Restaurants, Bars and Hotels Near the ABBA Arena

There is almost nothing at the Arena itself. This is an edge of Olympic Park site with a DLR station opposite and open ground around it, not a high street. One place is genuinely walkable. Everything else worth eating in is one stop away in Stratford, and the best pub round here is a little further on, by the canal in Hackney Wick.

Plan the meal around the train rather than around the venue, and book it. Three thousand people arrive and leave at the same time, and the good places near a station know it.

At the Arena

• The concourse bars and food counters. Bars run the length of the concourse, with hot dogs, burgers, baked fries, a seasonal menu and plant-based and vegetarian options. All of it opens when the doors do, at least 1 hour 45 minutes before the concert
• The early arrivals deal. In the first hour after the doors open there is a food and drink combo cheaper than buying the two separately. Come earlier than the 45 minutes we recommend and eat here
• Pizza after the show, Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings only, walk-up or pre-ordered. On other evenings there is no food at the arena once the concert ends, so eat before or eat in Stratford
• You can pre-order food and drink before the date, which at a venue with one concourse and three thousand people is the easiest hour you will save

Within a walk

• The Print House at Jim & Tonic East, 133 High Street E15. The only proper eating and drinking option you can walk to from the arena, canalside, with a gin distillery on site, two bars and pizzas and burgers. It knows exactly what it is on a show night and fills up accordingly, so book a table rather than turning up
• Snoozebox Olympic Park, Pudding Mill Lane, is the closest bed to the arena by a distance, right by the DLR station. It's adults only, and the rooms are tiny cabins, basically a bed and a shower, so reviews split hard between people who loved being thirty seconds from the door and people who did not like the room. We are not recommending it either way. Read it properly before you book

One stop away: Stratford and Hackney Wick

Two minutes on the DLR, or 15 to 20 minutes on foot through the park.

Eat

• HERA, Arber Way, Stratford Cross. Contemporary Greek, big, with a cocktail lounge at the front, and it runs late enough to be an after as well as a before. It does a set menu for ABBA Voyage ticket holders
• FIGO, Endeavour Square. Modern Italian, handmade pasta and pizza, and the safest booking on this list: it is open seven days a week from breakfast until late, which no other pick here manages. Also does an ABBA Voyage set menu
• Bread Street Kitchen, Bar and Rooftop, Stratford. The Gordon Ramsay one, with a rooftop and a winter garden, and a three-course ABBA Voyage set menu with a drink. Treat it as a before rather than an after: the kitchen closes earlier than you would expect midweek and much earlier on a Sunday

Drink

• Bat & Ball, Stratford Place, Westfield. The most reliably open thing near this venue, used to stadium crowds, with ping pong and beer pong tables and sport on. It is still serving after every performance, which on this side of London is not a given
• The Lord Napier Star, White Post Lane, Hackney Wick. A proper pub with a roof terrace, a karaoke room and a resident kitchen, twenty to twenty-five minutes round the canal or a stop on the Overground from Stratford. It is open when a lot of Hackney Wick is not
• The arena's own concourse bars, if you would rather not leave. Get in early, because there is no interval to catch up in

Stay

• Premier Inn London Stratford, International Square, inside Westfield. Reviewers here mention ABBA Voyage by name, which tells you who stays there. One DLR stop, a bed, a breakfast, no fuss
• Moxy London Stratford, by Westfield. Design-led, a bar in the lobby, and the pick for a group who want somewhere to carry on afterwards without paying for a suite
• Hyatt Regency London Stratford, on the Westfield doorstep. Big, four-star and reliable, with an outdoor terrace bar, and the easy one to book for a couple of rooms at once