Power Lunches Arts Cafe

Mirror-​clad basement hangout — the perfect setting for an algorave! My sort of retro, until I ran out of breath. Not quite sure how they passed any health & safety checks …
The upstairs bar is a bit of a sad place at night, at least it was on our visit. Badly stocked and I decided to have my T without the G. Still, there was something endearing about this place.
The toilet’s black tiles made me smile, I could make another comment about health & safety at this point. Definitely would not consider ordering food here.

Café during the day and bar /​music venue at night. We visited recently for the Wyrdout festival to see two bands play. For me it’s the perfect kind of low key, straightforward place where you can see & listen to live music for a low price. There are many many overhyped, overpriced, high concept /​low on delivery places in London that it’s good that places like Power lunches do exist. If you want those other fancy places with a velvet rope, bouncers and overpriced cocktails, just go back to the West End or anywhere else in zone 1.
Upstairs we bought canned beers (not overpriced) and downstairs where the music was playing they had a powerful air conditioning unit to keep it cool. Staff were friendly and the vibe was good as was the music.

This place is a pseudo hipster death trap. Seriously I’m never going to risk it again. Only one exit into 2 sets of doors & a tight stairway up to ground floor. But what’s worse is the disregard for everyone’s safety they have. I found a condom stretched over the smoke alarm to stop it going off.
Stay away

You may call me crazy if you want, but this is a little gem in Dalston. I came here with some friends on a Thursday night and had a blast, but yeah this is the kind of place that isn’t for everyone. So if you like alternative hype places continue reading, if not you may go elsewhere, they don’t serve fancy cocktails, this is not the place for you.
Daytime, is a little café, you can come over for some snacks. At night, this turns into a bar/​cluby kind of venue, and if you are up for an adventure you should go downstairs and check out the stage and dancefloor. I say adventure because you will find people here that dress half as man and half as woman, or boys that wear high heels, pink stockings and make up, girls that take off their clothes off in the middle of everything, and etc, etc, etc.
For me this is the best representation of Dalston and East London: a mix of everything in a (very) cosy space with cheap beer, just like Philip described. Come to watch a gig, meet interesting people and have a good time. Check out their schedule on the official website. Perfect venue to start of the night. You can even do a little Dalston tour and head to The Alibi afterwards.
Great location, just on the corner The Haggerston.
Taking the night bus? Don’t worry, this is on Kingsland Rd. and you will have no trouble going from/​to Shoreditich or Central London. If you rather take the Overground, you gotta walk a bit, but it’s always better if you have a little too much to drink, isn’t?

This tiny venue is one of my favourite places to play and see gigs in London. They book better bands than most venues, have good (albeit sometimes unnecessarily loud) sound, and appropriately priced beer. Shows are usually less than £5 for 3 – 6 bands. Amazing.
Most of the music is experimental electronic, garage punk, and pretty much anything noisy and interesting. Occasional soft indie/​twee pop band. If you favour hearing something exciting and new over hearing something perfectly rehearsed you will like a Power Lunches show. Lazy iPod DJs with good taste upstairs.
The place get’s hot and smelly in the basement (where the bands play) but sometimes it just adds to the excitement.

Ok, I’m going to have to balance the other reviews here a bit.
I have one rule when going out to places: Know what you’re up for and if you don’t, pretend like you belong anyway. There’s times I find myself suited up in a posh bar sipping of a good scotch or a cocktail; there’s times I find myself in a filthy basement enjoying great music. Power Lunches is without any doubt the latter.
Sure they only serve cans of bad beer and little else. Sure there are no locks on both bathroom doors so you need to hold it with your arm or foot whilst peeing. Sure the basement is ridiculously small so if more than 30 people show up, you’re in for a treat.
But … that’s what makes this place so good. In a city where we complain everything is always overpriced, full of hipsters or lacking any personality; I think it’s great we still have places like this quite close to the centre that support underground music and do little else besides that.
This, of course, is not the place to go to for a cocktail or a roast. Hell, I wouldn’t even try the wine. But if you check out their website and see some interesting acts playing; and you don’t care about how the place looks like and only care about the music it brings, please go and find yourself in an environment we won’t see many others of anymore here in London.

Came to see a gig here as my friend’s band was performing — only one word really describes this ‘arts café’ — vile. The basement where the bands performed didn’t have proper ventilation, it was so disgustingly humid and smelt like a reptile house. There was a sign advertising cocktails, but when I tried to order an amaretto sour, after trying to squeeze 2 limes for a bit with his bare unwashed fingers, the ‘barman’ realised there was no amaretto. He then proceeded to carry on reading his magazine. My friend managed to buy a mojito but it was brown and had no mint leaves in it… it was basically spiced rum and lemonade. Will never come back here ever, just so gross.

A great friendly little café with a fantastic atmosphere. Love hanging out here. ahackinhackney

We came in following the sign ‘Roast! £8,50!’ outside. The staff was nice, sitting around with friends and it all seemed cool.
Sunday Roast was
disgusting, really. All of the 3 pieces of potato and 3 pieces of meat (the only mildly tasty thing) and a ton of cold veg were swimming in something that probably was supposed to be gravy (?)but was so watery you couldnt even feel the taste. All lukewarm and underspiced.
Most regretted £19,70 ever.