The Marksman

The Marksman runs two rooms off one pub: an unpretentious boozer at street level, and a proper dining room upstairs that won Michelin Pub of the Year in 2017 — a rare split that actually works.

Tom Harris and Jon Rotheram, the chef-owners, both came up through kitchens with serious pedigree — St JOHN and Fifteen respectively — and rather than opening a restaurant that happened to have a bar attached, they bought an actual Hackney Road corner pub and built the cooking around it, not the other way round.

That decision is the reason the ground floor still functions as a genuine local rather than a waiting room for the dining room above it.

The Room

Downstairs is a genuine local pub — regulars at the bar, a proper pint pulled properly, none of the self-consciousness that “gastropub” sometimes implies once a kitchen starts taking itself seriously. Upstairs is a more considered dining room, smaller and calmer, with white tablecloths that never quite tip into formality, plus a rooftop terrace that comes into its own the moment the weather allows it.

The two floors are close enough in spirit that moving between them for a pre-dinner pint downstairs before heading up feels natural rather than like switching venues entirely. It’s worth knowing which floor you actually want before you arrive — walk-ins are easy downstairs, upstairs rewards booking ahead, and turning up expecting the other experience on the wrong floor is an easy way to be disappointed by a genuinely good pub.

What to Order

The beef-and-barley suet bun — sometimes described as a rarebit bun — is the dish most first-time visitors are steered toward, and it’s a genuinely inventive piece of pub cooking: a suet crust wrapped around a rich, slow-cooked beef and barley filling that reads as comfort food elevated by real technique rather than a novelty for its own sake.

Dressed Dorset crab is the lighter, more elegant order, proof that the kitchen’s ambitions extend well past hearty pub staples. The Sunday roast, when you can time a visit around it, is the dish regulars actually plan their week around — proper joints, correctly rested, with gravy that’s clearly made from the roasting tray rather than a stock cube.

The Drinks List

A proper pub beer selection downstairs — cask ale done right, nothing forced or overly curated — and a more thoughtful, considered wine list once you’re seated upstairs, chosen to match a menu with more range than the ground floor’s beer taps might suggest. The upstairs list doesn’t try to compete with a dedicated wine bar, but it’s serious enough to hold its own against the kitchen’s more ambitious dishes.

What You Will Pay

Around £40–50 per person with a couple of drinks, which for cooking of this quality — awarded, not merely competent — is genuinely fair. A quick pint and a suet bun downstairs costs considerably less and is a perfectly legitimate way to experience the kitchen without committing to a full sitting upstairs.

The Verdict

Sunday lunch upstairs is the move, booked well ahead — this is the version of The Marksman that earns the Michelin mention most clearly, and trying to walk in without a reservation on a Sunday is likely to end in disappointment. On any other day, the ground floor works perfectly well for something quicker and more casual.

What’s Being Said

A pub that won Michelin’s own Pub of the Year without losing the pub part of the equation — that balance is harder to hold than it sounds, since plenty of gastropubs drift entirely into “restaurant with a bar” territory once the accolades start arriving.

The Marksman has kept both halves of the building honest, and regulars at the downstairs bar are proof the pub itself was never sacrificed for the dining room upstairs. Plenty of places win the accolade and quietly stop being a pub within a year of it; this one hasn’t.

This review’s own 5-star rating is really an agreement with the Michelin panel more than a bold call of its own — on the evidence of the roast alone, it would be hard to argue for anything less.