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At the start of 2025, the highly delicious Whyte’s closed down its London Fields restaurant just over a year after opening.
Despite scoring a five star review from Time Out for the ‘simple east London space with one of the city’s hottest chefs in charge’, and securing a place in both our best restaurants in Hackney and best new restaurants in London lists, chef Whyte Rushen and restaurateur Livi Akers shut up shop after 15 months. The team then went on on a ‘world tour’, cooking at 30 cities across the globe. Think of it as a culinary gap year.
Happily for us, they’re now back in their home town, and after a festive pop-up at Dalston’s Marquee Moon last month, are set to properly return to the London food scene for a short run as an izakaya-style four-day run called Rotten Octopus.
Taking place at Clara’s Bistro in Shoreditch from January 17-20, the stint will be inspired by the eateries of Tokyo, where Whyte’s recently held a three-week residency.
Dishes on the 14-dish menu include eel three ways (sweet BBQ unagi, nori tempura and smoked eel skin broth); roasted kippers with house tartare potato salad; drunken clams, karaage quail, slow cooked pig ear roll, and char sui honey chicken.
Rotten Octopus, Clara’s, 17 Bethnal Green Road, E1 6LA.
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