East London natural wine bar with actually good value — Yuki Bar

Go and order a bottle of wine at Yuki Bar, you won't regret it

Under the arches on the way to Hackney Central is Yuki Bar. The Nordic influenced Japanese wine-bar shakes when the trains run overhead. At first you notice the noise and the vibration, then they move into the background as you’re enveloped by the cosy space. Another restaurant with small plates in Hackney, why go to this one? Entirely the wine list, something that professional food reviewers seem to have missed in their middling reviews.

The value on offer here is unmatched in East London, especially for so many of natural wine heavy hitters. The breadth of France is available (except, of course, Bordeaux). We started with Ri Fol, Cerruti. This was another Col-Fondo (see previous experience). An extremely peach sparkling white / orange. Dry but too fruity for me. It is based on Moscato and from Piemonte, I asked if it was going to be a sweet-wine (I thought it might be a Moscato d'Asti variant) but got a bemused expression and was informed that that wouldn’t be in keeping with low intervention. Who knew?

We ordered a couple of plates of food which were nice but extremely expensive. Unfortunately the food did not match the cost by some distance. I’m sure it is high quality produce, but unfortunately would put this out of my price range for regular eating. With the recent push back on some of these prices at small plates restaurants (for example, this review of Bar Vallette ), I’m hoping there is a readjustment coming up (I can dream). I’m firmly within the economic mindset that when people don’t feel they’ve paid much, they’re more likely to return.

We went with the Dard et Ribo Crozes-Hermitage Rouge 2022 (£78). Lots of red fruit and black fruit on display with a touch of pepper and spice. Nice acidity running through it and at 14% alcohol the strength was barely noticeable. Extremely delicious and easy to drink. This appears to be just under 2 times the retail price. I look forward to tasting the rest of Dard et Ribo’s wines. For more, have a look at this write-up I found myself reading the next day at work: https://www.littlewine.io/winemaker-magazine/dard-et-ribo.

So all in all, Yuki is an excellent place to drink wine in East London and I strongly recommend you do so. Those with deep pockets, enjoy the food. Those without, eat beforehand.