The Marksman, Hackney Road: A Michelin-Winning Gastropub Two Minutes from Columbia Road

The Marksman sits at 254 Hackney Road, London E2 7SJ, five minutes on foot from Hoxton Overground, and in 2017 it became the first London pub named Michelin Pub of the Year. It is still a working pub downstairs, with a jukebox and a £7 pint of Five Points Lager, but the gastropub cooking upstairs is the reason to book: the chicken and girolle pie for two was £60 on the 16 October 2026 menu.

Tom Harris and Jon Rotheram, both alumni of St. John, took over what The Nudge describes as a routine Victorian pub in need of a polish and gave it a full refurbishment in 2015. They kept the ground floor as a proper bar, with varnished wood floors, a traditional counter and furniture that looks like it has always been there, and put the serious cooking on the floor above.

The upstairs dining room was designed by Martino Gamper, and it is light and plain in a way the bar below is not. Two years after the reopening, the Michelin Eating Out in Pubs Guide 2017 named it Pub of the Year, noting it also held a Bib Gourmand. Editor Rebecca Burr called it a proper neighbourhood pub first and foremost, which is still the right way to approach it.

The bar is where to start, and on a Tuesday or Wednesday it is the only option early on: the pub opens at 4pm those days but the kitchen does not start until 6pm. From Thursday to Saturday the kitchen runs midday to 3pm and again from 6pm to 10pm, while Sunday food is served midday to 4pm and 6pm to 9pm. Monday does not appear on the opening hours at all.

Bar snacks make a cheap introduction. On the dated Friday 16 October menu, a curried goat bun with salt lime yoghurt was £7.50 and a crumbed pig's cheek with pickled onion and lovage mayonnaise was £5.50. Caraway and black treacle sourdough with cultured butter was another £5.50, and a single Porthilly oyster costs £5.50. Order two of those with a Guinness at £7 before going upstairs.

The chicken and girolle pie for two at £60 is the dish people talk about, and it arrives as a full pie rather than an individual pot. The other sharing plate is a Hereford wing rib with horseradish for two at £85. If you are eating alone, the Tamworth sausage with mash and chanterelles at £32 or grilled pigeon with bread sauce and pickled prune at £29 are the mains to look at.

Starters on the same sheet included crumbed cod's cheeks with tartare sauce at £15 and duck hearts with braised onion on toast at £14. Hand-cut chips with mayonnaise are £6.50. For pudding, the Guinness and dark chocolate soft serve at £9 is the one to try, since it borrows from the bar downstairs, while burnt cheesecake with poached plums is £10. A Negroni costs £12 and an Orchard Sour £13.

Sunday lunch is a set menu of two courses at £42 or three courses at £48. The August 2026 Sunday sheet listed roast Hereford rump with Yorkshire pudding and horseradish cream, roast Sutton Hoo chicken and grilled Cornish sole, with the Hereford wing rib for two available at a £25 supplement. Brown butter and honey tart closed the list, and extra roast potatoes cost £5 a portion.

The Nudge pitches the Sunday crowd well: people heading to or from Columbia Road Flower Market, sometimes with a dog, stopping for a bun on the roof terrace. Sunday is also the busiest service, so book through OpenTable from the pub's website rather than walking in at 1pm. For groups of nine or more, the pub moves you onto a feasting menu at £70 per person instead of the à la carte.

This is not cheap pub grub. With mains around £29 to £32, a 12.5% discretionary service charge and a £1 WaterAid donation added per guest for filtered water, two people sharing the pie with starters and wine can pass £120. If you want a quick weekday lunch, it will not work either, because there is no kitchen at lunchtime on Tuesday or Wednesday and Monday is not on the schedule.

If the dining room is full, the bar still serves snacks on Thursday to Saturday afternoons, and that is a decent consolation. On a Sunday morning, the better plan B is to treat Columbia Road as breakfast and come back for a later 6pm sitting, when the market crowd has gone home and the kitchen is calmer. Private dining upstairs takes 45, and the whole pub can be hired for up to 100.

Columbia Road Flower Market runs on Sundays from 8am until about 3pm on Columbia Road, E2 7RG, and the walk from the pub is about 200 metres, or two to three minutes. Arrive early for the best stems and the least elbowing, then walk back up to Hackney Road. Hoxton Overground station is around 400 metres west of the pub, and Cambridge Heath is about 870 metres east, roughly twelve minutes on foot.

The Marksman's roof terrace is the place to sit on a dry afternoon, and The Nudge lists the pub among London's dog-friendly restaurants, so expect the odd spaniel under a table on Sundays. The same guide calls it a proppa Hackney boozer, and the jukebox and the varnished bar downstairs are the reason the description fits even when the dining room above is fully booked.

Address: 254 Hackney Road, London E2 7SJ. Pub hours: Tuesday and Wednesday 4pm to midnight, Thursday to Saturday midday to midnight, Sunday midday to 11pm. Kitchen: Tuesday and Wednesday 6pm to 10pm; Thursday to Saturday midday to 3pm and 6pm to 10pm; Sunday midday to 4pm and 6pm to 9pm. Bookings via OpenTable, linked from the pub's website.

Who it suits: Sunday lunch groups, couples sharing the pie, and Columbia Road shoppers who want a proper drink afterwards. Who it does not suit: anyone after a cheap plate of chips or a Monday dinner. The menu changes daily, so the dishes above are a snapshot of mid-October 2026. Ask the Karpo APP for another east London pub nearby if you want a pint without dinner.