diff --git a/test/e2e/gateway/tcproute_test.go b/test/e2e/gateway/tcproute_test.go
index 4e3d4ea05f9..033928d0501 100644
--- a/test/e2e/gateway/tcproute_test.go
+++ b/test/e2e/gateway/tcproute_test.go
@@ -16,6 +16,8 @@
 package gateway
 
 import (
+	"context"
+
 	. "github.com/onsi/ginkgo/v2"
 	"github.com/stretchr/testify/assert"
 	"github.com/stretchr/testify/require"
@@ -33,7 +35,7 @@ func testTCPRoute(namespace string, gateway types.NamespacedName) {
 	Specify("A TCPRoute does L4 TCP proxying of traffic for its Listener port", func() {
 		t := f.T()
 
-		f.Fixtures.Echo.Deploy(namespace, "echo")
+		f.Fixtures.Echo.Deploy(namespace, "echo-tcproute-backend")
 
 		route := &gatewayapi_v1alpha2.TCPRoute{
 			ObjectMeta: meta_v1.ObjectMeta{
@@ -51,7 +53,7 @@ func testTCPRoute(namespace string, gateway types.NamespacedName) {
 				},
 				Rules: []gatewayapi_v1alpha2.TCPRouteRule{
 					{
-						BackendRefs: gatewayapi.TLSRouteBackendRef("echo", 80, ptr.To(int32(1))),
+						BackendRefs: gatewayapi.TLSRouteBackendRef("echo-tcproute-backend", 80, ptr.To(int32(1))),
 					},
 				},
 			},
@@ -64,12 +66,25 @@ func testTCPRoute(namespace string, gateway types.NamespacedName) {
 			Condition: e2e.HasStatusCode(200),
 		})
 		assert.Truef(t, ok, "expected 200 response code, got %d", res.StatusCode)
-		assert.Equal(t, "echo", f.GetEchoResponseBody(res.Body).Service)
+		assert.Equal(t, "echo-tcproute-backend", f.GetEchoResponseBody(res.Body).Service)
 
 		// Envoy is expected to add the "server: envoy" and
 		// "x-envoy-upstream-service-time" HTTP headers when
 		// proxying HTTP; this ensures we are proxying TCP only.
 		assert.Equal(t, "", res.Headers.Get("server"))
 		assert.Equal(t, "", res.Headers.Get("x-envoy-upstream-service-time"))
+
+		// Delete route and wait for config to no longer be present so this
+		// test doesn't pollute others. This route effectively matches all
+		// hostnames so it can affect other tests.
+		require.NoError(t, f.Client.Delete(context.Background(), route))
+		require.Eventually(t, func() bool {
+			_, err := f.HTTP.Request(&e2e.HTTPRequestOpts{})
+			return err != nil
+		}, f.RetryTimeout, f.RetryInterval, "expected request to eventually fail")
+		require.Never(t, func() bool {
+			_, err := f.HTTP.Request(&e2e.HTTPRequestOpts{})
+			return err == nil
+		}, f.RetryTimeout, f.RetryInterval, "expected request to never succeed after failing")
 	})
 }
diff --git a/test/e2e/http.go b/test/e2e/http.go
index 520c16cccf9..c5b35d11a0a 100644
--- a/test/e2e/http.go
+++ b/test/e2e/http.go
@@ -134,6 +134,40 @@ func (h *HTTP) RequestUntil(opts *HTTPRequestOpts) (*HTTPResponse, bool) {
 	return h.requestUntil(makeRequest, opts.Condition)
 }
 
+// Request makes a single HTTP request with the provided parameters
+// and returns the HTTP response or an error. Note that opts.Condition is
+// ignored by this method.
+//
+// In general, E2E's should use RequestUntil instead of this method since
+// RequestUntil will retry requests to account for eventual consistency and
+// other ephemeral issues.
+func (h *HTTP) Request(opts *HTTPRequestOpts) (*HTTPResponse, error) {
+	req, err := http.NewRequest(http.MethodGet, opts.requestURLBase(h.HTTPURLBase)+opts.Path, nil)
+	require.NoError(h.t, err, "error creating HTTP request")
+
+	req.Host = opts.Host
+	for _, opt := range opts.RequestOpts {
+		opt(req)
+	}
+
+	client := httpClient(opts.ClientOpts...)
+
+	r, err := client.Do(req)
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, err
+	}
+	defer r.Body.Close()
+
+	bodyBytes, err := io.ReadAll(r.Body)
+	require.NoError(h.t, err)
+
+	return &HTTPResponse{
+		StatusCode: r.StatusCode,
+		Headers:    r.Header,
+		Body:       bodyBytes,
+	}, nil
+}
+
 func OptDontFollowRedirects(c *http.Client) {
 	// Per CheckRedirect godoc: "As a special case, if
 	// CheckRedirect returns ErrUseLastResponse, then