Number 49

Simply furnished, but spacious & rather attractive with its creamy walls & art deco bar, Number 49 ticks all the boxes as a haven from the noise & traffic of unlovely Aldgate. It also sports a screened-off terraced garden, bookable for barbecues of 20 or more. Otherwise, a surprisingly full lunch menu keeps things ticking over each day, from free-range egg & watercress sandwiches, sharing plates of Musk’s cocktail sausages to crispy duck salad with plum sauce. The wines are a cosmopolitan mélange of Old & New World names, with plenty of easy, mid-priced drinking, a scattering of bargains & a reasonable selection by the glass. Lager drinkers can sup pints of Kaltenberg or Mac Gold.