Restaurant in London, United Kingdom
££ Bib Gourmand. Book it.
Mambow is Abby Lee and Vanessa Fernandes's Malaysian restaurant on Lower Clapton Road, holding a Michelin Bib Gourmand in both 2024 and 2025. At ££ per head, it delivers family-recipe-rooted Malaysian cooking with natural wines in a deliberately informal 40-cover room. Booking is easy for now, but growing recognition means advance reservations are worth making.
Yes, and the Michelin Bib Gourmand it earned in both 2024 and 2025 makes the case more efficiently than most reviews can. At ££ per head, Mambow delivers the kind of cooking that justifies a trip across London — Malaysian-inspired, family-recipe-rooted, technically sharper than the price suggests. If you want that level of flavour intensity at this price point in London, there is nothing quite like it in East London, and precious little elsewhere in the city.
Mambow is Abby Lee and Vanessa Fernandes's Malaysian restaurant at 78 Lower Clapton Road, a 40-cover room split between an indoor dining area and a semi-covered backyard terrace. The strapline is 'Malaysian Heat + Juicy Wines', which tells you roughly everything you need to know about the evening's shape: dishes pulled from Abby Lee's family recipes, built around bold, high-contrast flavours, paired with natural wines that can hold their own against the heat.
This is not a white-tablecloth occasion. A football shirt-clad waiter may take your order. The soundtrack is edgy and loud enough to register. The room is small and a little scruffy. If the measure of a special-occasion restaurant is polish and trappings, Mambow may disappoint. But if the measure is cooking that commands your full attention — and a room with genuine atmosphere rather than manufactured hospitality , this is a strong choice for a birthday dinner or a date where you actually want to talk about the food.
The restaurant's trajectory is worth knowing. It started as a pop-up in 2020, moved to a temporary kitchen in Peckham in 2022, and arrived at its current bricks-and-mortar site in Clapton from there. That means the neighbourhood inherited a restaurant already road-tested and confident in what it was doing. For Lower Clapton, which has enough good independent restaurants to be a credible dinner destination, Mambow functions as the anchor , the restaurant that gives the area a reason to travel to it rather than through it.
The menu changes frequently, so specific dishes cannot be guaranteed. What the Bib Gourmand record and the venue's own documented dishes point toward: the Otak-Otak prawn toast and squid stuffed with pork belly mince are dishes that have appeared consistently and represent what Mambow does well , Malaysian technique applied with precision, combining textures and heat in a way that feels considered rather than accidental. The Kerabu section of the menu is specifically worth attention: kerabu are Malaysian salads typically built around herbs, toasted coconut, and acidic dressings, and they function here as a useful counterpoint to the richer dishes.
From a more recent iteration of the menu, an octopus terrine with green tomato sambal and green Szechuan peppercorn vinaigrette, a tomato salad with crunchy anchovy, coconut and ginger, and a Hokkien stir-fry of qin beh kuih (a rice cake with a texture squidgier than tteokbokki) infused with pork stock with lard and Chinese sausage have all featured. Order widely across the menu rather than narrowly , the dishes are designed to share, and the range of flavour is part of the point.
To drink, start with the '100+ Sour' cocktail. The drinks list runs to iced teas, ciders, a short natural wine list, and a trio of cocktails developed with cocktail outfit Malik Acid. The cocktails are worth noting because they are specifically built to pair with the flavour intensity of the food , not an afterthought.
With only 40 covers , 20 of which are in the covered backyard , Mambow books out, but not at the level of difficulty you would expect from a Michelin-starred room. Booking is rated easy by Pearl standards, which means a few days' lead time is usually sufficient for lunch, and a week or so for weekend dinners. That said, the Bib Gourmand recognition in consecutive years has raised the restaurant's profile, so booking ahead rather than assuming availability is advisable. There is no tasting menu format here , you are ordering from a set of shareable dishes, which means the table size is flexible and the meal length is largely your own to determine.
The address is 78 Lower Clapton Road, E5 0RN. Lower Clapton is served by bus routes from Hackney Central and Dalston, and Clapton Overground station is walkable. If you are coming from central London, factor in the journey , this is not a quick detour from the West End, but it is a direct one.
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Mambow sits in a completely different price tier from London's high-end Malaysian dining options and from the city's formal dining rooms. CORE by Clare Smyth, Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, Sketch, The Lecture Room and Library, The Ledbury, and comparable ££££ rooms deliver service depth, wine programmes, and a formal occasion experience that Mambow does not attempt to provide. If service polish or a structured tasting menu is the priority, those rooms are the better choice. Mambow is the better choice if flavour intensity and value for money are what you are optimising for. At ££ per head with a Bib Gourmand, it represents a level of cooking that would cost significantly more at a central London address.
For Malaysian food specifically in London, Roti King is the reliable, accessible benchmark , direct roti canai and curries at low prices, easier to access from central London, and a different proposition entirely. Mambow is the choice if you want something more ambitious, more ingredient-forward, and more likely to be the thing you talk about after dinner. If you want to calibrate Mambow against Malaysian dining at a higher level globally, Dewakan and Beta in Kuala Lumpur represent where fine-dining Malaysian cooking sits internationally , Mambow is not trying to compete in that register, but the family-recipe-rooted approach gives it a different kind of authority.
Among comparable Bib Gourmand-level independent restaurants in the UK, Mambow earns its place alongside destinations worth travelling to: The Fat Duck in Bray, L'Enclume in Cartmel, Moor Hall in Aughton, Gidleigh Park in Chagford, Hand and Flowers in Marlow, and hide and fox in Saltwood occupy different categories and price points, but are all restaurants where a specific journey is justified. Mambow's case for the journey is the combination of cooking quality, price, and the lack of a comparable alternative in East London.
Yes. At ££ per head with two consecutive Michelin Bib Gourmands (2024 and 2025), Mambow delivers cooking that outpunches its price tier consistently. The format is sharing plates, so costs scale with appetite, but the overall value relative to comparable cooking quality in London is strong. If you are comparing it to other Bib Gourmand recipients in the city, it holds its position well. If you are comparing it to ££££ rooms like CORE by Clare Smyth or The Ledbury, you are not getting the same service depth or formal occasion weight , but you are getting more flavour per pound spent.
There is no dress code, and the room signals that clearly. The atmosphere is informal , think casual East London independent rather than formal dining room. Smart casual is fine; there is no expectation of anything more. If you are coming from a work event or a more formal occasion and want something in the same neighbourhood, Mambow can accommodate that, but it will not require you to dress for it. The ££ price range, the edgy soundtrack, and the general vibe of the room all point in the same direction: come as you are.
Mambow does not operate a tasting menu format. The menu is sharing plates, ordered freely from a regularly changing list. That means you build your own meal across multiple dishes rather than following a fixed sequence. For a special occasion, this works well if you order broadly , the variety of flavours is part of the experience, and the Kerabu section plus a couple of richer main dishes gives a good shape to the meal. If a structured tasting menu is important to your occasion, this is not the right restaurant for it.
The menu changes frequently, so specific dishes cannot be guaranteed. Based on documented dishes: the Otak-Otak prawn toast and squid stuffed with pork belly mince have been consistent highlights. The Kerabu section is worth prioritising , do not skip it in favour of only the richer dishes. Start with the '100+ Sour' cocktail. The cocktails here are developed specifically to pair with the food's heat and acidity, so they are worth ordering rather than defaulting to wine alone. Order more dishes than you think you need , the sharing format rewards it.
Three things. First, the room is small (40 covers total, 20 in the covered backyard) and the atmosphere is deliberately informal , not scruffy in a way that undermines the cooking, but not a polished dining room either. Second, the menu changes frequently, so what you have read about may not be on the night you visit , this is worth embracing rather than fighting. Third, booking is rated easy, but the consecutive Bib Gourmand recognition means demand has grown; booking a week ahead for weekends is sensible. The address is 78 Lower Clapton Road, E5 0RN , Clapton Overground is the easiest approach from central London.
| Venue | Awards | Price | Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mambow | ‘Malaysian Heat + Juicy Wines’ is the strapline of Vanessa Fernandes and Abby Lee’s restaurant – that means exhilarating dishes inspired by Abby's family recipes, alongside natural wines. Start with the terrific '100+ Sour' cocktail and then order plenty of the delicious food to share. While the menu changes frequently, expect eminently satisfying dishes like Otak-Otak prawn toast or squid stuffed with pork belly mince – and don’t ignore the Kerabu section. There's a great atmosphere around the room and there are also a few seats on a semi-covered terrace at the back.; Abby Lee’s Malaysian restaurant has grown from a 2020 pop-up via a temporary kitchen in Peckham in 2022 to a bricks-and-mortar site in Clapton. It remains a small-scale independent, with room for just 40 covers (20 of which are in a covered backyard). Maybe it’s a little scuffed and scruffy (a football shirt-clad waiter might take your order, and the edgy soundtrack won't be to everyone's taste), but Mambow is well worth a visit – especially if you get a thrill from electrifying cooking and can survive without luxurious trappings. Lee has taken some time out of the kitchen recently, but co-owner Vanessa Fernandez has deputised more than capably. Our most recent lunch coincided with the addition of several new season’s dishes to the menu: a lively octopus terrine – a carpaccio, really – with green tomato sambal, cucumber kerabu and green Szechuan peppercorn vinaigrette; a ripe tomato salad topped with a mound of crunchy anchovy, coconut and ginger; and a new-to-us Hokkien stir-fry of qin beh kuih (a type of rice cake, squidgier than Korean tteokbokki), infused with pork stock and served with pork mince, lard and Chinese sausage. To drink, there are iced teas, ciders, a short list of natural wines and a trio of cocktails (developed in collaboration with hip cocktail outfit Malik Acid), which can take all those full-on, upfront flavours in their stride.; Michelin Bib Gourmand (2025); Michelin Bib Gourmand (2024) | ££ | — |
| CORE by Clare Smyth | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | ££££ | — |
| Restaurant Gordon Ramsay | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | ££££ | — |
| Sketch, The Lecture Room and Library | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | ££££ | — |
| The Ledbury | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | ££££ | — |
| Dinner by Heston Blumenthal | Michelin 2 Star, World's 50 Best | ££££ | — |
Comparing your options in London for this tier.
Yes. Two consecutive Michelin Bib Gourmands (2024 and 2025) at ££ pricing is a strong signal: this is serious cooking without a serious bill. For comparison, London's formal Malaysian options cost considerably more and deliver less personality. The value case here is clear.
Come casual. The venue data describes a football shirt-clad waiter, an edgy soundtrack, and a deliberately scruffy atmosphere — no one is dressing up, and overdressing would feel odd. Think jeans and a jacket at most.
Mambow does not operate a tasting menu format — the restaurant is set up for sharing plates ordered freely from a frequently changing menu. Order broadly across sections, including the Kerabu dishes, to get the full picture of what the kitchen is doing.
The menu rotates, but documented dishes include Otak-Otak prawn toast, squid stuffed with pork belly mince, and a Hokkien stir-fry of rice cake with pork stock and Chinese sausage. The Kerabu section is specifically flagged as worth attention. Start with the '100+ Sour' cocktail.
The room holds just 40 covers at 78 Lower Clapton Road, with 20 seats in a semi-covered backyard — book ahead, especially on weekends. The cooking is bold and high-impact; if you want restrained flavours or formal service, this is not your room. If you want a Bib Gourmand-level Malaysian meal at ££, it is.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
