Morito

Moro and Morito chef proprietors, Sam & Sam Clark, have opened their third restaurant, located at 195 Hackney Road.

welcome to morito hackney road

http://www.moritohackneyroad.co.uk

Morito Hackney Road Tapas | London Restaurant Review | House ...

Morito, Hackney Road, restaurant review: tapas with North African twist

But step inside Morito, which opened last month, and you are hit by the smell of za’atar wafting from the kitchen, sherry swilling in stout glasses, and bright lights beaming down on shell-shaped tiles.

Like its famous big brother on Exmouth Market, Morito on Hackney Road serves up tapas with a North African twist.

Sherry, from the Jerez region of Spain, flows freely throughout the menu, cutting through the richness here or adding a sprinkling of sweetness there.

Slices of octopus burst with flavour, but were cooked a little long for our liking and served with a fava bean puree, which didn’t add much to the dish.

But apart from feeling a little rushed – perhaps more a nod to authentic tapas style than a shortcoming – eating at Morito is a treat for all the tastes and senses.

Morito Hackney Road | East London | Restaurant Reviews | Hot ...

"It is capacious and chicly unpretty, with a decidedly functional Brooklyn ambience.

This is a watering and feeding stop for singles, friends and families.

It’s a neighbourhood restaurant with brilliant food but a no-frills edge.

It is capacious and chicly unpretty, with a decidedly functional Brooklyn ambience.

It’s a neighbourhood restaurant with brilliant food but a no-frills edge."

Fay Maschler reviews Morito: The flavour of summer comes east ...

That blameless white pillowy cheese mizithra served with the wild greens called horta; dakos (barley rusks) gently knuckling under their sopping topping; slices of bottarga gleaming like amber; rabbit haunted with cinnamon; mealy fava with grilled octopus; floppy chips acting as garnish; mastic from Chios lending its resinous notes and enhanced whiteness to dessert — for someone who loves Greece (e g, me) this Cretan bias to the menu at Morita in Hackney is as seductive and stirring as a Psarantonis melody.

The chef, who has come from Sam and Samantha Clark’s Moro, is Marianna Leivaditaki, whose family owns a restaurant in Crete.

On the first visit some structure is imposed but on the second occasion a first course of cod with spring garlic  — turbot on the plancha sadly having run out — gets the meal off to an odd start when pan con tomate, here beautifully daintily constructed, can and should do that.

Oloroso sherry and sweet stewed onions lend a faintly sumptuous quality to matter-of-fact cod and the garlic a bit of naughtiness but it stays an odd way to be obliged to start a meal, especially when the remains of the powerful negroni — a particularly effective one — would have worked much better with, say, bottarga on its lightly toasted bread.

Sauces that come with some of the dishes such as the peppery almond and orange mojo with asparagus and the pistachio purée let down by juices that surround chargrilled quail with pomegranate, deserve a more bounteous serving of bread than the five tiny seeded slices served for £2.50.

Restaurant: Morito, London EC1 | John Lanchester | Food and drink ...

Here, the first wave of 1980s tapas bars concentrated on the traditional British strengths of drinking our heads off and being charged £8 in return for the chef opening a tin of anchovies.

British tapas have moved on from there, but maybe not enough yet, so every genuine attempt at the Spanish version of tapas is a good deed.

And Spanish tapas have moved on, too, in the direction of more ambitious and innovative cooking, and funkier locations, within the traditional tapas format: "nuevo tapas", they call it.

Morito is a tapas bar right next door to the famously successful Moro in Clerkenwell; it's run by the same people, Sam and Sam Clark, and occupies a spot that used to belong to the legendarily good Spanish deli Brindisa.

All were delicious – the scallop in albariño sauce especially so – but we did feel the portions were on the very small side of small, and you need to order a lot of these tapas dishes to make a meal.