A vibe: the rear dining room at Macchina, photographed this month. Photo: Stephen Emms
This week it occurred to me that my fondness for regional Italian cooking can probably be traced back twenty years — at least to the first piece of restaurant writing I ever had published.
A 2006 cover for Time Out’s food section, the article followed an almost heroic day in the life of head chef Andy Needham at Michelin-starred Zafferano, the Knightsbridge institution launched by Giorgio Locatelli which sadly closed this year after three decades.
It was actually part of a much longer project shadowing Andy for a proposed cookbook project. But despite us securing an agent, ultimately the tome didn’t see the light of day, mostly because it clashed with Locatelli’s own blockbuster hardback, Made In Italy, also out that year. The upshot was, however, that I learnt to cook classic Italian risotto and other dishes from a master — while serendipitously starting on my own food-writing trajectory.
Fast forward two decades and Italy’s cuisine still holds a special place in my work, whether it’s travel-focused features — from Catania to Sanremo — or this very Substack, which has recently highlighted East London spots such as Fiore Truck, Darling’s Eatery and the astonishingly good value two-course set lunch menu at Arte e Pasta in the Hitchcock Hotel.
Earlier this month, when I unveiled 50 eclectic ideas on my personal autumn food & drink to-do list, a Sicilian-inspired pasta restaurant sat quietly at #2 (just behind Fiore Truck, in fact). You may have missed it as it was behind the paywall.
After visiting the other evening — thanks to a generous invite from Staffordshire-raised head chef Hayley Meredith — my verdict is that this buzzy destination, on a thrillingly rowdy Thursday night, felt more Soho than Walthamstow Village.
Macchina is not exactly new — and yet, at the same time, it’s now a permanent fixture. Confused? Well, for eight months Hayley Meredith, who “trained in my nonna’s kitchen,” she says, had been operating a pop-up in Orford Road wine shop and bar Hometipple. Then in August the venue underwent a refurbishment, increasing capacity to 60 covers, reopening in September officially as Macchina.
But why the name? “Although it directly translates into English as car,” she says, “I was once told it can be used to describe someone as being like a machine — which you have to be to survive and thrive in hospitality.”
And if the current moniker feels unfamiliar, you may have tasted Hayley’s cooking as Pasta Slut, which she ran for eight years with residencies across London, Bristol and Margate’s excellent George & Heart boutique hotel and pub.
Negronis and focaccia: table lay at Macchina. Photo: Stephen Emms
On my visit I was early and arrived to find there had been a slight mix-up with the booking. Hovering uncertainly at the entrance, I was able to admire what she calls her “playful 1990s Italian-inspired” interior, the atmospheric space adding much to the experience. If you glimpsed it off the Corso Umberto while holidaying in Taormina, you’d be straight through the door.
You can now either sit at the front, surrounded by shelves of wine bottles, overlooking the gentle passeggiata beyond, or at the rear, whose candlelit canary-yellow walls, framed black-and-white movie stars and overall Sicilian aesthetic is arguably even more seductive. And the enclosed, heated rear terrace was also full until we left.
As we took our seats, the charismatic Hayley — who told us her mother is Sicilian — showed us the huge corkboard wall of family polaroids old and new, pictured above left, which underlines the deeply personal feel to the project.
In today’s issue scroll down to find out exactly what we ate (and which plates are best) from its concise menu of four starters, four pastas and a few additional dishes.
What does the word ‘macchina’ itself mean for Hayley? “When I hear it, I think strength and energy — with a touch of chaos,” she says. “I’ve always wanted to create the kind of restaurant where you can come for a long lunch, stay for another bottle, eat really good food and feel properly looked after.”
MACCHINA is at hometipple, 34 Orford Road E17 9NJ, @macchinalondon @hometipple.e17
Welcome to Issue 99. Last week’s cover story was one of the biggest of the year so far, with over 75k combined views and literally thousands of shares: the learning is there’s a fierce appetite for the launch of Altar, the forthcoming independent live music venue and cocktail bar in Leytonstone.
Speaking of which, another unique happening this weekend is Leyton Arts Club, which launches tonight in Filly Brook’s Club House with an evening of local emerging artists and musicians across genres including folk, hip-hop, afrobeat and more, followed by a party with guest DJs.
Fancy upgrading and supporting my work? Paid subscribers have access to the entire archive of 90+ issues, with hundreds of frank restaurant reviews, interviews and food stories you won’t read about anywhere else. No other title writes about the swathe of East London from Stratford, the Olympic Park and Forest Gate to Leyton, Leytonstone and Walthamstow.
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In this issue for paid subscribers:
Truly the best (surprise) dish I have stumbled across this year in E11
A food and drink crawl around Epping Forest and Wanstead Flats, from the Hitchcock to Joyau and Le Regret
Macchina reviewed — and the dish to order
Beyond the manor: with Newington Green in the spotlight this week as Time Out’s “Coolest Neighbourhood 2026”, I swing by its longest standing seafood restaurant
Side Portions: all the latest news, gossip and foodie titbits in regular column
