The story
Nestled within the magnificent Shoreditch Town Hall on Old Street, The Clove Club is one of London's most celebrated dining destinations. The grandeur of the Victorian building provides a striking backdrop for an experience that has consistently captured the attention of the global culinary world — earning a place in The World's 50 Best Restaurants every single year from 2016 through to 2023.
Few restaurants in the world can claim such sustained recognition at the highest level. The Clove Club has appeared in The World's 50 Best Restaurants list seven consecutive times, reaching as high as #26 in both 2016 and 2017, and maintaining a prominent position year after year — ranked #27 in 2019, #32 in 2021, #35 in 2022, and #38 in 2023. This remarkable consistency speaks to a kitchen and a team that never stand still, continuously refining and elevating what a meal in East London can be.
The setting inside Shoreditch Town Hall lends The Clove Club an atmosphere that is at once historic and effortlessly contemporary. The venue also features a Private Room, ideal for intimate gatherings, special occasions, or exclusive dining events where guests can enjoy a more personal experience within this iconic space.
Whether you are a seasoned fine dining enthusiast or simply seeking a truly memorable meal in London, The Clove Club offers something rare: a place where world-class accolades are matched by a genuine sense of warmth and character. Located in the heart of Shoreditch, it stands as a landmark not just for the neighbourhood, but for dining in the United Kingdom as a whole.
Recognition
Details
History
Excellent cooking
There's a fascinating sense of disjunction between the formal stepped and pillared entrance to what was the former Shoreditch Town Hall and the unbuttoned ambience within, where bare wood floors and an open kitchen faced in blue tiles are very much in the contemporary mode. Isaac McHale's tasting menus (long or short) combine the popular touch with forthright innovative confidence – witness the explosive bursts of flavour in an opener of barbecued aubergine topped with white crabmeat, its dressings of brown crab bisque and dill oil further deepened with notes of ginger and cinnamon. A thoroughgoing effort to be resourceful in the use of ingredients means that prawn heads turn up alongside their tartare, while the bones of sardines go into a broth boosted à l'ancienne with cream and whisky to go with sardine sashimi, the latter delicately glazed in soy and chrysanthemum, but also powered up with mustard and Worcestershire sauce. Sea bass grilled over hazel wood comes to the table on its still-smoking skillet for a bit of performance art, while a main course of Middle White pork, ordinary enough in itself, embraces a mid-course supplementary serving of pulled meat and crackling in a taco. Temperature variations are wittily explored in a granita of grilled habanero chilli with ewe's milk yoghurt and plum sorbet. Dessert could be apricot-kernel mousse topped with a sugary tuile dusted with blitzed popcorn and puffed amaranth, underneath it all a slim disc of Victoria sponge, soaked in apricot syrup, bringing a twang of nostalgia to the finale. Low-intervention sips, skin-contact trendies and biodynamics make their voguish appearances on what is otherwise a fairly strait-laced wine list. Cocktails are absolutely worth a punt.
3 Rosette Award for Culinary Excellence
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