Facing Heaven — Restaurant in London

The moment you arrive at this little place on the corner you know they're located where they should be: it simply emanates East London hipster vibes in a charming sort of way. The clientele are mostly cool 20-30 somethings willing to sit on small stools in very cosy environs in order to get a hit of the unique vegan flavours on offer.

Looking at the menu, Facing Heaven is an interesting proposition - all items are entirely plant-based. However, it might be a tad inauthentic to say they serve Chinese food as they're quite far along on the journey towards experimentation. There are certainly hints coming through in some of the flavours, of which the waitress kindly informed us mostly originate from the Szechuan region of China. However, when you read the modest menu of roughly 12 items, you'll be inclined to say 'fusion cuisine' of an Asian persuasion might be a better categorisation.

Highlights included the worryingly named chicken-fried shrooms with their meaty texture and the wrap for which you'll need to drop the chopsticks and go all hands in - a good mix of soft and chewy textures and savoury flavours with a hit of umami.

In all, the food tends toward being flavoursome but rich - absolutely do not come here with the expectation of eating healthily! Nearly all dishes were heaving in oil, and if you're unlucky, consumption will almost guarantee an excess of stomach acid. Thus, an alkali salad to balance is recommended amongst the tapas-sized plates available. Similarly, ensure you have at least one of those green bottles of tap water handy. Our waitress was too busy to bring us additional ones so we helped ourselves.

Given the above, the food here is not the cheapest - expect to pay upwards of £20 to satiate a hungry belly with what is effectively fast food. The waitress recommended ordering 5 dishes to my dining partner and I, but between us we could've avoided over-indulging with just 4. The good thing is that if you under-order, the food arrives quick enough that you won't be left hungry for long.

A booking is recommended as the restaurant was nearly full at 8pm on a Tuesday night. There was just one person serving nearly 25 patrons with the occasional chef stepping out of the open kitchen to lend a hand. We did wait nearly 15 minutes for the waitress to bring us a paper menu, but service improved somewhat thereafter.

Overall, a good proposition but not high on the 'To Try' list. There are better restaurants in London if you're after more traditional Chinese fare. But for its experimental value and Hackney charm, this restaurant is worth a visit if you happen...

Overall: The food is excellent, as is the service. The atmosphere is cool. Prices are reasonable. Will come back to try more.

We came on a Friday evening and the restaurant was packed from the start of our meal to the end. Definitely make a reservation. The atmosphere reminds you of an old school American diner, but with modern updates. Most of the seating is stools which are not very comfortable, but otherwise the atmosphere is good. Think low lighting, old school rock and charmingly no frills.

At first, we were apprehensive as most of the beers and some of the food had already ran out. But, otherwise the service was extremely good. Our water was filled up frequently, dirty plates were taken quickly and the food came out at a good pace (2-3 dishes at a time). I think this was one of the best service experiences I have had in London. They came and checked in on us, how we liked the food, were friendly and I cannot stress how good they were at getting us more water without me having to ask (I find this is always a problem in London).

We ordered the potato salad, dumplings, dan dan noodles, rice cakes, char siu and french toast. The food was all good, and the potato salad, dan dan noodles, rice cakes and french toast are dishes we will come back for. I thought the dumplings and char siu were just ok. The food is not necessarily authentic, but it is really, really well cooked and well seasoned. We also got 3 PBRs. In total we paid £90, which is very reasonable for the amount of food and drinks for two people.

They do have one large table which can fit 8-10 people, though I would recommend coming with a smaller group. I can’t wait to come back and try more! After only one visit, I am already rating it as one of my preferred...

Firstly, the 80s decor here is spot on! Shout out to the lazy susan too, made sharing so much easier. Then there's the food... OK, first a warning: the menu seems to be updated regularly, so the dishes you see on social might not be available when you visit. We'd hoped to try the ribs and the prawn toast, but these weren't on the menu last night. However, we weren't disappointed for long! We ordered the tofu and tomato salad (their take on a traditional caprese), the jalepeno poppers, the chick'n fried shrooms, the famous dan dan noodles and the chop curry. This was to share between 3, leaving room for dessert. I was expecting the noodles to be the star of the show but it was the mushroom and poppers that had us talking all the way home. I'd HIGHLY recommend both. We tried both dessert options between us - the Hong Kong French toast and the ice cream with chilli oil. I didn't personally try the latter but am told it was tasty and HOT. We definitely should have shared just one portion of the toast between us as the portion is enormous! Like, I-still-have-half-of-one-in-my-fridge kind of enormous. Really good though, would again recommend. The service was impeccable throughout our visit despite it getting slowly busier to the point of full capacity (including a VERY famous celeb) - hats off to the fantastic staff on both sides of the counter! My only 'wish' would be for a phone number. I made a mistake and booked for the wrong day, didn't realise until the day of and wasn't able to contact the restaurant directly. Thankfully I was able to change my booking via Resy, but it took me a few minutes of panic before I realised this and I think I was very lucky that there was still a...