Barge East

A 125 year old Dutch cargo barge, permanently moored on the water at Hackney Wick, is not the setting you’d expect for a restaurant taking sustainability seriously, but Barge East has built its whole identity around exactly that combination. The Lower Deck, set in the hull, puts you close to the open kitchen with the river visible through portholes, while the Upper Deck offers heated, partly covered outdoor seating with a genuinely striking 360 degree view of the surrounding skyline.

The menu changes with what’s seasonally available, drawing on produce from the barge’s own on-site gardens alongside local suppliers, and runs to a seasonal à la carte plus what the kitchen calls super sustainable specials, dishes built specifically around ingredients that would otherwise go to waste. Sunday roasts are a particular draw, worth booking specifically if that’s the meal you’re after rather than a weekday dinner.

The setting itself does a lot of work here: eating on a genuinely old, characterful boat rather than a restaurant dressed up to look nautical gives the whole experience a sense of occasion that’s hard to manufacture elsewhere. It was recently named the UK’s top spot and ninth in the world in Tripadvisor’s One of a Kind category, a fair reflection of how distinctive the setting actually is.

Mains run roughly £18 to £28, and a full meal with a starter, main and a drink lands around £45 to £55 a head, reasonable given the location and the quality of ingredients on the plate. It suits a special weekend lunch, a genuinely different date night, and anyone visiting Hackney Wick who wants a sit down meal with real character rather than a standard gastropub.

The honest caveat is that getting there takes some effort, it’s a walk from the nearest stations and not somewhere you stumble upon casually, and being on the water means outdoor seating is genuinely weather dependent in a way indoor restaurants don’t have to worry about. Check the forecast and book the deck you actually want through the Barge East website.