Six fire engines and 35 firefighters and officers were called to a restaurant fire on Commercial Road in Whitechapel on Sunday afternoon.
The fire damaged two commercial walk in fridges in the basement and five people left adjacent flats before firefighters arrived.
The Brigade was called at 1710 and the fire was under control at 1857. Crews from Shoreditch, Dowgate, Whitechapel, Shadwell, Homerton and Bethnal Green fire stations attended the incident.
The cause of the fire is under investigation.