Borough Market’s Elliot’s Unleashes Its Basque Cheesecake and Wood Oven on Hackney

Easygoing Borough Market restaurant Elliot’s will fully open its second location on Mare Street in Hackney on 29 July, having begun life as a takeaway pizza outfit in December 2020, when London was under tier three coronavirus restrictions.

Having opened up with a menu of pies topped with taleggio, sage, and brown butter; beef ragù, pancetta, and parmesan; and Palourde clams with yellow tomatoes and garlic, the menu for the fully fledged restaurant will echo that of its predecessor. A wood oven flinging out flatbreads, perhaps with trout roe and sour cream, or a turbot collar with tomato and anchovy; a veal tartare inspired by the Italian tonnato dish with the same meat; and a Basque-style cheesecake that is perhaps a little slept on by the city’s dessert seekers.

The original Elliot’s opened in 2011, with chef Brett Redman and Rob Green, who is also behind Pavilion’s range of bakeries and cafes. It was originally designed as a Borough Market, market restaurant — at a time when its surrounding competitors weren’t known for using the produce that in turn surrounded them. Before that, Redman had opened an identically named cafe in Bethnal Green, with the move to east London previously heralded as “coming back to where it all began.” Redman now says that the team are “very excited to be able to open a restaurant in East London, our home for the last decade and where some of London’s most exciting restaurants are based.”