lengthier bar menu, communal seating, a fresh lick of Farrow & Ball).

Ellory is a fine-dining purebred, combining the palates of ex-Mayfields chef Matthew Young and former River Café sommelier Jack Lewens. However, Ellory’s not laser-focused on Michelin stardom; it’s adopted a conceit-free, East-London loucheness, swapping its tasting menu for a selection of snacks to mains. Fish is a speciality: from fat, delicately crisped octopus to the signature lemon sole, dressed in daikon-slice scales. Lewens’ wine list is a fascinating read too, eschewing a house Chardonnay and second-cheapest Sauvignon for minimum-intervention (Cataratto Ciello Blanco), biodynamic (Gran Cerdo Tempranillo) and amphorae-aged (Loxarel Xarello) picks. All compelling reasons for hiring one of the studio spaces upstairs, whether you can draw or not”¦

http://www.ellorylondon.com/

Ellory London
Netil House
1 Westgate Street, London E8 3RL
+44 (0) 203 095 9455

As part of Mr & Mrs Smith’s editorial team, Kate Weir has been dispatched to some of the world’s most luxurious and unique hotels. Aside from subsidising her travel addiction, she’s previously flitted from gallery to gig as an arts correspondent for Spoonfed London, covered artsy miscellany The Journal of Wild Culture and Eye See Sound, and surveys west London’s cultural scene for the Kensington & Chelsea Review.

(Feature and squid dish photo courtesy of Ellory London, asparagus photo by @LondonTastin)

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