Bake Street
Three working London chefs name this counter in three separate interviews, two of them for the burger and two for the cookie (Trippin).
Why go
It is a small room on a quiet residential road opposite Rectory Road station, run by siblings Amirah and Feroz Gajia, and it does two jobs. Through the week it is a bakery and coffee counter. At the weekend the specials board goes up and the queue starts, because that is when the fried chicken sandwiches and the burgers appear (Hot Dinners).
The Infatuation's Rianne Shlebak scored it 8.1 in November 2023 and put the shape of a visit plainly: "Bake Street needs a conquer and divide mentality. One person gets the goods, the other secures the table." All the seating is outside and there are no reservations.
What moves week to week is the reason to check before you go. The soft serve flavours turn over constantly, the specials are weekend-only, and Emily Yeoh's own advice is to follow the Instagram to see what the weekend menu is. Note that the old website, bakestreet.co.uk, is gone: the domain now sells online-casino sign-up bonuses, and most listings still link to it.
Order this / avoid
- Order: the smashburger, then the Nashville hot chicken bun, then a creme brulee cookie. If the fish cutter is on, the Bajan-spiced fish comes out bigger than its bun. Take the extra consomme with the birria tacos.
- Avoid: the tom yum chicken bun, which The Infatuation found "can get a little sickly after a few bites". A weekday visit gets you the bakery and not the specials.
What locals & experts say
- Emily Yeoh, founder of Two Hot Asians, in Trippin, August 2024:
He's obsessed with the creme brulee cookie (there's a reason it went viral with queues round the block). Their smashed burgers are, in my opinion, the best in London. Also, the smashed patty melt and the birria totchos (like nachos, but on tater tots) are also up there as my fave.
1 - Cynthia Shanmugalingam, chef-founder of Rambutan, asked by TOPJAW for the best burger in London, November 2024:
smash burger at Bake Street, the butter chicken burger they do.
6 - Florence Mae Maglanoc, chef-owner of Donia, asked by TOPJAW for the best bakery, March 2024:
the cremet cookie from Bake Street. Amazing stuff.
The transcript garbles creme brulee.7 - Rianne Shlebak, The Infatuation, November 2023, 8.1: on the smashburger,
The elements that are soft are unbelievably soft (cc: meat, brioche bun) and the other parts are perfectly crisp (cc: pickles, fried shallots). The whole thing is a five-biter that'll leave you wanting more.
On the Nashville hot chicken:We're pretty sure this chicken grew up taking baths in spicy oil.
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Good to know
- Where: 58 Evering Road, Lower Clapton N16 7SR, opposite Rectory Road station.
- Timing: daytime, Tuesday to Sunday, finishing in the afternoon. The specials are a weekend thing.
- Booking: none taken. Seating is all outside and there is not much of it, so send one person to queue and one to hold a table.
- Website: there isn't one any more. The old bakestreet.co.uk address now runs an online-casino affiliate site, so ignore the link in most listings. The live channel is Instagram.
- Diet: The Infatuation tags the venue halal.
- Sites: one. The FSA holds a single Bake Street nationally.
- Hygiene: the FSA holds this premises at 3, rated 6 August 2019, under Hackney. Three is Generally Satisfactory. The inspection is seven years old, so it is weak evidence in either direction, and it is recorded here rather than left off. FHRSID 1170515.
Verdict
should-visit — Worth the detour, and three working chefs say so without being asked. Emily Yeoh of Two Hot Asians calls the smashed burgers 'the best in London'. Cynthia Shanmugalingam of Rambutan names the same burger. Florence Mae Maglanoc of Donia picks the creme brulee cookie as the best bakery item in the city. Three separate operators named three separate pieces over one year, which is the strongest evidence class we collect short of Jeff eating there himself. Siblings Amirah and Feroz Gajia run it out of a small room on a residential road opposite Rectory Road station, and the counter does two jobs: a bakery through the week and a weekend brunch operation whose specials board is the reason people queue. The Infatuation's Rianne Shlebak scored it 8.1 and described the burger as 'a five-biter', while saying plainly that the tom yum chicken bun does not work. There are no bookings, the seating is all on the pavement, and the last hygiene inspection was in 2019 and came back a three. Held at should-visit because the evidence, strong as it is, all predates 2025.