The Marquee Moon, a stone’s throw from Dalston Kingsland station, is – say it with us now – a stripped back gastropub serving small plates and cocktails. Finally, a place to buy cocktails in an old pub, while also picking at a selection of tapas-style food, we hear you cry! Joking aside, the Marquee Moon stands in a relatively crowded field, especially in the centre of East London. While this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it does mean it has to work extra hard to stand out. Luckily, it got the memo.

Layout-wise, not much has changed from when the building was a pub, aside from the addition of a DJ booth in one corner. Aesthetically, it’s all exposed plaster walls and furniture in that art deco, Great Gatsby-esque green, with lighting which is just the right side of ambient without being so dark you can’t see your food. It’s still a pub as well as a restaurant, too, so expect to see a few people gathered over pints rather than a soy half-chicken or some cured seabream.

Honestly though, that’s their loss, because the food is fantastic. The pork belly skewers are huge cubes of meat, so tender that they fall apart at the slightest provocation. Cod cheeks come in scampi-esque shapes, lightly battered and fried to remind you of the fluffiest chip shop fish you’ve ever tasted. The cured sea bream is less decadent, skillfully paired with pickled fennel and sour plum which manage to avoid overwhelming the delicate flavour of the fish. 

One dish we’d recommend to literally anyone, even as a bar snack for those not indulging in food, is the bhaji, which arrives overflowing out of a bowl in one of the most generous portions we’ve ever seen. Perfect for picking at over drinks, it’s enough to make you wonder why pubs even bother offering crisps and nuts when they could be doing this instead.

If you’re not full after all that – and you probably will be – the mains are just as good, and definitely designed for sharing. We opt for the soy half chicken, paired with some ‘zesty peas’ and five spice potatoes, in a kind of upmarket twist on a Nando’s classic. The chicken is moist and not overly salty, despite the soy sauce it comes nestled in. The potatoes have a surprising kick to them courtesy of some hot romesco, meaning the zesty peas were a thankful palette cleanser to take the edge off, although you may be tougher than us on that front.

Desserts are a more mixed affair. Matcha ice cream and shortbread hits the spot, but a chocolate ganache with ginger comes oddly paired with olive oil, a flavour and texture combination which doesn’t quite work. One dessert falling down is only a minor issue, but when the rest of the menu is so spot on, it’s disappointing nonetheless.

Overall the Marquee Moon does more than enough to justify its place in the small-plate-boozer pantheon, and is probably best enjoyed with enough friends to share everything, because you’ll be devastated if you can’t polish off every dish you order. One final tip from us: order their spicy marg. We know, we know, every pub inside the M25 is doing a spicy margarita these days, but theirs is one of the best we’ve ever had – just try not to drink so many that you don’t remember how good the food is the next day.

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48 Stoke Newington Rd, Greater, London N16 7XJ