Bistro Freddie

Bistro Freddie is a restaurant with soft skills. This twinkling spot can mix you a boulevardier, charm you with a prawn cocktail, and fool you into thinking it’s been on a quiet Shoreditch corner for years. French in style but more British in flavour, the tight-knit dinner party space mixes melting candles with hearty pies and a wine list that its Francophile crowd—who are either young or young at heart—happily glug from lunch until dinner. The handwritten menu has a whiff of Paris about it, and the buttery snail and chicken skin flatbread certainly helps, but this is an undeniably London restaurant. A dinky half Guinness and the house-made sausage will get any occasion (be it date, business lunch, birthday blowout) off to an excellent start and the counter makes for a compelling spot for a crisp martini alongside chips and a dijon-laced mayo. Revolutionary this food is not but it's satisfying, and the sleek dining room feels like a place where everyone wants to be.