Co-founder and chef of Hot 4 U, known for his innovative and zero-waste culinary approach.
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ItalianChineseSeafoodWine BarVegan-friendlyModerateDinnerAll DayWine BarCocktail Bar
Last updated: 6/30/2026, 4:36:19 AM
Key Information
Godet is a vibrant, music-focused wine bar and pub located in Islington, London. It features a sound system, a garden, and a 'vinyl only' music policy, playing funk, soul, and house. The venue hosts kitchen residencies, currently featuring 'Ling Ling's' which offers a modern Chinese/Asian fusion menu.
Customer perception is mixed. Many praise the 'Ling Ling's' food for its flavor, freshness, and presentation, with dishes like wontons, cabbage, and cauliflower often highlighted. The wine selection is also appreciated by some. However, criticisms include chaotic wine service with staff sometimes lacking basic knowledge, and specific dishes like the Beef Ragu Mala Noodles (due to a strong aniseed flavor) and Glass Chicken (lack of crispness) receiving negative feedback. Service attentiveness also varies among reviews.
Additional Details
Godet is situated on Essex Road in Islington, London, and functions as a 'neighbourhood wine pub'.
The kitchen, run by Ling Ling's, operates Wednesday to Sunday. It might be quieter for early dinners on Sundays.
2
This was a very, very average experience with both the food and service. We shared the pork wontons, tofu wontons, scallop, cabbage and beef ragu mala noodles. Unfortunately across all dishes the flavours didn’t quite work and felt poorly thought through. This was disappointing, as I’ve visited Ling Ling’s residency before and had a great experience. However, the biggest letdown was the wine experience. Service felt chaotic and staff appeared to lack basic wine knowledge. The bottle list was online which itself was poorly organised but we selected a wine that turned out to be unavailable. When I asked for three alternative recommendations, only one bottle was brought out and she couldn’t say where it was from when I asked. She quoted the price as £73, opened the bottle without offering a taste or pouring for us, and then left. She later returned to say the price was incorrect and that the bottle was actually £86, offering a 10% discount instead. It was unclear why the originally quoted price wasn’t simply honoured when it was clearly her mistake. We paid the adjusted amount to avoid making a fuss but for a relatively expensive bottle, the experience wasn’t worth it.
A pub turned into something more contemporary and hype. Interesting Chinese and Asian inspired fusion food. The intention is here, the execution and results are more mixed.
Very loud room despite being far from full. I appreciated having space and not being packed as is often the case in more central locations.
Okay if you’re already in the neighbourhood, but probably not worth big travel/commute efforts.
Decent options for wine
We went to try our Ling Ling’s food and we tried everything on the menu. Food was great and the service was quiet attentive.
I liked the wines they recommended too, waiter was quiet attentive and nailed it. Our personal fav is the one in the photo.
I had been really looking forward to this after reading the Ling Ling’s reviews but the food mainly tasted as if it had been made by a home cook with a jar of crispy chilli oil to hand. Perfectly ok but nothing special. Notable exception for the dumplings and the fried chicken.
Bit weird that after telling us they had run out of many of the wines listed on the board (why not cross them off in that case) they didn’t share that they had a full wine menu we could look at. We only spotted this later in the meal.
We visited on a Sunday early dinner and it was very quiet and were seated quickly.
The menu is fusion with some interesting dishes like a ragu with Parmesan. For how quiet it was no one explained the menu which would have been nice considering how unique some of the dishes were. Service was pleasant none the less.
We started with wontons cabbage and cauliflower. All 3 were delicious especially the wontons which were crispy, tasty filling and a lovely sauce.
The mains is where everything fell apart. I ordered the glass chicken which was just ok. The "glass skin" was left touching the broth so it wasnt crispy anymore and just wet which was unappetizing. The ragu was the strangest pasta dish we have ever had. Extremely strong with aniseed, if you do not like that flavour do not order that dish.
We only ate 1 spoonful and when we complained there was no offer to replace or any care as to why we didn't eat which was disappointing. Eventually we went to the desk and asked for it to be removed from the bill which they did.
Overall it was ok wouldn't come back. I felt we were never a priority and the staff were busy chatting to 2 very loud regulars that were inspecting the food at the pass for someone reason.
