Just off the bustle of Spitalfields Market, Galvin Bistro & Bar is quietly pulling off something rare: a sharing menu that actually works. Executive Chef Arturo Granato has retooled the kitchen around Mediterranean grazing, and the results are pitch-perfect.
The lineup hits every register. There’s a tomato caponata so bright and briny it tastes like Sicilian summer on toast. A delicate UK beef ceviche that’s as elegant as it is surprising. Charred baby octopus tangled with Niçoise olives. A pizzetta topped with nothing more than tomato and olive oil that proves restraint is a flex. And then the burger — Galvin’s indulgent signature, with slow-cooked short rib, caramelised onion, and a punch of Gorgonzola — the kind of thing that has you wondering whether you should even bother ordering anything else. (You should: the bbq cod collar with meuniere sauce and the duck ragu maltagliati with pangrattato, deserve their own cult following.)
But it’s not just the food that makes you linger. The staff aren’t just polished pros; they radiate the kind of long-term loyalty that makes a restaurant feel like a community hub. On our visit, we ended up chatting with one of the sous chefs who was off-duty, happily eating with his family. It’s not every day you see kitchen talent choose to spend their downtime in the very room they work in — and it tells you everything about the warmth and camaraderie Granato is cultivating here.
The result? A bistro that’s as much about connection as cuisine. You come for burrata laced with truffle oil, wild mushroom fricassée, and paprika aïoli fries — and you stay because the place feels alive, convivial, and genuinely loved by the people who run it. Hard to leave, easy to return.
Galvin Bistro and Bar – Entrance on Bishops Square, 35 Spital Square, London E1 6DY
galvinrestaurants.com
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