Last Updated on October 7, 2026 by Halal Food Guy
East London has been busy. Over the last few weeks I’ve had a load of new openings land in my DMs and on my feed, from Walthamstow all the way out to Romford, so rather than one post each, here’s a roundup of the new spots worth knowing about.
As always, halal status varies from place to place, so I’ve put what each restaurant has told me or says publicly under every spot. If anything’s marked to be confirmed, ask on the day before you order.
Mythéa, Walthamstow
Let’s start with the prices, because they’re the headline here. Mythéa’s light lunch menu is two courses for £9.99 or three for £11.99, served 12pm to 4pm. For that you can have salt and pepper calamari, grilled goat’s cheese on sourdough or hummus with pitta to start, then a 6oz sirloin steak with chunky chips and peppercorn sauce, thyme and lemon grilled chicken, salmon or a homemade burger, and finish with crème brûlée or one of their crêpes. In London, at a sit-down restaurant, that’s almost unheard of.
Dinner is great value too. All the starters are £5.99, most mains are £14.99, the 10oz chargrilled sirloin is £19.99 and the burger is £12.99, with sides at £2.80 and desserts and crêpes at £4.45. So two people could do starters, mains and a dessert each without it getting silly.
Mythéa opened on 10 September on Forest Road and it’s a proper sit-down restaurant: Mediterranean cooking with a French twist, so think seafood, chargrilled meats, risotto, and handmade crêpes to finish.
Now the important bit. I messaged them to ask about halal, and they were really open about it. The meat itself is halal and they have certificates for all of it, which they’re happy to show you when you visit. But not every dish is halal. On the dinner menu, the pâté and the carpaccio starters are not halal, the slow-braised beef isn’t halal because it’s cooked with wine, and the sauces that come with the lamb and the poulet farci aren’t halal either. They told me they do have halal replacement sauces. On the lunch menu, only the pâté is not halal.
Their advice is to tell the front-of-house team that you need halal when you arrive, and they’ll steer you to the right dishes and make any swaps. One more thing worth knowing from their menus: the Crêpes Suzette is made with Grand Marnier, the Crêpe Créole with Malibu, and the dinner sirloin comes with a red wine jus, so ask about those too. It’s also a restaurant and bar, so alcohol is served. Credit to them for being straight about it, that’s exactly what we want from restaurants.
📍 Mythéa, 530 Forest Road, Walthamstow, London E17 4NB
📅 Opened 10 September 2026
🕛 Mon to Wed 12pm to 9pm, Thu to Sat 12pm to 10pm, Sun 12pm to 9pm
💷 Lunch 12pm to 4pm: 2 courses £9.99, 3 courses £11.99
⚠️ Halal-certified meat, but some dishes and sauces are not halal (see above). Tell staff you need halal
🍺 Alcohol served
📸 @mythea_walthamstow
🗺️ Open in Google Maps
Pradas Mediterranean Restaurant, Walthamstow
Stay on Forest Road and head a bit further up and you’ll find Pradas, another new Mediterranean spot, this one with garden and indoor seating and a covered terrace. Forest Road is quietly turning into a decent little dining strip.
The menu is built around the chargrill: 30-day dry-aged steaks (£24.50 to £25.50), a mixed grill for £38.50, Mediterranean chicken, plus seafood and pasta like salt and pepper squid and harissa king prawns. They’ve also just launched a Sunday roast, two courses for £25 or three for £29, served from noon to 6pm, and if you’ve read this blog for a while you know I’m always on the hunt for a good halal roast.
Pradas has حلال right at the top of its Instagram bio and says it’s halal on its website. There’s no regular alcohol on the menu either; the drinks list is alcohol-free spirits and 0.0% wines.
📍 Pradas, 841 Forest Road, Walthamstow, London E17 4AT
📅 Now open
🕛 Tue to Sat 12pm to 10pm, Sun 12pm to 9pm, closed Mondays
✅ Halal (as stated by the restaurant)
🍹 No alcohol, alcohol-free drinks menu
📸 @pradas.walthamstow
🗺️ Open in Google Maps
Birdy & Burger, Barking
This one’s from the owners of Elvet Steakhouse London, so the people behind it know their meat, and it’s now open, a few minutes’ walk from Upney station. Birdy & Burger does smash burgers and fried chicken, with fresh patties smashed to order (never frozen), hand-breaded chicken and sauces made in-house. The whole place is 100% certified halal.
The menu goes way beyond the usual. The Birdy Signature (£9) is two smashed patties with a fried egg, beef bacon, onion jam and their Alabama and smash sauces. The Oklahoma Original (£7) does smashed patties with grilled onions. Then there are Korean Buldak and hot honey chicken burgers, bao buns at £5, mozzarella melts, rice and mac and cheese bowls, and steak boxes using halal grass-fed Australian Angus from £10. Add fries and a drink to any burger for £3. Prices are very friendly for London.
It’s eat-in or takeaway at the counter, with delivery currently within a mile by phone, and Uber Eats and Just Eat coming soon.
📍 Birdy & Burger, 7 Edgefield Ave, Barking IG11 9JP
📅 Now open
🕛 Mon to Thu 11am to 11pm, Fri and Sat 11am to midnight, Sun 12pm to 10:30pm
✅ 100% certified halal
📞 Orders 020 8054 4625
📸 @birdyandburger
🗺️ Open in Google Maps
Cheezious, Ilford Lane
When I posted that the signs were up a couple of weeks ago, loads of you got excited, and now it’s open. I went down to Ilford Lane to check it out myself and grabbed the menus, which you can see below. Cheezious is one of Pakistan’s biggest pizza brands. Two friends started it in Okara in 2012 with a pizza made for the Pakistani palate, and it’s grown to more than 50 branches back home. Ilford Lane is its first site outside Pakistan, and they’ve gone all out on the fit-out: bright yellow frontage, neon signs and a self-order kiosk.
The one everyone talks about is the Crown Crust pizza (from £11.99), with its crown-shaped crust and special marinated chicken, and there’s a Stuff Crust where you pick a kebab or cheese edge (from £13.99). The rest of the pizzas are the desi favourites you’d expect, tikka, fajita, tandoori and kebab, plus beef pepperoni. They also do Bazinga crispy chicken burgers, pastas, wings and fried chicken.
The deals are where it gets good value: two Bazinga burgers, fries and two drinks for £9.99, or the Family Fest (four burgers, four pieces of chicken, large fries and a 1.5 litre drink) for £25.99. Soft drinks come with unlimited refills when you eat in. It’s halal and there’s no alcohol, so it’s an easy one for the whole family.
📍 Cheezious, 114 Ilford Lane, Ilford IG1 2LE
📅 Now open (I visited)
✅ Halal
🍹 No alcohol
📸 @cheezious.unitedkingdom
🗺️ Open in Google Maps
Bronson’s Burgers, Canary Wharf
Bronson’s started on Mare Street in Hackney and has been growing steadily, and Canary Wharf is its newest site, in the Wharf Kitchen food court on level -2 of Jubilee Place. It’s now open, and it launched with 50% off the whole menu for the first three days.
It’s all about dry-aged British beef, hand-pressed and smashed to order, plus chicken burgers, strips, loaded fries and shakes. Bronson’s is fully halal and doesn’t serve alcohol, which makes it a handy one for the Canary Wharf lunch crowd.
📍 Bronson’s Burgers, Wharf Kitchen, Level -2, Jubilee Place, 45 Bank Street, London E14 5NY
📅 Now open
✅ Fully halal
🍹 No alcohol
📸 @bronsonsburgers
🗺️ Open in Google Maps
Ember, Romford
Out in Collier Row, Ember opened on 28 August, serving what it calls British Asian fusion. Going by their opening posts, expect grills, skewers and plenty of spice. They opened with 25% off the whole menu for the first week, live entertainment, and kids eating free from the kids’ menu (one free kids’ meal per paying adult). Keep an eye on their page for more offers like that.
It’s halal and there’s no alcohol, so it’s a good option for a family meal out in Romford.
📍 Ember, 7 Chase Cross Road, Collier Row, Romford RM5 3PJ
📅 Opened 28 August 2026
✅ Halal
🍹 No alcohol
📸 @embergrill.co
🗺️ Open in Google Maps
P.F. Chang’s, Westfield Stratford
And in case you missed it, P.F. Chang’s has opened its second London restaurant, at Westfield Stratford City on The Loft mezzanine level. Mongolian beef, Dynamite Shrimp and those famous chicken lettuce wraps are all on the menu. All the food is halal, but alcohol is served. I’ve covered it in full here.
📍 P.F. Chang’s, Unit LR01, The Loft (Mezzanine Level), Westfield Stratford City, London E20 1EJ
📅 Opened 21 September 2026
✅ All food halal
🍺 Alcohol served
📸 @pfchangsasiantable
🗺️ Open in Google Maps
That’s the lot for now. If you’ve been to any of these, let me know what you thought, and if there’s a new opening near you that I’ve missed, send it my way on Instagram @halalfoodguy.
