Godet
Sylvain Bertozzi took a pub on Essex Road, kept the bar and the wine list, and gave the kitchen away to a rotating residency, which is why the food here has already changed hands once (Hot Dinners).
Why go
Bertozzi has run Binch, a small wine bar and bottle shop in Hackney, since 2021, and Hot Dinners calls it "certainly one of the best wine bars in East London". Godet opened on 30 October 2024 in what had been The Seveney, about a mile away and a ten-minute walk from Highbury and Islington. The name is French slang for a glass.
The wine is French and European, listed by dominant grape rather than by region, with tastings and winemaker events run through the year. The opening list was thirteen bottles, from GBP 39 to GBP 65, and the entry-level Chardonnay was a gently sparkling Loire that Catherine Hanly called fabulous (Hot Dinners). Alongside it are nine taps, all UK craft, with takeovers rotating through.
Then there is the kitchen, which is not theirs. At opening the weekday residency was Perk'd Up Burger, a lockdown burger-kit company, with The Ingredientist Kitchen taking Sundays for a roast built on Galician beef and native-breed Dorset pork. By early 2026 the resident is Ling Ling's, Jenny Pheung's Cantonese kitchen, and Jemma Harrison of Kaunter went specifically to eat it (la grappe).
There is a vinyl hi-fi corner with DJs from Wednesday to Sunday. Forty seats inside, twenty in the garden.
Order this / avoid
- Order: a glass of chilled red, which is what the room is for. Whatever the residency is cooking, and ask what it is before you sit down. Something off the taps if a takeover is on. Croquettes and stuffed olives at the bar.
- Avoid: Monday and Tuesday, when it is closed. And do not arrive expecting a specific dish. The kitchen belongs to somebody different each season.
What locals & experts say
- Heidi Lauth Beasley, The Infatuation, December 2024, rated 7.9, on exactly what kind of night this is:
this Islington wine den where Fred Again enthusiasts and juicy pickle-positive burgers exist in perfect harmony with glasses of ruby Gamay
. And the honest limit:Although Godet is more drinking than dining, and more tunes than chewing, the short menu of thick, saucy patties by Perk'd Up Burger and nice little nibbles of the croquette and stuffed olives persuasion are worth getting involved in.
3 - Jemma Harrison, chef at Kaunter, in a chefs' newsletter, on going out of her way for the resident kitchen:
I love to go along to other chefs doing their own residencies. I recently went to Jenny is doing amazing things. She is extremely talented. Get the chicken broth.
The Jenny is Jenny Pheung of Ling Ling's, who cooks at Godet.4 - Catherine Hanly, Hot Dinners, November 2024, whose headline called it a possible future for London boozers:
the arrival of Godet on Essex Road is starting to make this part of Islington a pretty interesting place to come if you're into your wine. We like that they're not too serious about the offering and that they've picked a good food residency to kick off their bar food offering too.
The piece discloses that Hot Dinners were guests.2
Good to know
- Where: 382 Essex Road N1 3PF, the top end near Balls Pond Road. Ten minutes from Highbury and Islington, or use Dalston Junction or Essex Road Overground.
- Timing: Wednesday 5pm to 11pm, Thursday 5pm to midnight, Friday 5pm to 1am, Saturday 3pm to 1am, Sunday 3pm to 9pm. Closed Monday and Tuesday.
- Booking: walk in. Forty seats inside and twenty in the beer garden.
- Price: the venue's own data bands it $$. Wines started at GBP 7.50 a glass and GBP 39 a bottle when it opened; burgers were around GBP 12 under the first residency.
- The food changes: it is a residency, not a house kitchen. Check the venue's channel for who is cooking before you plan an evening around it.
- Music: vinyl hi-fi corner, DJs Wednesday to Sunday.
- Hygiene: the Food Standards Agency rated this premises 2, "improvement necessary", at an Islington inspection on 4 September 2025, FHRSID 1766680. Component scores were hygiene 5, structural 15 and confidence in management 10, where a higher number is worse, so the structure of the building is what drove it. No re-inspection has been recorded in the eleven months since. The venue has no kitchen of its own, so the rating attaches to the premises rather than to whichever residency is cooking.6
- Who runs it: Sylvain Bertozzi, who also owns Binch in Hackney.
Verdict
should-visit — Worth the detour on a Friday, and check what is cooking before you go. Sylvain Bertozzi has run Binch, a small wine bar and bottle shop in Hackney, since 2021, and in October 2024 he took The Seveney on Essex Road and turned it into a pub built around wine, beer and other people's cooking. Godet is French slang for a glass. The list runs French and European, ordered by dominant grape rather than region, with tastings and winemaker events; the entry wine at opening was a gently sparkling Loire Chardonnay. There are nine taps, all UK craft, with takeovers rotating through. And there is no kitchen of the venue's own: the food is a residency, which was smash burgers and a Galician-beef Sunday roast at opening and is Jenny Pheung's Ling Ling's by early 2026, good enough that Jemma Harrison of Kaunter went to eat it and told a chefs' newsletter to get the chicken broth. Heidi Lauth Beasley rated it 7.9 for The Infatuation and was honest about what it is: 'more drinking than dining, and more tunes than chewing', in a room with a vinyl hi-fi corner and DJs Wednesday to Sunday. Forty seats inside, twenty in the garden, open until 1am on Friday and Saturday. One thing to know before you choose it over somewhere else: the Food Standards Agency rated the premises 2 in September 2025 and no re-inspection has been recorded since. That does not stop it being a good room, and it is the reason it is not the first place on a list of three.