Brat

Verdict

Brat earns its booking difficulty. A Michelin star, consecutive World's 50 Best placements (no. 65 in 2024, no. 53 in 2023), and a Star Wine List of the Year win four times over are not incidental credentials — they describe a restaurant that has consistently outperformed expectations for its format. If you have eaten here before, the question on a return visit is whether the kitchen still justifies the effort to get a table. The answer is yes, but with one caveat: the wine program, which is often undersold, is increasingly part of the reason to come back.

The Room

Brat occupies the first floor of what was formerly a pub in Shoreditch — a tightly packed, wood-panelled dining room with large industrial windows and an open kitchen at its centre. The layout is the first thing that will tell you whether this is your kind of place. Tables are close together; the room is loud by design. Lunch is marginally less pressurised than dinner, but there is no such thing as a quiet meal here regardless of service. If you want a table opposite the open kitchen , where you can watch the fire and smell the lumpwood charcoal as dishes come off the grill , request it when you book. It is the most characterful seat in the house and, given how the kitchen operates, genuinely changes what you see and smell throughout the meal.

The space sits above Smoking Goat, which means the climb upstairs is your only transition from street to dining room. There is no lobby, no decompression zone. You arrive into the noise and warmth immediately. For some diners that is a feature; for others it is a reason to manage expectations before arriving.

The Food

The cooking draws from Basque asador tradition , fire-focused, ingredient-led, built around sharing formats. The name itself signals this: Brat is Old English for turbot, and the whole turbot grilled over lumpwood charcoal in a handmade basket remains the centrepiece dish, designed for four and priced from around £150. Beyond the fish, the menu covers Menai oysters, seasonal vegetables, crustacea, sausages, and larger meat cuts including dry-aged British beef , Hereford sirloin and Angus rib sourced from selected farms. The approach favours simplicity over technique for its own sake, which means the quality of sourcing carries most of the weight. Velvet crab soup , a dish that reads as a serious statement of intent , arrives looking theatrical and tastes deeply of the sea. The burnt cheesecake has become a calling card for good reason.

On a return visit, what shifts is your eye for the produce rotation. Seasonal vegetables such as young English corn or fresh peas, treated with the same attention as the headline proteins, reward a diner who is paying attention. Grilled bread with anchovies has generated significant online interest; in practice, it divides opinion , the flavour is clean but the execution is less arresting than its reputation suggests.

The Wine Program

This is where Brat separates itself from most fire-cooking restaurants in London, and it is the most compelling reason to return. The wine list has won Star Wine List of the Year for multiple consecutive years , no. 1 in both 2021 and 2022, no. 2 in 2022's secondary ranking, and no. 1 again in 2024 , and holds a World of Fine Wine 3-Star accreditation. For a single-page, tight-format list, that is a meaningful credential. The selection prioritises European styles across a wide range of grapes, and the pricing is described by reviewers as fair for Shoreditch, which is worth noting given the neighbourhood's general margin expectations. For a food-and-wine enthusiast, the list functions as a genuine pairing tool rather than a liability to manage. If wine matters to your table, Brat is a stronger choice than most of its Michelin-starred London peers at the £££ price point , where wine lists tend to be either thin or aggressively marked up.

Awards and Credentials

Michelin 1 Star (2024). World's 50 Best no. 65 (2024) and no. 53 (2023). Opinionated About Dining Casual in Europe no. 142 (2025), no. 106 (2024), no. 135 (2023). Star Wine List of the Year no. 1 (2021, 2022, 2024). World of Fine Wine 3-Star accreditation. Google rating 4.5 from over 2,000 reviews. The consistency across independent rating systems , culinary, oenological, and popular , is the clearest signal that this is not a one-category restaurant.

Booking and Practical Details

Booking difficulty at Brat is rated near impossible. Plan a minimum of four to six weeks ahead for dinner; lunch slots open up slightly faster but still require advance planning. Walk-ins are not a viable strategy for most services. Check the website directly for reservation availability , tables turn over periodically as cancellations release. If you are booking for a group of four or more, the whole turbot format makes sense both financially and experientially; parties of two should consider whether a shared larger format or individual ordering works better for the budget. Reservations: Book 4-6 weeks minimum in advance; near-impossible for prime dinner slots. Dress: No formal dress code; smart-casual is the room standard. Budget: £££ , expect £60-£100+ per head with wine, more if ordering the whole turbot. Hours: Monday to Sunday, 12 PM–3:30 PM and 5 PM–10 PM. Address: 4 Redchurch St, London E1 6JL.

Who Should Book

Brat is the right call for food and wine enthusiasts who want a Michelin-level experience without the formal dining room codes of a restaurant like CORE by Clare Smyth or Restaurant Gordon Ramsay. It also works well for groups of four where the whole turbot format fits the table. It is a poor choice if you want a quiet, intimate dinner , the room is loud and packed by design. For broader London dining context, see our full London restaurants guide, or explore hotels, bars, and experiences nearby. For fire-focused cooking at a comparable level outside London, L'Enclume in Cartmel and Moor Hall in Aughton represent the strongest British alternatives, while The Fat Duck in Bray offers a contrasting approach to prestige dining for those comparing options. For wine-forward dining at a different price tier, Le Bernardin in New York City and Atomix in New York City are the closest international reference points for comparable ambition.