Restaurant in London, United Kingdom
Book lunch first. Dinner rewards repeat visitors.
Da Terra holds two Michelin stars and a La Liste ranking above 83 points, with Rafael Cagali's Brazilian-influenced tasting menu consistently rated among London's most original. At £245 for dinner or £110 for the set lunch, it delivers more warmth and cultural distinctiveness than most West End equivalents at this level. Book six to eight weeks ahead for dinner; Saturday lunch is your best practical entry point.
Most people assume a two-Michelin-star tasting menu inside a converted Edwardian town hall in Bethnal Green will feel stiff and ceremonial. Da Terra corrects that assumption fast. Rafael Cagali's Brazilian-influenced modern European cooking is technically serious but the atmosphere, particularly after the early 2025 refurbishment, runs warmer and more playful than the address or the accolades suggest. If you are trying to decide between this and a West End two-star, book Da Terra — the cooking is as precise, the wine list as serious, and the experience considerably more fun.
Da Terra occupies the Town Hall Hotel on Patriot Square, and the new layout introduced in early 2025 makes a meaningful difference to how the evening unfolds. A dedicated lounge for pre-dinner drinks and snacks now gives the meal a proper beginning before you reach the dining room, which sits inside the original Edwardian building with its high ceilings and architectural presence. The open kitchen is part of the room, and early reports from diners who visited after the refurbishment describe it as a joy to watch. The tone is smart but not formal: mid-century furniture, an open kitchen, and a team who treat East London's energy as an asset rather than something to apologise for. For a first-timer, the spatial experience matters — arrive early enough to use the lounge, and plan for the full three hours.
Da Terra runs Friday and Saturday lunch services alongside its Thursday-to-Saturday dinner. For a first visit, the weekend lunch format deserves serious consideration. The three-course set lunch is priced at £110 per person , less than half the full tasting menu at £245 , and gives you a clear read on Cagali's cooking without the full financial commitment. The shorter tasting menu, available Wednesday to Friday at £185 per person, is a middle option worth noting if you prefer more courses but want to keep the evening moving.
Weekend lunch also solves a timing problem. Da Terra's booking difficulty is near-impossible at dinner, with the full tasting menu at £245 commanding intense demand. Lunch slots on Friday and Saturday are still competitive, but they open up availability that dinner simply does not offer. If you have been waiting to try Da Terra and watching dinner slots disappear, Saturday lunch is your practical entry point.
Compared against the weekend lunch formats at CORE by Clare Smyth or The Ledbury, Da Terra's £110 set lunch represents the most accessible price point at this award level in London, without meaningfully compromising on what makes the kitchen interesting.
Cagali trained at Quique Dacosta and Martín Berasategui in Spain, then worked at The Fat Duck in Bray alongside General Manager Charlie Lee, before passing through Simon Rogan's kitchens. The biography matters here because it explains the range: classical European technique, a Spanish influence on precision and plating, and a Brazilian foundation that prevents the menu from reading like every other high-end tasting menu in the city. Dishes regularly cited in diner reports include reinventions of Brazilian moqueca as an aged fish course, and cross-cultural combinations that bring cachaça and caviar into the same dessert course. The La Liste ranking , 83.5 points in 2025, 82 points in 2026 , and back-to-back Michelin two-star awards in 2024 and 2025 confirm the kitchen's consistency.
The wine list draws equally strong notices. Diners consistently highlight the sommelier's knowledge as a genuine draw, and the pairing option is worth the spend if the budget allows. The list is correspondingly expensive, but the advice is genuinely useful , ask for guidance rather than defaulting to the standard pairing if you have specific preferences.
Da Terra sits in a competitive bracket alongside CORE by Clare Smyth, Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, Sketch, The Lecture Room and Library, The Ledbury, and Dinner by Heston Blumenthal. At this level, the differentiating question is what kind of two-star experience you want.
CORE by Clare Smyth is the stronger choice if you want Modern British cooking with intense ingredient focus and a more central location. The Ledbury offers a comparable level of technical precision in a Notting Hill setting with a more traditional fine dining atmosphere. Da Terra wins on originality of concept and a warmth of service that the West End equivalents rarely match. If the cooking's cultural identity matters to you , and the Brazilian-European crossover is genuinely distinctive in this city , Da Terra is the clear choice over its peers. Dinner by Heston Blumenthal, where Cagali's General Manager previously worked, is a useful reference point for diners who appreciate technical ambition delivered accessibly, but it operates at a different conceptual register.
For value, Da Terra's £110 set lunch against its two-star status is the strongest case in London right now. Sketch's Lecture Room and Restaurant Gordon Ramsay both sit at comparable price points for their full menus, but neither offers a lunch entry point at this quality for £110. If you are planning a splurge dinner and cost is secondary, any of the above will deliver. If you want the most cooking for the money at London's leading table level, Saturday lunch at Da Terra is the practical answer.
If Da Terra fits your appetite for creative Modern European cooking, the following are worth knowing about. In the UK, Muse by Tom Aikens in London offers a similarly personal, story-driven tasting menu format. Outside the city, L'Enclume in Cartmel and Moor Hall in Aughton represent the benchmark for ingredient-led fine dining in the north of England. Hand and Flowers in Marlow and Gidleigh Park in Chagford are worth considering if you want a countryside setting with comparable ambition. In Europe, Hiša Franko in Kobarid and Schloss Schauenstein in Fürstenau share Da Terra's interest in cooking that is rooted in a specific cultural identity rather than stateless fine-dining convention. For broader London planning, see our full London restaurants guide, London hotels guide, London bars guide, London wineries guide, and London experiences guide.
| Venue | Cuisine | Awards | Booking Difficulty | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Da Terra | Modern European, Creative | “The new kitchen is a joy to watch in action” at Rafael Cagali’s genius venue in Bethnal Green’s “lovely old town hall” , which has lacked ambience in the past, but which emerged from a four-week closure and refurb in early 2025 on which early reports are very positive (the new layout includes a lounge for pre-dinner drinks and snacks). Rafael’s “brilliant” Brazilian- influenced tasting menu here is regularly one of the highest-rated in our annual diners’ poll and the “absolutely gorgeous and surprising dishes” offer “a fun experience whilst also wowing with flavours” . “Service is also a draw from the very knowledgeable staff” and there’s “an amazing wine list and such good advice to go with it” . Allow three hours for the tasting menu which is £245 per person. ( “I always say that I cannot get this food anywhere else.....and I leave wanting to come back. That is very special, as is the team.” ). Top Tips – there’s also a short tasting menu (Wed-Fri) for £185 per person and three-course set lunch for £110 per person.; Da Terra is the brainchild of chef Rafael Cagali and General Manager Charlie Lee, who met while working together at Heston Blumenthal’s The Fat Duck. Opening in 2019, inside the Edwardian Town Hall Ho...; La Liste Top Restaurants (2026): 82pts; In contrast to the grandeur of its location inside the Town Hall Hotel, there's an understated, modern look to Da Terra. Chef Rafael Cagali hails from Brazil and his great grandfather was from Italy, and these influences, along with time spent working in Spain, come together in skilfully crafted, highly original cooking founded on Brazilian traditions. The strikingly presented dishes are bursting with colour, and the surprise menu builds beautifully as you move from course to course. Wine pairings are thoughtfully chosen, with admirable originality.; It opened in 2021 but La Terra has the feel of a long-established Italian restaurant, with faithful regulars welcomed as friends and cooking rooted in chef Alessandro Scola's family traditions. He and business partner Vito Scaduto (front of house) worked in some of the locality’s more renowned establishments before teaming up for this project – and it runs like a well-oiled machine, from the on-point service to the thrum of the open kitchen at the back. The interior is light and airy, the pale walls and cool grey of the marble-topped tables warmed by vintage wall lights and red padded seating. Scola's cooking combines traditional Italian recipes and ingredients with contemporary creative flair. A starter of lamb shoulder croquettes with kumquats and jus lacked crunch but was meaty, full-flavoured and satisfying, while exceptionally good burrata (from Puglia) was fittingly paired with sweet pear, bitter chicory and crunchy, buttery pine nuts. Sourcing is impeccable: a pearly piece of Brixham plaice, cooked just-so and served with fregola, salty-garlicky bagna cauda and earthy Jerusalem artichoke purée was a high point of our visit, while a plate of traditional Roman gnocchi was equally delightful – made with semolina, pan-fried until burnished and served with crispy fried guanciale, sprightly wild mushrooms, butternut squash and unctuous pan juices. To conclude, an Amalfi lemon posset with curd and burnt white chocolate offered a novel spin on a classic recipe. Wash it all down with well-sourced, mostly Italian wines, including a decent selection by the glass.; Secreted within a once-grand Edwardian town hall, this major-league dining establishment packs one hell of a punch. It’s a serious, smart-looking spot – both the bar and dining room have a fabulous character and patina into which mid-century furnishings and the stylish open kitchen slot sympathetically. Brazilian-born Rafael Cagali’s cooking has pursued an interesting trajectory – with stints at Quique Dacosta and Martín Berasategui in Spain, then the Fat Duck and Simon Rogan’s Fera and Aulis – and his background suggests a fondness for classic, ingredients-first techniques. This certainly shines through in exquisite snacks such as a tiny, friable pastry cup made with stout and filled with scallop roe, mousse and tiny diced scallop; in quail tortellini in a sparkling clear broth, alongside a skewer of quail breast with a slice of brioche topped with parfait, damson and a generous shaving of black truffle; and in wagyu sirloin with hen of the woods, lobster rice and cavolo nero. Yet it’s the weaving in of Brazilian-influences that really set Cagali’s cooking apart. Take moqueca. It’s a traditional fish stew fiendishly reinvented by Cagali as an elegant tasting-menu dish of aged brill (on our visit) with manteiguinha (butter) beans and farofa (toasted cassava) in a frothy coconut sauce, given heft with whole biquinho teardrop chillies (fiery and fruity) that are served on the side. Or the cross-cultural slant of a baba served with Brazilian cachaça, pistachio ice cream and a generous dollop of N25 Reserve caviar. All of this comes at a price – the tasting menu is £245, the set three-course lunch £110 – but it is without doubt an exceptional experience from start to finish. M uch depends on front of house, a first-class team who take the east London essence and manage to transform fine dining to something fun and classy at the same time. The wine list is brilliantly curated and correspondingly expensive, although it's worth mining the sommelier's impressive and charmingly imparted knowledge to get the best from it.; Chef: Rafael Cagali document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", function() { var el = document.getElementById("Achievements_chefs"); if (el && el.parentNode) { el.parentNode.removeChild(el); } });; La Liste Top Restaurants (2025): 83.5pts; Michelin 2 Stars (2025); Michelin 2 Stars (2024) | Near Impossible | — |
| CORE by Clare Smyth | Modern British | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | Unknown | — |
| Restaurant Gordon Ramsay | Contemporary European, French | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | Unknown | — |
| Sketch, The Lecture Room and Library | Modern French | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | Unknown | — |
| The Ledbury | Modern European, Modern Cuisine | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | Unknown | — |
| Dinner by Heston Blumenthal | Modern British, Traditional British | Michelin 2 Star, World's 50 Best | Unknown | — |
Comparing your options in London for this tier.
At £245 per person for the full tasting menu, Da Terra is priced at the top end of London's two-star bracket — but the cooking backs it up. Rafael Cagali's Brazilian-inflected Modern European menu has placed among the highest-rated in annual diners' polls, and the 2025 refurbishment added a lounge for pre-dinner drinks that improves the overall pacing. If £245 feels steep, the three-course set lunch at £110 delivers the same kitchen for less than half the price.
Da Terra's format is a structured tasting menu with seatings beginning at 6:30pm (dinner) or 12pm (lunch on Fridays and Saturdays), which suits groups who are aligned on that format. The kitchen runs one sitting per service, so the table isn't rushed. For larger groups, check the venue's official channels — the Town Hall Hotel setting allows for private dining arrangements not available at smaller standalone restaurants.
For a first visit, lunch is the stronger entry point: the three-course set menu at £110 per person is available Friday and Saturday and gives you an accurate read on Cagali's cooking without committing to the full £245 tasting menu. Dinner runs Thursday through Saturday with the full menu and the newly added lounge experience — better once you know the kitchen's style and want the extended format.
Book at least four to six weeks ahead for dinner, and two to three weeks for lunch if you have flexibility on date. Da Terra runs limited services — closed Monday, Tuesday, and Sunday — which compresses availability across just four days a week. The 2025 refurbishment has drawn renewed attention, so lead times may be longer than pre-closure norms.
Allow three hours for the full tasting menu. The kitchen is open and worth watching, and the service team is noted for genuine knowledge rather than formal distance. Cagali trained at Quique Dacosta, Martín Berasategui, and The Fat Duck before opening Da Terra in 2019 — the menu reflects that technical range, with Brazilian traditions grounding dishes that might otherwise read as purely European. The wine list is expensive but the sommelier's guidance is consistently praised, so use it.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
