The story
On the edge of London Fields in Hackney, Behind is chef Andy Beynon’s first restaurant. It opened in October 2020 and earned a Michelin star within just 20 days of trading—a testament to the skill and vision of a chef who spent 15 years in some of Britain’s finest Michelin-starred kitchens, working alongside Claude Bosi, Phil Howard, and Michael Wignall.
Behind is an intimate, 18-seat restaurant built around a single kitchen table. Every guest is seated at the counter, with a full view of the kitchen. The chefs themselves serve each course, turning the meal into a front-row encounter with the cooking process. “For me, the service is as much a part of the meal as the food itself,” says Beynon. “This is the chance for our diners to get a look ‘behind’ the scenes of a busy kitchen.”
The restaurant’s fish-focused tasting menu changes seasonally, built around the best of British produce. The 10-course dinner menu (£125 per person) is served Wednesday through Saturday, with a shorter 6-course lunch option available Thursday and Friday (£64 per person). Wine pairings range from classic Chablis to new world Grenache. There is also a relaxed wine bar alongside the main dining room.
Behind’s Michelin star recognises the high quality of its cooking, and the restaurant’s singular format—where the chefs are also the narrators of the meal—makes for a genuinely immersive evening. For anyone interested in modern seafood cooking in London, this is a place where the craft is as visible as the flavours.
Recognition
Ambience
Details
History
3 Rosette Award for Culinary Excellence
High quality cooking
The idea behind Behind, Andy Beynon’s restaurant on the ground floor of a new development in London Fields, is to foreground what usually goes on behind the scenes. The restaurant, more spacious than its 18 covers might suggest, is open plan with no distinction between kitchen and dining room, front and back of house. The chefs get to enjoy the abstract paintings and the excellent soundtrack too. No wonder they look happy. Although it’s a self-described ‘chef’s table’ set-up, Behind differs from others of this ilk because the counter is a single high table that curves around the room in a near full circle, quite apart from the culinary workspace. Service is delivered entirely by the chefs themselves who come over only when they have a dish to present or a wine to pour. They know their stuff. Beynon, who has worked under Claude Bosi, Phil Howard, Michael Wignall and Jason Atherton, offers a fish-focused daily ‘menu surprise’ at £98 for an eight-course dinner, £54 for a six-course lunch (tremendously good value). He introduces the concept personally and personably, explaining his approach to ethical sourcing and seasoning (he likes to use seawater, not salt). From a waiter, it’s a spiel; direct from the chef-patron, it’s a statement of belief. The first wave of dishes served at our lunchtime inspection expanded on the statement: an intense shellfish broth made only of prawns and wine; lavosh flatbread pressed with microscopic shrimps (‘bycatch’ that would otherwise be wasted); and a sashimi-like sliver of the powerfully flavoured top side of mackerel cured in tiger’s milk. Did the cured trout in seaweed with bonito flakes and a full-bodied mustard and chive emulsion need a buttery laminated bun on the side? No, not really, but who would turn down such excellent baking. Delica pumpkin tortellini made of duck-egg pasta in crab soup was the pinnacle of the meal: rich, sophisticated, complex, clever. The main course, a take on fish pie, with a beautiful glassy piece of skate, oyster leaf, beurre blanc and trout roe, seemed conventional after the pasta. Standards remained high for an 82% chocolate dessert with ricotta ice cream, sesame and black olives, and an optional cheese course that paired blue cheese with sweet plum jam and a frangipane tart. The wine list goes from £39 to £390, with just a handful below £60. But we’d argue that cooking this confident is worthy of a special bottle.
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