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 arriving in summer 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 take inspiration and plunder produce from near and far. Cornish seafood might feature in a medley of monkfish, bacon and oak leaf (a salty and satisfying starter when we visited), though beef tartare might make an equally auspicious opener. 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) – although a main course of potato and Gubbeen pithivier made for a worthy rival.

The choice of seven desserts veers towards big, generous flavours, be it a dense slab of Ravi’s chocolate cake (bearing the name of Taiano’s wife and fellow chef-owner, Ravneet Gill) or a scoop of blackberry sorbet. Alongside a thoughtfully composed wine list, you’ll find two house cocktails – Gina’s Martini and Margarita Cremisi.