Facing Heaven - East London

The place doesn't look like much from the outside, and it's a little bit tight when you're in there, but none of that matters when your food arrives. We ordered a few different small plates and they were all absolutely magnificent in their own ways. The chefs special secret sauce on brussel sprouts was really tasty probably some combination of miso nut butter sesame which I've tried to make a hundred times at home but never come close to this! Beyond that my favourite was the prawn toast and the sauce it came in smooth creamy coconutty sauce with the crunchy sesame toast went so well. I would also recommend the mushroom scallops which really celebrates the flavor and texture of the mushroom itself. All reasonably priced and staff were very attentive and friendly.

The service and atmosphere are veeery relaxed but friendly so don’t expect a high end service style this is not what it is about. What we went there for was the food and that was 6 stars! Each dish has so many complex and bold flavours that you just keep wanting more. Towards the end of the meal, start preparing yourself to smell like fried food and for the blues you will get every time you will have a dish in front of you that doesn’t come from Facing Heaven.

The place is really small and can get quite loud and cramped. The kitchen smells travel right into the dining area. All of our clothes reeked of oil after leaving. So if you have places to go afterwards or are travelling light, this is something to take into account. Some of the dishes seemed to compose of the same main ingredients and were a bit too similar. The soft drink selection was pretty much non-existent with the only option being Fanta.

So many gorgeous punchy flavours and such great vibes for a fun time. Definitely not a fancy sit down place but great vibes. Me and my partner shared dishes and had: Slapped cucumber Seaweed-sesame toast Cumin shroom skewer Dumplings in chilli oil HK b33f curry Everything came out when it was ready which was great, everything was so good I don’t know how I would have decided what to start with otherwise. No pictures because we ate so fast. So many interesting and delicious flavours and textures. It’s hard to choose but the shrooms and curry were particular highlights. We left so full and happy and it came to £62 for two of us! Great music too! Want to go back and order a bit less and get an MSG margarita and the sundae next time!

To me, this was more like a 'facing hell ' experience. When we arrived for our booked, 'special occasion ' birthday meal, the place was crammed. The table hadn 't been wiped, and while other people got their dishes at the same time, we got ours bit by bit. 'Amazing ' is not a word I 'd ever find in my vocabulary to describe the food. It was alright at best. Every dish we had was super oily. The best thing was the cream soda that was served without a glass. I also had to ask for napkins because they 'd run out. It was very noisy, the service was inattentive and disorganised, and instead of vegan, I 'd call this place plant-based, as there was a kebap sign in the toilet, as well as a can of Nourishment and unvegan toiletries and cleaning products. The plates weren 't taken away, but piled up until we left. Lots of empty bottles at the bar, too. I thought it was a disappointing experience . Updated from previous review on 2022-11-13