Cassette

Is Cassette London’s sexiest new restaurant or is it just too dark in here to work out if we’re on a date or just having dinner with our cousin from Tring? 

Show a cassette to Gen Z and you’ll likely get a blank stare (albeit a slightly different from normal blank stare) in response. But show them a small plates bistro 400 miles from Paris, and you’ll be met with a resounding ‘yaass’ of recognition. London's fooderati are are more than familiar with an ersatz French restaurant thanks to the likes of Camille (Time Out’s best London restaurant of 2026), Bouchon Racine, Cafe Francois and Bistros Freddie and Sable, as well as Cassette’s elder sibling, Levan, which has been bringing the best chefs in Paris over to Peckham for regular Sunday sessions. 

Cassette feels more grown up and less hectic than Levan. It helps that the space is sensational; a Grade II* listed stained-glass workshop a few doors down from elder London dining statesman, Rules. One of London’s best streets, it’s here on Maiden Lane that Turner was born, Voltaire was exiled, and the Socialist Party of Great Britain was founded. It was also home to Europe's first ever recording studio, which bodes well for a restaurant named Cassette.

Pannisse with a veil of green tomato gleams like a tiny ghost

Of course, Cassette’s music credentials are as strong as its culinary ones; Levan was named in honour of Paradise Garage DJ Larry Levan, and founder Mark Gurney has his own record label. Apparently there are some ultra rare West German Grundig Audiorama 8000 spherical speakers at Cassette, but we can’t see them in the darkness - we can hear the restaurant's bespoke playlists though, providing a polished soundbed to head chef Essa Fakhry’s refined French fancies. Not as gutsy as Camille (what, no snout cassoulet?), Cassette’s menu skirts around the offal question, focussing more on Parisian crowd-pleasers, including a delightfully loose (in a good way) roast cauliflower and comté quiche which sits in a pool of its own oomska.

Little slabs of pannisse topped with pickled mussels and a veil of green tomato are a great way to start, gleaming like tiny ghosts under the lamplight. Even better are raw beef croustades with a deeply cheesy comté base that tastes far less dainty than it looks. For the offal curious there’s fromage de tête, a surprisingly gentle terrine of pig’s head, served with toast that all other toasts need to worship; sourdough basted with pork fat.  

Pigeon chou farci comes on like a scotch egg after a restorative weekend in the Cotswolds; the meat wrapped in earthy sausage and then again in lacy cabbage. Pork chop is surprisingly delicate, a splodge of apple mustard on the side and a decadent sauce Talleyrand swirling with veal, truffle and madeira. Grilled cabbage with smoked eel vinaigrette might sound like a rogue side, but it’s one of the funnest dishes of the evening, the tangy and charred leaves dotted with chunks of pickled eel, which we fish out enthusiastically like a human arcade grabber machine.

Covent Garden might seem full of tourist traps to some, but Cassette couldn’t feel more like home. 

The vibe A sexy and surprisingly non-touristy Covent Garden dining room.

The food Elegant Parisian-inspired classics. 

The drink A mighty wine list. Difficult not to go hard on the Chablis. 

Time Out tip It’s rare that we insist you order the cabbage, but you simply must at Cassette.