The story
Max Rocha’s cooking is shaped by time in celebrated kitchens — The River Cafe, St John Bread & Wine, and Spring — but his deepest influence comes from home. Growing up in Ireland, he learned from his mother, Odette, and that sensibility runs through everything at Cafe Cecilia.
Located on Canal Place in Dalston, the restaurant serves breakfast on weekends and lunch Wednesday through Sunday, with dinner from Wednesday to Saturday. The menu reflects a straightforward, seasonal approach to modern cuisine. Signature dishes include Sage & Anchovy Fritti, Odette’s Cold Roast Ham, Onglet with Peppercorn Sauce, and Deep-Fried Bread-and-Butter Pudding. The Guinness Bread — a staple of the kitchen — appears in its own chapter in Rocha’s cookbook, showing up in dishes like Guinness Treacle Tart and Guinness Bread Ice Cream.
Cafe Cecilia earned a Michelin Recommended award, a mark of its consistent quality and clear identity. The restaurant also offers private hire for up to 40 guests, and has catered for clients including Gucci, Balenciaga, Simone Rocha, and Burberry. The space itself is unpretentious but considered — the kind of place where the details, from the aprons designed with Simone Rocha to the house-made bread, all matter.
Recognition
Ambience
Details
History
It may be holed up on a charmless side street off Broadway Market, but this neighbourhood hangout is manna for Hackney’s cool young crowd. It helps that chef/owner Max Rocha has a famous father (Hong Kong-born fashion designer John Rocha), an inspirational Irish mother and a culinary CV that includes big hitters St John Bread & Wine and the River Café. Friends and family count for a great deal here (the titular Cecilia is Max's grandmother), and the menu is stuffed with inviting platefuls for regulars and first-timers alike – sandwiches, kippers or boiled eggs with Guinness bread for breakfast, say. Later on, visitors can expect a roll call of rustic dishes with Anglo-Irish overtones and some European influences, from pork and apricot terrine or calçots with romesco to skate with spinach, brown butter and capers or mussels with 'nduja and wholegrain polenta. If you fancy something for afters, the deep-fried bread and butter pudding with 'cold custard' is exceedingly tempting. The setting is a small, square canteen-style room with plenty of light during the day, while service comes without frills or posturing – just as it should be. Image: Maureen M. Evans
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