Leila's Shop
Store · Bethnal Green
Leila's Shop, Calvert Ave, Bethnal Green, London E2 7JP, United Kingdom
Highlights
Rustic cafe serving simple, seasonal dishes with produce next door.
Rustic cafe serving simple, seasonal dishes with produce next door.
"Attached to an upmarket greengrocer of the same name, Leila’s serves homely dishes in a whitewashed cafe/canteen-like space. Befitting its location in a leafy, calm part of Shoreditch, it’s somewhere to pop in for a quiet lunch among the arty, Margaret Howell-clad crowd. Pick from the short chalkboard menu of seasonal European-leaning dishes like roast chicken and raisin-flecked pilaf, or a slab of creamy fennel gratin. Solo diners are particularly welcomed—plus it means you won’t have to share any of the puddings. If there’s anything with jelly, get it." - heidi lauth beasley, jake missing, daisy meager, sinead cranna
"Price: $$ Going to Leila’s Shop and Cafe on Shoreditch’s Calvert Avenue is like going back in time. The service style and decor of the room here is Victorian: a version of olde London that retains an austere charm and appeal. It works right now, in 2025, as chefs Alex Jackson and Stroma Sinclair prepare a style of comfort food that privileges generosity and deliciousness; the warmth of their cooking counterbalances the literal and figurative chills. Begin with a fruit cordial (imagine one conceived by Mary Poppins herself) diluted with sparkling water and order a collection of small plates, which Jackson assembles a la minute in the stunning open kitchen. There might be a terrine, a pilaf, a stew, a salad; and for dessert, a tart, a jelly, or a roulade. Leila’s is a new benchmark for roving European homestyle cooking in London. Must-try dishes: Jackson’s rice and Sinclair’s jelly, then pop next door to see Leila for a tub of Kitty Travers’ La Grotta ices." - Adam Coghlan
"Attached to an upmarket greengrocer of the same name, Leila’s in Shoreditch serves excellent, homely dishes in a serene, whitewashed cafe/canteen-like space. Befitting this leafy, calm part of the neighbourhood, it’s somewhere to pop in for a quiet lunch among the arty, Margaret Howell-clad crowd. Pick from the short chalkboard menu of seasonal European-leaning dishes like roast chicken and raisin-flecked pilaf, or a slab of creamy fennel gratin. Solo diners are particularly welcomed—plus it means you won’t have to share any of the must-order puddings. If there’s anything with jelly, get it." - Daisy Meager
"Desserts at Leila’s Shop are in the custody of baker supreme Stroma Sinclair — formerly head pastry chef at Skye Gyngell’s Spring — and cookies regularly feature in various guises. YQ Fig Newtons offer a masterclass in regenerative baking, recreating the Nabsico-trademarked supermarket variety with a homemade fig conserve using produce sold at the shop, and YQ flour grown at Turners of Bytham and milled at Tuxford Mill. While nostalgia is a key ingredient in most cookies, Stroma takes this up a level with the likes of ravishing ginger snaps, homespun YQ digestives, and jammy thumbprint cookies. These cookies don’t try too hard to impress, but massively over-deliver thanks to top quality ingredients and masterful execution." - Emma Louise Pudge
"Leila’s Shop straddles two units on Shoreditch’s Calvert Avenue: one functions as an eclectic greengrocer’s stacked from floor to ceiling with gourmet food stuffs. The second is a café serving a weekly changing lunch menu, to eat in or in a takeaway returnable tiffin tin, Wednesday — Friday using the ingredients sold next door, which reliably ends with a selection of sweet treats that offer a masterclass in seasonality and provenance. Desserts at Leila’s are led by baker supreme, Stroma Sinclair, formerly head pastry chef at Spring, whose creations include rhubarb and blood orange pavlova, or chocolate mousse cake with cream and kumquats to eat in, or bakes such as malt loaf, almond and quince cake, and homemade ginger snaps to take away. Swiss rolls recur throughout the year in seasonal variations, and a recent highlight was a citrus curd swiss roll that used YQ flour and brown sugar in the sponge, and a filling of Northiam Dairy’s unctuous unsweetened double cream along with a zingy curd featuring Sicilian blood orange, pink grapefruit, lemon, and bergamot. It is as familiar feeling and nostalgic as it is novel and refreshing; this interplay of homeliness and masterful execution being the hallmark of Leila’s cooking." - Emma Louise Pudge
