Bistro Freddie in Shoreditch: £24 French Bistro Quick Lunch

Bistro Freddie, at 74 Luke Street, London EC2A 4PY, sells a two-course Quick Lunch for £24, and that is the easiest way into one of East London's most talked-about bistros. Lunch runs Monday to Saturday from 12pm to 3pm, dinner from 6pm to 11pm, and the doors stay shut on Sunday. If you are hunting for a french bistro near me between Old Street and Liverpool Street, this candlelit room with an open kitchen is the one locals argue about.

Restaurateur Dominic Hamdy opened Bistro Freddie in late summer 2023. He had already launched the all-day restaurant Crispin in Spitalfields in 2018 and later Bar Crispin in Soho. He named this place after his father, Freddie, who he says taught him the art of generous hospitality. The site was previously Oklava, the Turkish-Cypriot restaurant, and the new owners turned it into a classically styled French bistro.

The cooking follows a clear brief, printed on the website: British seasonal produce seen through a French lens. Anna Søgaard, who came from Erst in Manchester, led the kitchen at opening. Since September 2024 the head chef has been Alexandre Laforce Reynolds, who keeps the bistro classics on the menu but cooks them with British ingredients, from Guinness bread to coronation chicken. The wine list is all French and focused on what the team calls real wines that reflect a sense of place.

Designer Jermaine Gallacher dressed the room with nicotine-yellow walls, leather banquettes, a lacquered wood bar and starched white cloths with paper on top. Works by artists including Ben Burgis hang on the walls, and The Nudge noted candles on every table. The website describes rich burgundy interiors and an open kitchen. It is a small, warm room rather than a grand brasserie.

At launch the bistro held 45 covers, including a 12-seat kitchen counter. The counter is the best seat in the house for one or two people. Hot Dinners sat there to chat with the chefs and called it ideal for solo diners, and Harden's fans say they are happy just to sit at the bar and watch the chefs in action. Ask for the counter when you book if you want a view of the grill.

Start with Guinness bread and butter at £5.50 and Comté gougères at £4.50 per person. The chicken liver parfait comes with more of that Guinness bread for £13, and steak tartare with fried bread is £17 as a starter or £28 as a main. The crab crumpet with bisque at £18 is the dish that shows off the British-meets-French idea best.

Two sharing dishes for two people anchor the menu, each at £55: a grilled pork chop with peach and Bordelaise sauce, and a coronation chicken pie. The pie is the one to order if this is your first visit, because nowhere in Paris would serve it. For one person, the cod schnitzel with beurre blanc tartare is £30 and the grilled lamb Barnsley chop with Romana courgettes is £42. Chips with mayonnaise are £7.

The Quick Lunch is the bargain. It costs £24 for two courses or £29 for three, and the September set offers chicken liver parfait or a leek fondue flatbread to start, tuna Niçoise salad or a tomato and Westcombe curd tart fine for the main course, and sticky toffee pudding or a strawberry baked Alaska to finish. That is a full bistro lunch for less than the price of the lamb chop.

Every bill carries a discretionary 12.5% service charge and £1 per person for unlimited still or sparkling Belu filtered water, so budget for both. Tables for up to seven are booked online through OpenTable on the bistro's website. Groups of eight or more, private hire, events and catering go through the enquiry form. For private hire the room holds up to 80 people standing.

Most reviewers love it. Harden's calls it a buzzy little bistro. There is a minority view, though, that it is all a bit too cool for school, and the Financial Times critic Tim Hayward wrote in November 2024 that it just doesn't work. If you want a strictly classic Paris bistro with no British twists, this is not your room. If you like a menu that puts coronation chicken in a pie next to steak tartare, you will be happy.

Plan around Sunday. The bistro is closed all day, and an older review from The Nudge listed lunch from Tuesday only, but the official site now gives lunch Monday to Saturday. If you are free only on Sunday, Josephine in Chelsea opens every day of the week. On weekdays, arrive at 12pm for the Quick Lunch and you can be back at your desk well inside an hour.

Bistro Freddie sits on a quiet street between Old Street and Shoreditch, so the walk there passes some of the area's best galleries. Autograph, on Rivington Place in the same EC2A postcode, has championed photography about race, identity, representation and human rights since 1988, and it offers free tickets. Book a free slot before an early dinner and you can see a show and still make a 6pm table.

The official website says the bistro is a few minutes' walk from Shoreditch High Street station and close to Liverpool Street, while Hot Dinners names Old Street as the nearest Tube station. Any of the three works. Coming from the City, Liverpool Street gives you a short walk up through the edge of Shoreditch; coming from the north, Old Street is the quicker choice.

Address: Bistro Freddie, 74 Luke Street, London EC2A 4PY. Email: info@bistrofreddie.com. Stations: Shoreditch High Street, Liverpool Street and Old Street. Hours: Monday to Saturday, lunch 12pm to 3pm and dinner 6pm to 11pm; closed Sunday. Booking: OpenTable for up to seven guests. Charges: 12.5% discretionary service and £1 per person for filtered water.

First visit plan: book two counter seats for a weekday lunch, take the £29 three-course Quick Lunch with the baked Alaska, and add a crab crumpet to share. Then walk to Autograph for a free show.