Gina

Located where the outer London suburbs fray into the thickets of Epping Forest, Gina has brought a beam of gastronomic sunshine to the culinary badlands of Chingford’s Station Road since 2025. Step inside and you'll encounter a lively little dining room with long banquettes and bright modern art hanging on scuffed walls – a space that manages to look contemporary but also homely. The restaurant is named after chef-owner Mattie Taiano’s late mother, and, though Italian heritage is certainly an influence in the kitchen, dishes plunder ingredients and ideas from near and far: Cornish seafood might feature in a salty and satisfying medley of monkfish and bacon, for example. Crowd-pleasing food done well seems to be the guiding ethos here, evidenced in the signature main of ‘Gina’s pasta’ (a terrific tangle of spaghetti swimming in marinara sauce under drifts of Parmesan). Desserts veer towards big, generous flavours, be it a dense slab of Ravi’s chocolate cake or chilled rice pudding with cherries. Alongside a thoughtfully composed wine list, you’ll find two house cocktails – Gina’s Martini and Margarita Cremisi.