london
The Laughing Heart
• European• Hackney
About the restaurant
The Laughing Heart is the brainchild of Charlie Mellor, an Australian former opera singer-turned-restaurateur with a passion for sourcing wine from great independent producers. In the kitchen is Tom Anglesea, who’s won acclaim for his ingredient-forward cooking.
The restaurant’s humble exterior hides an impressive venue set across the site’s two storeys, with its bustling restaurant – set around a small open kitchen – upstairs, and a wine shop downstairs with much of the restaurant list available to take away. The action continues until pretty late, which has made it a regular haunt for restaurant-industry people in the area looking to wind down after a shift.
Anglesea’s cooking takes flavour inspiration from far and wide, from Italy to Thailand and pretty much everywhere in between. There’s a set menu structure that provides good value. Wine-wise, there are some tried-and-tested bottles alongside funky skin-contact wines and new-school winemakers. Staff are happy to help with recommendations on the wine list if you don’t quite know your Malvasia from your Gruner veltliner.
Reviews from the Web
Critic reviews
The Infatuation
The Laughing Heart is beloved by local creative and meedja types not only for its natural wines, eccentric food , and friendly rottweiler Hugo, but also for excellent vibes.
The Guardian
The Laughing Heart is one of the new breed of wine bars that are enjoying something of a starry moment right now, just about the only good news from 2016. Rather than plonk and pasta, they offer long, thoughtful, risk-taking wine lists and proper cooking in jovial, unstuffy environments: the sort of place in which I’d happily piss away the rest of my days.
Standard
The dinner menu served Wednesday to Saturday is a daily-changing list as compelling to roam through as a Mediterranean market but one with a Japanese stall tucked in. Charlie describes Coppacolo as “suitcase coppa” brought back from a recent trip to Lazio.
The Telegraph
On first glance, it looks like just another trendy hipster bar. Its diners are young. It has bare- brick walls. It has an open kitchen.
Time Out
There’s a lot of love in the room, for the wine and for the operation. Others weren’t quite as taken with those cutlery drawers
The Nudge
Faithfully conforming to the Hackney Cool Restaurant Bylaws, the place has bare brick walls, low-slung lighting, and wooden furniture, with a dash of originality in their centrepiece stainless steel wine chiller.
- 277 Hackney Rd
- E2 8NA
- London
- +44 20 7686 9535
- Visit website
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