Pamela

A neighbourhood cocktail bar that lent its kitchen out for three years, and two of the kitchens that used it went on to permanent sites of their own (Hackney Citizen).

Why go

You cannot. The bar has shut and Ellie's holds the lease at 428 Kingsland Road, reviewed there by Lisa Wright for Time Out in June 2025 (Time Out). This row exists because a maps pin still shows Pamela open and because what happened in the kitchen is worth keeping.

It opened in May 2015 built on infusions rather than classics: plum and pecan brandy, beetroot gin, passion fruit rum, jalapeno vodka (DesignMyNight). The room was themed on famous Pamelas, mostly Anderson, and the Hackney Citizen decided it was carried off "with a winking charm" rather than as a gimmick.

Then the residencies. Club Mexicana had an early run here and later took over the Spread Eagle in Homerton for good. Decatur arrived from Tom Browne's stall on Druid Street Market with chargrilled oysters and crab hush puppies. Mao Chow cooked vegan Sichuan, What The Fattoush cooked vegan Palestinian (Time Out). In 2018 Pamela wrote its own menu, all vegan, three starters and four mains, and that is the version a critic finally assessed.

Order this / avoid

• Order: nothing. The kitchen and the bar are gone. The jalapeno vodka survived: Ellie's next door in the same room pours a cocktail called the Pamela built on it, with kiwi, lime and coconut (The Nudge).
• Avoid: the pin. Google still shows this bar as trading, which is how it stayed on the list as open until this pass.

What locals & experts say

• Andrew Barnes, Hackney Citizen, May 2018, on the summer rolls off Pamela's own vegan menu: "Rather than fill them with cucumber and other such watery horrors, these are packed with lemongrass-flavoured soya pork substitute. This gives them a meaty heft, but coupled with the dipping sauce they're so thrillingly tangy and lively that any carnivorousness is an afterthought." He was less kind to the ramen: "The broth was a little underflavoured for me." ref
• Hackney Citizen, October 2016, unbylined, on the residency model that defined the place: "Like an eternal culinary bridesmaid, Kingsland Road bar Pamela has watched a succession of pop-ups come down the aisle without ever catching the bouquet themselves." That line is from the 2018 piece; the 2016 review of Decatur's run recorded where the chef came from, "head chef Tom Browne's stall on Druid Street Market in Bermondsey." ref
• Lisa Wright, Time Out, June 2025, four out of five, on the successor: Ellie's is "setting up shop in the space formerly occupied by well-loved hang-out Pamela." Her review is of Ellie's and belongs to that bar, quoted here only because it dates the change. ref

Good to know

• Where it was: 428 Kingsland Road E8 4AA, by Dalston Junction Overground.
• Status: closed. Time Out titles both of its pages "(CLOSED)" and a different bar has traded at the address since at least June 2025.
• When it shut: unknown. Nothing reached on 1 August 2026 gives a date, only a bound of before June 2025.
• What is there now: Ellie's, walk-in only, eight-pound martinis all night, open until 2am Friday to Sunday.
• Register: the FSA holds no London premises called Pamela and nothing at 428 Kingsland Road, which is what deregistration after a closure looks like.
• Sites: one, and it is gone.

Jeff's take (his words)

• Note: none. His saved-places export carries an empty note against this row, so nothing here is attributed to him. The master CSV line "Dalston cocktail bar save" is a curation label rather than his words, and the row's Open status was a maps-pin artifact, corrected on 1 August 2026.

Verdict (Chef Jeff ladder)

listed — Closed, and the row stays for the record rather than the send. Pamela opened at 428 Kingsland Road in May 2015 as an infusion bar, with beetroot gin, passion fruit rum and a jalapeno vodka on the house list, and it spent its first three years lending its kitchen to other people. Club Mexicana cooked here before it took a Homerton pub permanently. Decatur brought Tom Browne's New Orleans food up from a Druid Street market stall. Mao Chow and What The Fattoush followed. In 2018 the bar finally wrote its own menu, all vegan, and Andrew Barnes reviewed it for the Hackney Citizen: the summer rolls were 'so thrillingly tangy and lively that any carnivorousness is an afterthought', and the ramen broth 'a little underflavoured'. Nobody reached records when it shut. Time Out marks it CLOSED, and Lisa Wright reviewed a different bar, Ellie's, at the same address in June 2025. If you are on that stretch of Kingsland Road, that is where to go, and its cocktail list still carries a drink called the Pamela built on the old jalapeno vodka.