The Laughing Heart

The Laughing Heart on Hackney Road is the bar that takes the natural-wine question and pushes it into restaurant territory without losing its identity as a drinking room. The list is heavy on Germany, Austria and Friuli — areas where the natural-wine and classical-wine worlds overlap most usefully — and the by-the-glass programme is small but deliberate.

Where many of its neighbours pour what is on hand, the Laughing Heart pours what fits the night. That sounds like marketing copy until you sit at the counter for two hours and watch the staff steer regulars through a list as if curating a tasting menu in real time. The discipline is the difference.

The kitchen runs a refined tasting-plate format that nudges the room toward late dining rather than early drinking. Doors open at 6pm and the room fills through 9pm. The last orders go in well after midnight on a Friday. The crowd is heavy on local industry on quieter nights — chefs and sommeliers from neighbouring restaurants on their evening off.

For the full ranking, see our editorial round-up of the 10 best wine bars in London 2026, the broader London wine bar guide, and our category index of wine bars worldwide.