Walk south out of the station, not north into the shopping centre. The Grove and Broadway, the old Stratford high street five minutes from the concourse, hold Afghan, Uzbek, Nepalese, Thai, Caribbean and Romanian restaurants at half the price of anything in Westfield, and several of them held five-star hygiene ratings when we checked. Westfield is the reliable answer rather than the good one.
Stratford is two places with two postcodes. E15, south and east of the station, is the town that existed before 2012: a church, a theatre, a covered shopping centre from the 1970s and a street market. E20, north and west, is the Olympic Park and everything built for it, including Westfield Stratford City and the residential quarter at East Village.
Our guide to Stratford covers the park, the Orbit and the old town; our page on East Bank covers the new museums; and our Westfield comparison covers the shops. This page is where to eat, with every business checked on the Food Standards Agency register.
Eating in Stratford at a glance
- The old high street
- The Grove and Broadway, E15, about five minutes south of the station
- Westfield Stratford City
- E20. Monday to Friday 10:00–21:00, Saturday 09:00–21:00, Sunday 12:00–18:00
- East Village
- Victory Parade, E20, about twelve minutes north through the park or by bus
- Cheapest full meal
- The Grove, our estimate £9–£15 in September 2026
- Ratings warning
- The Broadway street market stalls range from nought to five out of five
- Before a stadium event
- Eat in E15, not in Westfield, and allow for the queue at the gateline afterwards
The Grove: the street the guidebooks skip
The Grove runs south-east from Stratford Broadway and is, by some distance, the most interesting eating street in this part of London. It is a working parade of shops with restaurants between them, and the range reflects who lives in Newham rather than who visits.
Rated five stars on the Food Standards Agency register when we looked: an Afghan restaurant at 111 The Grove E15 1EN, inspected February 2025; a Thai restaurant at number 200, inspected October 2025; a grill house at number 166, inspected April 2026; a takeaway at number 113, inspected January 2025; and a pub at 146 to 148, inspected October 2025.
Rated four stars: an Uzbek tea house and restaurant at number 184, inspected August 2025, which serves somsa and plov and is the most unusual thing on the street; a Himalayan restaurant at number 178, inspected June 2025; and a barbecue counter at number 190, inspected June 2025.
Our guides to Afghan food in London and Nepalese and Himalayan food explain the menus, which will be unfamiliar to most visitors and are not versions of Indian cooking.
A full meal on The Grove costs about what a sandwich and a coffee cost in Westfield. Our estimate for September 2026 is £9 to £15 for a main course with rice or bread on the old high street, against £14 to £22 in the shopping centre restaurants. The walk between them is five minutes and mostly under cover.
Photo: Philafrenzy · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons · resized
Broadway, the market, and the ratings that run from nought to five
Stratford Broadway is the wide road immediately south of the station, with the church in the middle of it. Two pubs here held five stars: one at 47 Broadway E15 4BQ, inspected February 2025, and a large chain pub at 78 to 102 Broadway, inspected January 2025. There is a five-star West African suya and jerk restaurant at 27 Broadway, inspected January 2025, and a four-star Romanian restaurant at number 30.
The street market on Broadway is a different matter and needs a clear warning. Of the mobile caterers registered on those pitches, we found one rated nought out of five in May 2026, one rated one in May 2026 and one rated two in December 2025, alongside stalls rated four and five. That is the widest spread of ratings we have seen on any single London market in this round.
On the Broadway market, look at the certificate before you buy, every time. Every food business in England must display its rating, mobile caterers included, and on these pitches the difference between neighbouring stalls is the whole scale. Two stalls held five stars when we checked, and we have not named the ones below three. The register is free and searchable by street.
Westfield: the food court, the two markets and what we found
Westfield Stratford City is the reliable option: it is enormous, it is indoors, it has a food court where a family of four can eat for a predictable sum, and it has toilets. It is open Monday to Friday 10:00 to 21:00, Saturday 09:00 to 21:00 and Sunday 12:00 to 18:00, with individual restaurants keeping their own hours.
There are two named eating areas besides the food court. Great Eastern Market, on the station side, is a row of small counters: a Japanese convenience-food counter there held five stars in February 2026 and a bakery held five in June 2026, while four other units in the same row held three. Chestnut Plaza, on the outside of the building towards the park, has larger restaurants with tables outdoors: a Brazilian restaurant held five stars in August 2026 and a Greek chain held five in June 2026. Two units in the same plaza held three, one of them a hotel restaurant.
That mixture is the argument for checking rather than choosing by the shopfront. Our page on food halls in London explains how the newer ones differ from a mall food court, and our cheap eats guide covers the supermarket alternative inside the same building.
East Village: the parade almost nobody writes about
North of Westfield, about twelve minutes on foot through the park or a short bus ride, the former athletes' village is now a residential district with a parade of restaurants along Victory Parade, E20 1FS. It is the third Stratford, and it is the quietest.
Six addresses on that one parade held five stars at inspections between February 2025 and June 2026: a Japanese restaurant, a pan-Asian restaurant, an American egg-sandwich counter, a Middle Eastern restaurant, a craft beer pub and an Italian restaurant. On Celebration Avenue nearby, a rooftop steakhouse on top of a hotel held five in April 2026.
Why go? Because it has tables at 19:30 on a Saturday when Westfield does not, it is level and quiet, and it is the nearest sit-down dinner to the northern half of the Olympic Park. Our page on staying near Stratford covers the hotels around it.
Before a concert or a match at the stadium
The London Stadium sits in the middle of the Olympic Park, about fifteen minutes' walk from the station through Westfield or along the waterside. On an event day the shopping centre's restaurants fill from about two hours beforehand and the food court queues from ninety minutes beforehand.
The plan that works is to eat in E15 before you walk in. The Grove and Broadway are five minutes from the station in the opposite direction from the crowd, so you eat while everyone else is queueing, then walk north. Afterwards, the gateline at Stratford station takes a while to clear, and East Village is the better place to wait than the station concourse.
Our pages on athletics at the London Stadium and the stadium tour cover the venue itself, including which entrance to use. For a teenager's day out that includes lunch, our guide to London museums for teenagers has the East Bank options.
Canals, breweries and the walk west
Fifteen minutes north-west along the canal is Hackney Wick, which has the area's brewery taprooms and canal-side bars in old industrial buildings. It is a different evening from Stratford: fewer restaurants, more drinking, and a towpath walk to get there. Our Hackney Wick and Fish Island guide covers it, and the walk is flat and well lit as far as the Olympic Park boundary.
In the other direction, the Elizabeth line puts you at Custom House in a few minutes, and our page on eating near ExCeL covers the Victorian dock warehouse restaurants at the far end of it.
What it costs
The Office for National Statistics publishes the individual prices its collectors record each month. In the August 2026 collection the median restaurant main course in its dearest region was £17.00, and the median hot meal in a pub in the same region was £14.50. That file labels its regions with numbers only. We have read London as the region that tops the price of every drink in it, and prefer to say so than to imply a certainty we do not have.
| Where | From the station | Our estimate for a main, September 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| The Grove and Broadway | 5 minutes south | £9–£15 |
| Westfield food court | 3 minutes north | £8–£13 |
| Westfield and Chestnut Plaza restaurants | 5–8 minutes | £14–£22 |
| East Village, Victory Parade | 12 minutes north | £15–£24 |
| Rooftop restaurant at the hotel | 12 minutes north | £35–£60 a head |
Those bands are our estimate rather than quoted menu prices. Stratford is genuinely cheap by London standards in E15 and ordinary in E20, which is the single most useful thing to know about it. Newham has a large halal trade and much of The Grove and Broadway is halal; our halal guide explains what certification to look for.
Sunday, late night, and the hour everything stops
Sunday is the weak day in E20 and the normal day in E15. Westfield's shops trade from 12:00 to 18:00 on a Sunday under the six-hour rule for large shops, which our page on Sundays and opening hours in London explains; its restaurants set their own hours and generally run later than the shops. The Grove and Broadway keep ordinary neighbourhood hours seven days a week.
Late at night, Stratford is better than most of outer London because the station is a major interchange with a night service on the Central line at weekends and because the takeaways on Broadway trade late. It is also very busy around the station at closing time, and our advice is the same as the neighbourhood guide's: keep your phone out of sight on the concourse.
Frequently asked questions
Where is the best food in Stratford?
The Grove, the old high street about five minutes south of the station. Afghan, Thai, Uzbek, Himalayan and Caribbean restaurants there held four or five stars when we checked, and a main course is our estimate of £9 to £15 in September 2026, against £14 to £22 in Westfield.
What are Westfield Stratford City opening hours?
Monday to Friday 10:00 to 21:00, Saturday 09:00 to 21:00 and Sunday 12:00 to 18:00, according to the centre's own information. Individual restaurants inside set their own hours and several trade later than the shops, especially in Chestnut Plaza on the outside of the building.
Is Stratford market a good place to eat?
Only with care. The mobile caterers on the Broadway market pitches ranged from nought to five out of five at their most recent inspections when we checked, with two neighbouring stalls at opposite ends of the scale. Every stall must display its certificate, so look at it before you order.
Where should I eat before an event at the London Stadium?
In E15, before you walk north. The Grove and Broadway are five minutes from the station in the opposite direction from the crowd, so you eat while the shopping centre is filling. East Village, on the far side of the park, is the better place to sit afterwards than the station concourse.
Is there anywhere quiet to eat in Stratford on a Saturday night?
East Village, on Victory Parade about twelve minutes north of the station. Six restaurants on one parade held five-star hygiene ratings when we checked, and it has tables at 19:30 on a Saturday when Westfield does not.
Sources
- Food Standards Agency - food hygiene ratings for Kabul Garden Restaurant, 111 The Grove, Stratford E15 1EN, Thai Pie, 200 The Grove, Megabite Grill House, 166 The Grove, The Golden Grove, 146-148 The Grove, Grand Somsa Choyxona, 184 The Grove, King Edward VII, 47 Broadway E15 4BQ and SuyaJerks, 27 Broadway (checked September 2026)
- Food Standards Agency - food hygiene ratings for the Broadway Market pitches, Broadway, Stratford E15 1NG, the Great Eastern Market and Chestnut Plaza units at Westfield Stratford City, Montfichet Road E20 1GP and E20 1GL, and Victory Parade, Stratford E20 1FS (checked September 2026)
- Westfield Stratford City - centre information and opening hours (checked September 2026)
- Office for National Statistics - CPI and RPI item indices and price quotes, individual price quotes for August 2026 (checked September 2026)
- legislation.gov.uk - Sunday Trading Act 1994, Schedule 1 (checked September 2026)
- Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park - eat and drink, venues across the park (checked September 2026)