Hackney’s Pidgin is closing and Sesta is taking its place

8. August 2024

It’s all change on Wilton Way

Pidgin, the small Hackney restaurant that served a different tasting menu each week, famously never repeated a dish and even won a Michelin star when Elizabeth Haigh was heading up the kitchen, is shutting up shop this August, just shy of a decade in business.

Founders James Ramsden and Sam Herlihy announced the closure on Instagram, writing, “There are inevitably too many people to thank, too many highlights to mention, too many dishes to recall, so for now we will say a huge thank you to the current team, who have made Pidgin as good as it’s ever been, and to you, for all of your support over the years. Many people dream of opening a restaurant. Not many dream of closing one. So while we’re sad to put a full-stop on this chapter, we are excited and reassured that two brilliant people will be realising their own dream.”

So though Pidgin is flying the nest, the site will be taken over by the restaurant’s current head chef Drew Snaith and ex-manager Hannah Kowalski and relaunched as Sesta. The pair have done a Sesta BBQ pop-up at The Cock Tavern in Hackney, where they served smoked pork belly & BBQ house sausage and grilled aubergine & courgette fritter buns with cajun mayo and pickled peppers – that’s all we’ve seen of their food so we’ll be keeping an eye out to see what they’ve got planned for the restaurant. The final Pidgin service will be on Sunday 18th August, with Sesta slated to open in September.