Perilla

"Perilla is one of north east London’s moodiest dinner spots. The restaurant on the corner of Newington Green has the capacity to serve a whole hollowed-out onion’s worth of flavour, and its set menu is an excellent choice for a classy, low-key special occasion. The food is familiar flavours ramped up to the max, and combined with its low-lit, hands-across-the-table ambience, it makes for one of the best neighbourhood set menus around." - jake missing, sinead cranna, rianne shlebak

"£66 for five courses A stroll past and peek into Perilla’s flickering dining room on a Saturday night will make anyone’s heart flutter. If the Newington Green restaurant could bottle its atmosphere then Le Labo would be in serious trouble. Its tasting menu mixes the feel and flavours of a modern European sharing plates restaurant with somewhere a little more fiddly. Dishes bounce around seasonally but, in our experience, pastry is treated immensely well and a moppable beurre blanc will probably pop up too." - jake missing

"Perilla offers an inventive, contemporary and refined spin on seasonal British cooking. Diners can choose from a relatively succinct daily changing menu (octopus bolognese; cultured cream and roasted nut soup served in a burnt onion; grilled and pressed radicchio with blood orange and sheeps curd) or go all-in for the four course plus snacks set menu of the day (£66.) It’s proper, near fine dining, but in a relaxed setting, and appears to have gone from strength to strength since opening in late autumn 2016." - Ed Smith

"If your idea of the perfect neighbourhood restaurant is a spacious and shabby-chic corner spot serving dishes like chocolate tart with a peanut and salted caramel base, then Perilla is the place for you. Come evening this classy (but decidedly casual) fine dining-ish restaurant is glowing from the yellow of dancing candles inside and, for £66, you can enjoy a four-dish tasting menu that will more often than not play with your idea of the classics. Think leek, potato, and aged comté rarebit, or a variety of sensational tart. As far date night restaurants with a difference go, Perilla up there." - Jake Oliver, Daisy Meager, Heidi Lauth Beasley

"Sure, it’s slightly alarming that it took you exactly fourteen minutes to choose the love heart you had permanently tattooed on your arm - forever - yet you’ve been known to spend close to an hour deciding between two flavours of Pot Noodle. We understand, food is important, and this is something tasting-menu-only spot, Perilla agrees on. This Newington Green spot is one of those casual fine dining places where you’ll find things like seaweed risotto, perfectly cooked lamb, and some damn good bread, as well as lots of delicate yellow candlelight." - heidi lauth beasley, jake missing