The story
Casa Fofō, on Sandringham Road in London’s Hackney, earned a Michelin star in 2026 for its refined, modern cuisine. The restaurant focuses on a single tasting menu that changes with the seasons, offering a compact but ambitious sequence of dishes built around precise technique and unexpected pairings.
The sample menu gives a clear sense of the kitchen’s direction. It opens with a tart of pumpkin seed, nori and daikon, followed by house sourdough bread with caramelised butter and roasted yeast. Seafood appears in a pollock dish with bergamot and chanterelle, while a tomato, kimchi and tofu course adds fermented brightness. Sourdough noodles with fermented tom yum and seaweed show a willingness to pull from Thai flavours, and the main – ex dairy cow with miso and friggitelli peppers – is both bold and balanced. Desserts include a set yoghurt with granita, and strawberry grape with sake lees and white chocolate.
A wine pairing is offered for £58, designed to complement each course. The dining room is intimate, with outdoor seating available for warmer months. Casa Fofō serves dinner Wednesday through Friday from 6 pm, and both lunch and dinner on weekends. The space is unpretentious, letting the cooking speak for itself.
With its Michelin star, Casa Fofō has quickly become a destination for those seeking modern cuisine in a relaxed setting – proof that a tasting menu can be both ambitious and welcoming.
Recognition
Details
History
High quality cooking
It’s not easy to secure a reservation at this neighbourhood restaurant even with the tiny room supplemented by a covered outside space and cellar. Fashionable Dalston diners clearly relish the white-knuckle ride of a £65 surprise menu that might involve beef garum solids, fish scales or fermented tomato skins. Chef Adolfo de Cecco (previously of Pidgin) is heavily into fermentation. The eight courses including snacks, pre-dessert and petits fours are all delivered by the chefs themselves. Japanese milk bread with a swirl of monkfish liver is a good start. Two vegetable dishes come next, an interesting study in carrot (the carrots cooked in carrot juice, also dehydrated then rehydrated) and a tiny baked potato in an intensely cheesy and quite salty milk garum sauce. Ingredients are excellent, including a delicate pollock and superb eight-week aged dairy cow with a clever Jerusalem artichoke and umeboshi sauce. An ice-cream sandwich of candied nori with a parfait of beef garum solids and rhubarb sorbet, works quite well but could have been more sharply executed. Worried about finding a wine to match? There’s a £49 pairing and a list of two dozen natural wines chosen to suit the food: 'You can’t go wrong,' we’re told. We’re unfamiliar with many of the wines, so resort to Google; a strong sommelier and finer stemware would have enhanced the experience. Daring and at times difficult, Casa Fofó is one for those who like their supper with a side of intellectual stimulation.
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