A restaurant name can lead to different assumptions. And when you name your restaurant ‘Legs’, you’re going to get a whole mix of different assumptions. Is it a dodgy gentleman’s club? Is it an extremely charming French bistro known for its frog’s legs? The Legs in question here is neither of those things: instead, it’s an excellent restaurant at the end of a row of designer outlets in Hackney.

Speaking of assumptions, the best thing you can do when you get here is to stop making them. You might think the heavily-tattooed staff seem like they’ll be too cool for school. You might take a look around and expect the food at a trendy Hackney small plates spot like this to be overpriced or overly precious. But once you eat at Legs, you’ll realize how wrong all that is. This place is easygoing, affordable, and the food is excellent.

photo credit: Karolina Wiercigroch

The menu is made up of 10 to 12 small plates (most priced £10 or less) composed of simple, seasonal ingredients. There are a few things that are always on the menu: the burrata, potatoes, and pasta dishes, but they’re prepared slightly differently every time. We had the burrata one time paired with peach and pistachio, while another time we had it paired with some of the most flavoursome tomatoes we’d ever tasted. Both variations were brilliant and maybe never to be seen again.

The best way to experience Legs is to book a table for three or four, and order everything off the menu. Since the menu is designed daily depending on what’s available from the restaurant’s carefully selected suppliers, you could repeat this process several times over without ever getting bored.

Just make sure you’ve clarified with those mates that Legs is a restaurant in Hackney. Don’t let one of them end up at a strip club.

Food Rundown

Buratta

Great burrata tastes good with nothing added. At Legs, they have great burrata improved by seasonal produce, like peaches or tomato. A must-order.

photo credit: Karolina Wiercigroch

Pasta

There’s always a pasta made fresh daily, and the accompanying sauce is always different and always bloody good.

photo credit: Karolina Wiercigroch

Fried Potato, Creme Fraiche and Trout Roe

This is the only thing on the menu that never gets messed with and is never less than fantastic.

photo credit: Karolina Wiercigroch

Vegetables

We wish that someone would treat us the way they treat vegetables here. There are always interesting combinations happening, whether it’s bits of rabbit with your salad, or ’nduja with butter beans.