The other week, I asked subscribers on the weekly Substack which restaurant they’d like me to visit next: 43% said Leytonstone High Road’s “international” dining room, The Rabbit. So dutifully, I swung by on a midweek lunchtime.
Stepping into the interior, by day it’s airy due to a huge skylight, adorned with artificial foliage. It’s a loosely designed space of mismatched chairs, houseplants, globe lighting and wooden floors – busy enough too, generally a mix of chattering older residents and solo lunchers like myself.

The menu covers pages of brunch options, from bagels to eggs florentine, omelettes and sandwiches, as well as soups, burgers, salads and pastas. There’s a list of fish and seafood, and another of meaty mains, including confit duck with sour cherry sauce, risottos, sirloin steak, chicken livers and lamb shank. The chef has “fifteen years’ experience in the field, and recently came from a two-month course from Italy, Perugia area,” the team told me via DM.
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I hovered over the many options, drawn to the bass, duck or lamb – but in the end was compelled to order the eponymous rabbit. So how did it fare? Well, as you can see above, the large plate, presented by the server with a flourish, was a generous portion, a huge mound of smooth yellowy mash taking centre stage and strewn with buttery oranges.
The slow-cooked confit leg itself was a little dry, but not bad, the dark gamey meat falling away from two little bones, while its skin needed a bit more crisping. Green beans were al dente but lukewarm, as if they had been waiting on the pass, while the mash was, in the end, ludicrously drenched in butter. And not entirely pleasant.

Chef Ionut Lascu is evidently going for hearty rustic cooking, but some refinement (especially at £17.90) would make this dish more appealing, as well as, say, a mustard, white wine or cider sauce to cut through its richness (the server didn’t know what mustard was when I asked for it). I rarely leave food at restaurants but, in the end, the slick-like carby mountain defeated me.
I wondered what everyone else was eating; a glance revealed mostly sandwiches and coffee. So it was only right to return a few days later for brunch. Maybe this was where the kitchen’s strengths would lie, and this time I chose one of the simplest dishes on the menu: a smoked salmon bagel.
Happily, it far exceeded expectations. Sliced in two, each half was piled with generous curls of the ruby fish along with soft scrambled eggs, cream cheese and salad. The bagel was toasted lightly and satisfyingly chewy, and there was – once again – the liberal use of butter, but this time it added a luxurious touch. I pressed the loaded halves together to make one deliciously packed sarnie – at just £6.90, this is one I’d return for. There’s also no service charged at the end.
The verdict? While the brunch is a safe bet, the mains compare less favourably with many value lunch menus in E11, especially Bella Vita across the road, which serves an impressive two-courser for £14.95.
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