From freshly baked morning pastries to colourful, photogenic lunches, beautiful cakes and bakes, and inventive seasonal dinners, this new Hackney café has all the trappings of a thriving social hub. And the fact that the kitchen is a collaborative effort from student and professional chefs only adds to OKN1’s appeal at a time when community, craft and creativity are highly-prized in the capital. Made with passion and pride by a diverse team of promising student chefs and like-minded professionals, you’ll find dishes inspired by the surroundings and the seasons, all bursting with bold flavours.
The space itself is as stylish as you'd expect from its East London postcode, boasting rich-toned wooden flooring, turquoise walls and classic cafe chairs. The large windows flood the space with natural light and are dressed up with quaint cafe curtains - a lovely touch.
As the menu speaks to the seasons, the team creates offerings that especially reflect spring, summer and so on. Right now (in summer), this looks like a selection of smaller plates to share for starters, with options like heirloom tomato Panzanella salad, as well as burrata with crispy chilli oil and grilled peach, and tenderstem broccoli with goats cheese mousse and toasted hazelnuts. Be sure to also look out for OKN1 staples, in this case, like the braised beef croquettes with chipotle aioli and pickled red onion.
Whether you enjoy a larger plate alone as a main, or choose to share these too, there's options such as herb crusted sea bass with pistachio risotto, courgette puree and fish skin crisp, as well as HG Walters dry aged sirloin steak with chimichurri, grilled mixed peppers and leeks with roasted red pepper dip. Then, if you've got a sweet tooth, we think you'll love the likes of buttermilk panna cotta with marinated strawberries and shortbread crumb, or how about dark chocolate and orange mousse with orange coulis and dark chocolate sorbet.