Crate Brewery

In the movies, the cool kids spend their time hanging out in some converted warehouse in a part of town covered in graffiti, drinking beer and playing music and generally looking cool. Crate might as well be the filming location for that scene in the movie, since that’s exactly what it is.
Their tap list isn’t vast but it has some strong entries on draught and cask plus a few guest brews to mix things up. The very thin crust pizzas are fresh and delicious: we got a prosciutto and rocket and a spicy salami and both hit the spot. Grab a seat at one of the tables and listen to the DJ spinning tunes ranging from hip hop to techno to disco, or get there early and sit outside by the canal before it fills up.
This place is definitely off the beaten path, perfect for a beer geek like me who also appreciates getting far away from the touristy parts of town and into a London that probably only the locals know about. If you love beer and pizza, this is your spot. If you don’t, we can’t be friends. Ever.

Great selection of crafted drinks. Great pizza choices. Great environment. Lively atmohphere. Cyclists, dogs and little ones welcome. SOLD!!!

Came here for lunch on a Sunday, and sat outside by the canals. The pizzas were very good, and Crate certainly has style — I ordered a coke, and it was one of those glass bottle cokes and they served it with a wine glass with ice, the bartender’s beer-​pouring skills full force so that the coke didn’t foam too much. Plenty of parking right at the entrance, for bikes, cars, and scooters. I’d like to return when it’s warmer out!

LOVE this place. Sure it can be overcrowded but I love the vibe it has — great music and DJ’s playing most weekends, friendly and welcoming staff, an amazing outside area with long tables that you can grab AND they serve amazing pizzas. I definitely recommend the ham pizza (can;t remember the full name but it’s amazing!
Their concept is simple — good craft beer, great location right by the canal and good food. When you add that with Hackney, you get the perfect hipster location and although I don’t really class myself as hipster it’s definitely somewhere I like to hang!
The only thing I don’t like is their toilets. There’s constantly a queue and they’re unisex — not that this is an issue but I just always feel a tad uncomfortable and they just always seem to be a bit messy!
But, if it’s a sunny Saturday/​Sunday or week day night and you live in the area, this is where you should be!

Set in a highly industrial area and also beside the canal, this modern-​looking brewpub presents an interesting contrast to its surroundings. Crate offers a decent but limited range of house beers; on my last visit they had, in bottle or on cask or keg, a lager, a bitter, a golden ale, an IPA and a stout; however, they do sporadically release a one-​off. The house beers aren’t bad, but neither are they terribly exciting.
The venue itself is quite attractive. The interior I would describe as industrial chic. Outside there are a few picnic tables, at which you can sit and watch the canal. On my Saturday afternoon visit there were quite a few families here, almost all of them enjoying pizzas — Crate offers a dynamic range of pizzas, which are very good. The staff is friendly and one of the guys spoke to me at length about their house beer.
Aside from the Crate beers, the bar offers a solid range of guest breweries, both on tap and in bottle.
This place can get insanely busy, so I would advise not visiting during peak hours.
Crate is located less than five minutes away (walking) from the Hackney Wick Overground station.

It’s impossible to overlook one the trendiest spots in Hackney Wick, namely Crate Brewery. Crate is guaranteed to be heaving with revellers, but the staff’s ability to cope with the throngs has significantly improved over the past years. They brew onsite and have released a commendable and growing range, including their sessionable sour and black IPA. The brewery is idyllically located canal-​side on the River Lee and offers rustic wood-​oven pizzas to hungry wayfarers and ferrymen, who dock their canal boats feet from the bar.
Crate now offers tours of their brewery and if you’re lucky, you’ll be there on a weekend when Mick’s Garage is open and swinging, which is located just across the yard from the brewery. From 18:00 on Friday and noon on Saturday and Sunday, this is a pop-​up space offering some fantastic Middle Eastern street food from Shuk Shuk, a meaty purveyor and smokehouse from the talented minds of Josh Katz and Mattia Bianchi, who founded the highly regarded BBQ joint, Berber & Q.
In addition to this, Mick’s Garage offers a fermented tea bar called Jarr Bar, where kombucha– set to be a huge trend in the coming months– is served in a gamut of flavours (or with alcohol).
All of this is set to the soundtrack of a DJ spinning decks on the roof– the vibe is summer, the 500 person capacity means it fills up quickly and things get raucous. This is a surefire destination for a hazy summer evening in 2016.

Crate is one of my favourite places to hang out in East London. The décor is industrial, the clients are cool and it is often hard to find a seat but that is all part of it’s charm. This place is a real community hub. As for the food the pizzas are worth the often long wait; paper thin, crisp and with unusual but oh so tasty toppings. The sweet potato, stilton and walnut is a firm favourite of mine. Whilst you wait for your pizza to arrive there are plenty of their own craft beers to choose from as well as guest taps, bottle drinks, and wine, which the staff will happily advise on.

Crate is an incredible bar in a fantastic location, directly next to the canal with a decent amount of outside seating this place is great for a summers evening. The bar offers a great selection of locally brewed bears and ciders. I have to say though some can be strong and have led too a few Monday morning hangovers I wasn’t expecting.
Inside the décor can be described as typically hipster with industrial influences. All the staff are incredibly friendly and very well informed about what’s on offer. The pizzas they do are some of the best in london, cooked fresh and with a continually changing menu there is always something new too try.
It does get busy and on occasion when the bar is busy they will close the kitchen early so it’s worth checking wait times for food. Overall a lovely pub in a great location with awesome pizza, a winning combination.

My finance and I have been on a pizza pilgrimage in search of the perfect slice. It has taken us to Franco Manca, Homeslice, and Pizza East. Most recently, it landed us by a canal at Crate Brewery. I can imagine that this would have been a less pleasant experience on a more crowded evening, but on Sunday around 7pm, we were greeted by a relaxed scene. A DJ was spinning some tunes and table space was available. 3 delicious pizzas (enough to feed 4) were in front of us in 20 minutes. Crate has nailed the crust – thin, crispy, and delicious. The truffle pizza was good though a bit bland – until we added chilli sauce and unlocked its full potential. The pepperoni was pizza was classically good. Of course, the beer drinkers among us loved the brew. After, we grabbed drinks in an houseboat docked outside. Great way to end a weekend.

Really cool scene in Hackney Wick. Bartender recommended the banana curry pizza. I was a bit skeptical, but decided to give it a go. It worked. Brilliant fusion of flavor. The Crate beer is really good as well. I tried one of the Ipa’s and really enjoyed it. Nice seating areas inside, and outside along the water.

Really love this place. Despite lack of chairs and the overly hipster clientele, you can’t really say this place is less than 5*.
Between 6 we shared 4 pizzas… sage & truffle (exquisite); sweet potato & walnut (taste explosions); salami (had a kick); minced lamb (deliciously spiced). Literally there wasn’t a mouthful I would take back.
Oh and the beers are great. The bar man let me taste a couple so I could decide exactly what I fancied.

The Crate Brewery is somewhere I’d been meaning to visit for ages. I was already a fan of their beers in particular the Stout and what better way than drinking beer alongside what I expected would be an equally nice pizza.
I visited on a Sunday evening which was quite busy but there was still a couple of free tables. The beer choice is very good and the friendly knowledgeable bar staff offer the opportunity to try different beers before ordering. I chose the Pepperoni pizza as it’s normally a safe bet anywhere however about half am hour later when it arrived I wish I hadn’t. There are lots of great reviews about the Pizza on here so perhaps I was just unlucky. I’d certainly visit again for the beer but maybe skip the pizza next time.

Amazing vibe, the best place to spend a sunny evening in: the graffiti and the canal-​side view are very East London, while the pizza is really tasty and different from what you get in your average London cool spot.

Pizza and good beer — what can go wrong?
I really want to give these guy a 3.5… So bear that in mind when reading this review… I’m swinging between loving it and saying it’s mediocre…
I adore the crate brewery, the pizza is absolutely amazing. I love the courgette, feta and red onion and the sweet potato, Stilton and walnut… It’s some of the best pizza I’ve had! Last time we visited we ordered an extra pizza to take home as we weren’t that hungry, needless to say we finished it all before leaving! Yes it’s that good!
The beer selection is also great, and the staff very knowledgeable and on hand to help.
I also love the raw style of the venue, the mattress spring light shades, the brick work, concrete and industrial, functional, feel of the venue… Also it’s right next to the river, so if you can get a table you’ve got a stunning view of the canal… and with big tables it’s great for socialising, large parties and groups.
However there are some pit falls…
It’s SO busy! Most nights (and in particular the weekends), you can’t get a table, you have to wait for ages up to five deep at the bar and wait times for pizza can be anything up to 40 minutes!
Also the toilets are a complete disgrace, so messy and unhygienic and the queues for these (even on the quieter nights), is still outrageous. They’ve installed some across the parking lot, but these are in a similar state.
So overall I love what these guys have to offer and I full endorse their wonderful craft beer and food… but I feel they’ve a victim of their own success as the crowds ruin the experience for me.

Pizza and beer. Quite a simple, yet tasty combo. Came here for a work event and I was pleasantly surprised. It’s a total hipster operation.
Grab a spot on the tables outside and go in to order a nice pint of craft beer and get one of their awesome pizzas. I finished a whole pizza to myself, so I don’t recommend sharing. I ordered the Moroccan lamb and it was glorious! Perfect balance between meat, spice, vegetables, and the pine nuts was a nice addition.
I tried the wheat beer and it was good. The only downside of this place is that it’s so far east. Took a while to get to, but the Hackney Wick overground station is pretty close, so that helps. I’ll definitely come back.

A great place for good beer on a nice day, with a good crowd for people-​watching.
The space is classic Hackney Wick — barely converted warehouse with high ceilings and industrial fixtures. There’s a large outdoor area with varied seating arrangements right next to the canal that’s perfect for a sunny afternoon. And bike parking on one edge, so you can keep your Charge Plug close at hand.
The people (both employees and patrons) are solidly hipster, but all pretty relaxed rather than pretentious. We saw dogs, blue hair, dozens of tattoos, babies, tourists, and locals all mixed together. The atmosphere was lively but chill; no lads yelling at the TV. There was a DJ spinning a good eclectic low-​key mix, but not blasting it.
The beer is very good, almost up there with the great stuff being cranked out by Beavertown a little farther north (in my opinion, of course). I tried an in-​house Sour and a Wheat that were both flavorful and well-​executed. They also have a variety of interesting bottled beers from other places, filling out a pretty extensive menu overall. And the pizza looks really good.
My only minor issues are:
— I’d love to see either flights or smaller portions available
— 50p credit card charge is slightly annoying
— The signage for the beers is very confusing — there’s stuff listed all over the place, and it’s hard to tell what’s current

En la zona de Hackney está de moda el beber en las fábricas cerveceras instaladas junto al río. Esto me trajo buenos recuerdos de Seattle y me dispuse a disfrutar del hangar con mesas improvisadas en el exterior al que se accede por un parking y una zona de oficinas abandonadas que me encantó.
También sirven pizzas, con lo que uno puede decir que lo tienen todo. Siempre que no sea sábado por la tarde, eso sí. En este caso, nuestro caso, es posible ver a gente sentada en el suelo del parking de acceso mientras come pizzas y bebe cervezas y sentir reminiscencias de los festivales veraniegos hasta que te das cuenta de que están ahí porque no caben en el interior de la cervecería. La cantidad ingente de personas que se reúné en este lugar me dejó algo sorprendida y desanimada ante eterna la cola para pedir comida, no quise imaginar los baños. Por eso no esperé y no probé la pizza, pero el lugar me encantó y estoy deseando volver.

A friend and I signed up for a canal canoeing evening which ended up here on a Friday night. The paddle over was fun, and we were in need of something to warm us up, Crate managed to sort us out.
The space is reasonably large and decked out with an obvious regard for the target clientele’s sensibilities. Sadly the sun was down but I can imagine the outside canal-​side area is perfect throughout the summer.
Our pizza arrived in a reasonable time (35 minutes advertised above the bar seemed about right) and was very nice — thin base with sufficient topping (and flavoursome toppings to boot). This worked well with the pint of Crate IPA (hoppy, but well balanced). The staff were friendly and helpful, dealing well with the obvious burden of working in such a busy and popular place.
If you’re not slightly damp and quite tired from a paddle up the canal I’d reckon you could have a long and fun evening (as long as you don’t suddenly need the loo — the queue is rather long). There are lots of beers to try, nit just Crate but guest taps. Just make sure not to miss the last Overground home at 11something.

People are good looking, space is good looking, pizza is DAMN good looking… this place is easy on the eyes.
Getting to Crate is a bit of an adventure if it’s your first time and you’re hacking out directions as you go on a close-​to-​being-​no-​more-​useful-​than-​a-​doorstop iPhone. We took a bus, then walked, then got lost, then found a nice couple willing to point us in the right direction.
When we got there we knew we were right: people were pouring in and out of Queens Yard, even though it was a gloomy Sunday night. Located right on the canal with extensive inside and outside seating, Crate has an industrial feel that made my friend and I turn to each other and say…“is this Brooklyn?”.
BUT NO. No, it’s also very Hackney.
In the best of ways.
DJ spinning, pints on offer (rye highly recommended) and don’t miss those pizzas. That is an order. They are cracker-​thin, but the toppings are really nicely chosen. Sure, you could go for a standard margarita, but also delicious? Courgette with feta and mint. YEP YEP DO THAT.
Dogs welcome, kids running around, but it still has a 20/​30-​something hipster (yeah, I used that word; it’s just helpful shorthand for the description) vibe. Gets full, fast, so if you’re coming in a large group I believe they take reservations for posses of 10 or more.
Unilocal note: the walk in to Queens Yard is lovely for those of you into street art… lots of great photo-​opportunities (photopportunities?)

Well isn’t this place a hipster magnet?! It is the kind of place you come across a lot in East London. It’s a real shame there isn’t a little more originality in the décor and use of such a big space.
As a cider fan, the one on tap was my choice. It was very nice and I would drink it again. Many times.
The pizza was not for me. The topping/​crust ratio is not something I’ve come across before, or would look for again. I do like a thin crust but that was thinner than your average bear. There was also no spice to my spicy salami :(
Although on the canal, which would be great for summer, I’d opt for number 90, just down the road, for a drink instead.

It’s hipster central in the middle of nowhere. Very good IPA, my friend said his spicy salami pizza was spot on so they must be doing something right.
The brewery has really made an effort to be cool. Think warehouse meets exposed brick meets furniture from the skip. I particularly like the lamp shades made from mattress springs. Upcycling at its hipsterdom best!