Counter 71
A Home Office change to the skilled-worker visa list took the head chef out of this 16-seat counter, and rather than replace him the owners changed the restaurant, so Counter 71 stopped trading in May 2026 and the same marble counter reopened on 3 June as Appalachia.
Why go
You cannot, and that is the entry. Joe Laker opened here in June 2023 in a long-shut corner pub five minutes north of Old Street, with 16 covers, one seating a night and a 15-course modern British menu at 110 pounds (Restaurant). He came off Roots, Elystan Street, St Leonards and Anglo, and had been head chef at Fenn until it closed earlier that year. The successor kept almost everything except the cooking: Camilla Meshiea and Ryan Sheehan still own it, Harry Copper still runs the wine list, Lowcountry is still in the basement, and Alistair Borer, the first head chef at Smoking Goat, now cooks over fire at the same counter.
Order this / avoid
- Order: nothing, at this name. What the counter served was a langoustine custard with crab and buttermilk to open, Montgomery cheddar in both a beetroot tartlet and a cheese and onion gougere, and a non-alcoholic pairing that a visiting head chef rated above the wine.
- Avoid: trying to book it. The counter runs as Appalachia now, under a different chef and a different cuisine.
What locals & experts say
- Leonie Cooper, food and drink editor at Time Out London, four stars out of five, on the snack that made the case:
A nifty cheese and onion gougere came on like a glammed-up Greggs bake (which, if there was any doubt, is a serious compliment).
4 - Chris Golding, executive chef at NIJU, asked on TOPJAW where to go, named
Counter 71, Joe Laker's place
and said of the non-alcoholic drinks thatthey are fantastic.
8 - Joe Lutrario, Restaurant magazine, reporting the handover rather than judging it:
Appalachia has taken over the former Counter 71 site and is run by much of the same team, with the notable exception of former Counter 71 head chef Joe Laker, who has moved on from the Shoreditch restaurant.
3 - Sam Scott, head chef at Ozone Coffee, named it on TOPJAW in 2024 as somewhere he was desperate to try. That is a wishlist answer, so it is recorded as one and not counted as a vote.
Good to know
- Status: closed under this name. The venue's own domain now carries one line,
Counter 71 is now
, and a booking link to Appalachia1. - Where: 71 Nile Street, N1 7RD, on the Shoreditch and Hoxton border. Time Out files it under Hoxton, and other listings say Shoreditch.
- What replaced it: Appalachia, open since 3 June 2026, cooking the American South over fire, with the Lowcountry cocktail bar underneath5.
- Why it changed: The Caterer reported that head chef Ryo Iwayama left after skilled-worker visa changes removed many hospitality roles from the list, and the team used the moment to relaunch6.
- Hygiene: the FSA register holds the site as
Counter 71 / Low Country
, rating 5, inspected 3 June 20257.
Verdict
listed — It earns a pin as history and nothing more, because you cannot eat here. Joe Laker put 16 people at one marble counter for a 15-course British menu at 110 pounds and Time Out's food editor gave it four stars, so the cooking was real. What ended it was not the food. A visa-rule change took the head chef, the owners used the gap to change concept, and Laker left. Craft carries the most weight in a ruling and there is no current craft at this address under this name, so the rung goes no higher and the send moves to whoever is cooking at the counter now. The room, the sommelier and the basement bar all survived, which is the argument for sending people to Appalachia rather than mourning this.