Great Eastern Dining Room

Though it was one of the first big-budget openings in once-bleak Shoreditch, the Great Eastern Dining Room retains its appeal, with its elegantly spare modern decor & versatile Asian menu. Chow down on chilli tofu with Chinese cabbage, crispy whole sea bass with three flavour sauce or perhaps something from the sushi or sashimi selection, washed down with an offbeat 2005 Kerner Abbazia di Novacella from Italy’s Alto Adige from the wine list. Young, partying City types pack the ground-floor bar, soaking up the well-made cocktails & an eclectic range of draught & bottled beers that includes Asahi, Harbin & Staropramen. Trendier types don’t linger on the ground floor, however, but push straight through to the darker, funkier Below 54 DJ bar in the basement.