Five87 Bistro takes its name from its address — 587 Oxford Street East, near the eastern edge of London's Old East Village. The number is the most fixed thing about it. The menu, by contrast, refuses to settle on a single country: French onion soup under melted Gruyère shares a page with butter chicken and a cilantro-lime Peruvian chicken, and none of it reads as novelty. What holds the breadth together is intent — a kitchen cooking across borders on purpose. The practical result is one address a London table can use for a weekday lunch, a weekend brunch, or a longer dinner with wine.
The cooking is most legible at the start of a meal. The Chilean Lobster Dip arrives warm and cheesy with flatbread for the table; the Burrata Platter sets creamy cheese against roasted cherry tomatoes, balsamic, and pine nuts on grilled focaccia; and the French onion soup comes capped with focaccia and Gruyère rather than the usual baguette. Pastas hold the bistro centre — Gruyère-and-bacon gnocchi finished with caramelized onion, lobster ravioli in a creamy garlic-herb sauce. From there the menu travels: grilled chicken thighs in spicy cilantro-lime sauce with wild rice, butter chicken with a tofu option, miso butter meatballs scattered with sesame and green onion, a falafel wrap built on hummus, feta, olives, and lemon-tahini. The Five87 Burger keeps a plainer lane open, stacked with smoked cheddar, bacon, and house sauce on brioche.
Five87's strongest differentiator is its range under one bistro roof. The menu can move from lobster dip and French onion soup to Peruvian Chicken, Butter Chicken, falafel, and lobster ravioli without presenting itself as a single-cuisine room.
The current menu set is broad enough for lunch, dinner, brunch, drinks, dessert, and specialty coffee. That gives diners more ways to use the restaurant than a simple dinner-only bistro.
Five87 works for several use cases: a burger or wrap at lunch, a richer dinner with seafood and steak, or a date-night table with wine and cocktails. The strongest appeal is that the same room can stretch without losing its bistro centre.
Five87 is strongest when the visit includes a shared starter, a fuller dinner plate, and drinks. Lobster dip, Peruvian Chicken, salmon, wine, cocktails, and dessert give the room enough structure for a planned night out.
The menu has a wider reach than a conventional bistro board. Peruvian Chicken, Miso Butter Meatballs, Butter Chicken, Falafel Wrap, halloumi salad, and lobster ravioli give curious diners several directions without leaving the room.
Five87 keeps comfort food in the foreground even while the menu travels. The house burger, lobster ravioli, Gruyere and Bacon Gnocchi, Butter Chicken, French onion soup, and truffle fries make the room approachable.
The room can support a more deliberate dinner without becoming formal. Seafood starters, salmon, steak, wine, cocktails, dessert, and reservation flow all point toward birthdays, date nights, and small celebrations.
Five87 gives drinks enough space to shape the meal. Separate wine and cocktail menus make it easier to shape a visit around the appetizer round, richer mains, dessert, and a longer evening.
Share the nuances of your visit to Five87 Bistro in London — the standout dishes, the room, the service.
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