Sager + Wilde Paradise Row, Bethnal Green – tried and tasted

What was once a hip wine bar has blossomed into an exciting restaurant in its own right — but don’t worry, there’s still plenty of wine
On the menu: Wine bar Mission has become a fully-fledged restaurant
Ben Norum12 December 2017

If you haven’t been keeping close tabs on things, you might have missed the fact that London now has two Sager + Wilde sites. There’s the original on Hackney Road, which shook up London’s wine scene when it launched in the summer of 2013 and became a legend in its own lunchtime. And then there’s this newcomer on Bethnal Green’s Paradise Row, which was until recently known as Mission.

Run by the same team, Mission has been praised as being another of the city’s greatest wine bars since its inception in September 2014, but there was one problem — it was never meant to be a wine bar at all.

Mission was always meant to be a restaurant, it just didn’t really end up that way, admitted owner Michael Sager.

He has addressed that by bringing on board Australian chef Sebastien Myers — previously head chef at Chiltern Firehouse and before that Viajante — along with an experienced front-of-house team, and kicking off an ambitious four-course menu.

He has also brought in cocktail guru Marcis Dzelzainis — formerly of 69 Colebrooke Row, Dandelyan and Satan’s Whiskers to oversee drinks, including an upstairs cocktail bar specialising in Old Fashioneds. An overhauled outdoor dining area completes the transformation and ensures the restaurant is new in more than just name.

View from the terrace: sager + Wilde from outside

Style and surrounds

The plethora of dining options begins on the outside terrace, where rows of picnic benches ensure plenty of space for both diners and drinkers. A wooden kiosk is staffed at busy times to ensure service is swift.

Inside, the restaurant is simple but stylish, with high-back chairs and bare-wood tables filling an otherwise rather plain, arch-roofed space.

The newly-launched Old Fashioned bar upstairs is much more interesting. It's decked out like a study, with leather sofas, bookcases and a desk. The mixing scents of burning candles and leather is enough to transport you to a much more old fashioned time before you've even had a drink.

When Mission was young, one of the main criticisms it received was that service wasn’t up to scratch. Given the efficient, friendly and knowledgeable treatment of customers throughout the restaurant’s three sections on our visit, this is a problem which can be considered fixed.

Cocktail lounge: The upstairs bar serving Old Fashioneds

On the menu

Those who have enjoyed the clever cooking a couple of doors down at Paradise Garage will be encouraged to hear that the dishes on Sager + Wilde’s new four-course menu run in a similar vein. That is: well-sourced produce, imaginatively assembled and inventively served.

A regularly changing four-course menu (£42) comes with the option of three separately priced additional courses, or it’s £55 for the lot — including several not listed snacks and amuse bouche.

Goldilocks would approve: Crab porridge 

Top billing goes to a bowl of lusciously creamy crab porridge made from millet and rice, which is given a rich tang by the addition of brown crab meat and served Goldilocks style in a porcelain bowl with a wooden spoon — a stand-out.

Other highlights, of which there are many, include skewered cockles marinated with flavours such as szechuan peppercorn and served on beach pebbles; a gamey duck breast paired with deep red cherries the same colour as its rare flesh; and a beautifully contrasted bowl of delicate wild herbs, peas, broad beans and edible flowers cloaked in a gutsy pork broth.

Contrasting: Delicate herbs and meaty pork broth

Something sweet

The menu wraps up in characteristically interesting fashion with a dessert of nutty and unashamedly yeasty sake lees ice cream served with strawberries and honey flavoured wild woodruff.

Liquid libations

The all-new Sager + Wilde may be serious about its food, but that doesn’t mean the drinks are any less of a priority.

Twenty-odd interesting and unusual cocktails see classics nestled alongside the likes of Carrot Cake Punch featuring coconut, caraway, walnut, lemon, orange, cream and rum along with carrot juice; and a particularly refreshing Wax & Smoke — a twist on a Paloma — featuring tequila, mezcal, grapefruit and a bee pollen liqueur.

Upstairs, five different Old Fashioneds are served. A must-try is one which pairs olive oil bourbon with sandalwood syrup and olive olive leaf bitters, which has a viscous finish and robustly herbaceous flavour. Another with toasted coconut bourbon and vanilla syrup is a lighter and sweeter option.

London's best wine bars

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Last — but by no means least — there is the wine which made Sager + Wilde famous in the first place. A list that spans more than 250 bottles features a prominent selection of orange wines and pushes natural and biodynamic options. Its pricing structure means that if you feel like splashing out on something special you’ll be getting a particularly reasonable mark-up.

If you’re unsure, let the team guide you. They know what they’re doing and are not the upselling types.

Sager + Wilde Paradise Row: The Lowdown

Final flavour: This revitalised wine bar, cocktail lounge and creative, high-flying restaurant is three venues in one — and each of them is a winner. For a luxurious but lazy night out, start with a drink and stay for dinner before retiring for a couple of Old Fashioneds.

At what cost? The set menu costs £42 for four courses or £55 for 7. Old Fashioneds, and most of the other cocktails, are £10 each. Bottles of wine start at £25.

Visit if you like: Paradise Garage, Craft, The Clove Club.

Follow Ben Norum on Twitter @BenNorum

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