Moro

Ate at Moro on a Thursday in late December for my boyfriend's birthday and it was a fantastic evening.

We arrived 20 mins early, intending to have a drink at the bar first, but our waiter was able to seat us straight away and served us aperitifs speedily.

I had asked (in advance) for a quieter table away from group Christmas bookings, and the team did a grand job - we had a great table. The atmosphere was both lively and relaxed and the decor was spot on for the kind of place it is - great food in a chilled out setting.

Advice from the waiter on our choice of wine was excellent, friendly and unpretentious. The menu was excellent - I have never known my boyfriend to struggle to choose from a menu because it all looks so ridiculously good.

The highlights were the squid with harissa (oh.my.god), the excellent chestnut and chorizo soup, sea bream with slow baked fennel and the scrumptious sherry trifle for dessert. Even the bread was fab. Service was unhurried but not frustratingly so. A three course meal with aperitifs and fresh mint tea took about two and a half hours. Just perfect!

(NB I agree with one of the previous reviewers that the size of the main courses was large - but I think it's just horses for courses. I had some food left on my plate, but the portion size was just perfect for my boyfriend, who is often left hungry at other restaurants. It was nice not to have to fill our tables with side dishes for once!)

One of the best meals I have had in ages - and we eat out a lot. Not cheap, but not excruciatingly expensive either.

You have to give it a try. Seriously. You'll not regret it. We're planning a return visit for lunch tapas after Christmas!
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Marie
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 7
Friday, December 21, 2007

I was looking forward to my first visit to Moro, I have both the cookbooks and they reflect my experience of travelling through Spain and the Mediterranean. The passion that comes through in the books does not come through in the restaurant food though. This is yet another London restaurant turning it out.

My Pigeon and fig starter was excellent, even though miniscule, the wood roast lamb was though and again an extremely small portion, I ask for the lamb to be pink but it was only just so. At these sorts of prices and with this style of cooking, I do expect a little bit more on my plate and a more care and attention to the cooking. The Malaga raisin ice cream was excellent as were our parties other deserts, and the portions were what one would expect.

For a party of four, four excellent cocktails, three courses each; one bottle of mid priced wine, and coffee, the bill was £180. They were generous with the excellent bread.

Pleasant, but not inspired cooking and somewhat disappointing, especially when a bottle of water appeared on our bill that we did not order or did it arrive. When we complained the waiter did apologise and instantly changed the bill.

Would I go again, I am not sure. Little things make a big difference and this is what they lack, that extra bit of attention.
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Overall rating
Food 6 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 3
Sunday, September 02, 2007

I would agree with those who have given this restaurant a less than favourable review. I went for the first time on Friday night and it was "ok". Service and atmosphere ok. And food ok...ish. A starter of grilled sardines with a spicy tomatoe salsa was light and delicious. Both of our main courses were far, far too large (I hate it when food is sloppily piled onto the plate so you can't see what it underneath it) and quantity seemed to be the order of the day over quality. I thought the food itself (one pork and one lamb) was quite bland and uninteresting and reminiscent of slightly better than average pub meals. Roasted vegetables were cold, greasy and very uninteresting. This could be a good restaurant but it feels like there's complacency and malaise in the kitchen. I won't be going back in a hurry.
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Lucy - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 4 | Service 5 | Atmosphere 6 | Value for money 5
Tuesday, July 31, 2007

I stopped by Moro on a Saturday afternoon for sherry and tapas recently. The atmosphere was lively and friendly, the service attentive, but the food disappointed. The bread was excellent. Of the 4 tapas I ordered, one, the chorizo, arrived burnt. I chose a Palo Cortado to have with these tapas, which was very good. But the sherry recommended by the waiter to go with the berries and brandy cream was flat and uninteresting, tasting like the bottle had been open too long. Given the choice of places to eat in London, I don't think I'd return unless the food improves. Unfortunately, just before I was getting ready to leave, the kitchen staff hauled out two large trash cans past me at the bar, spoiling the atmosphere.
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Roberta Jackson
Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 6 | Value for money 4
Thursday, June 28, 2007

Went last night for the 2nd time (1st time was about 7 years ago and it was excellent).....this time it was extremely disappointing.

The service was good and our waitress was bright and helpful. The starters were OK but the main courses were awful. The chicken was inedible as it was swimming in so much oil and both of the lamb dishes were cold - at £15+ for a main this is totally unacceptable. They were happy to take the chicken off the bill.

With three decent bottles of wine, 4 starters and 4 mains (minus the chicken) the bill was £175.

Competition among the top places to eat/drink in London is fierce and unfortunatley Moro has not kept up with the rest of the pack. We all decided that this is somewhere that we would definitley not return to.
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Goodwoogie.
Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 4
Wednesday, June 06, 2007

First time I have visited Moro's and wont EVER go back or recommend it to friends !! Me and 4 friends booked a table for lunch yesterday (17th May) and was seated up near the serving area and kithen, all too busy and hot, so we asked to move which they did - but wasn't very happy about it.

Our waitress was so unfreindly and rude. We asked for the Tapas menu and was told we could not have it being as we were sitting in the main restaurant but said we could have it for a few starters. Tapas was ok but overpriced and not very tasty. We should have left then !!!!! We all ordered main course I asked if the chicken was breast meat and was told "its shredded" so not an answer to my question. A freind of mine had the lamb and said it tasted like beef another friend of mine tasted it and she was 100% sure it was also beef, we asked if they had got the dish worng and was told agian by our "unfriendly waitress" "I have been here 3 years and we have never had beef on the meun". We did not have pudding, the wine was the best thing. We did not leave a tip and make a point of letting the waitress bring our 20p change !!!!

So we wont be going back. At only £30 per head - even so we would have loved to spend this £30 in another restaurnat and enjoyed lunch.
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Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 2 | Value for money 1
Friday, May 18, 2007

I booked a table for a Saturday night with some friends.

The food is very tasty, but not too fancy - 'rustic' is probably the right word - but the quality is good. The food is based on very southern spanish cuisine i.e. jamon, fish, red meats with heavy moroccan influence. I had fish for my starter and main, both were good, and based on other recommendations, I had the raisin ice-cream for dessert, which was excellent. The wine list is good (mostly Spanish). The staff can be a bit mixed - either very friendly or very moody but all in all, efficient. To be fair, Saturday night is probably the busiest time to go and bearing this in mind, the restaurant did very well on service, timing and quality. For the amount we ate and drank, the bill was satisfactory (London price wise). Just one complaint - the toilets are a disgrace and completely unmanaged - for a start there is only one per gender - by 11 pm, they were pretty unpleasent.
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Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 7
Monday, May 14, 2007

After finally finding this treasure(mistakenly looking for Casa Moro as this is the name of their cookbook) we were thrilled. The soup on 17 February was a courgette,mint and yoghurt. Simply put it was superb! One of the best soups I have ever had anywhere ever. The main lamb was very good as were everyone elses' food. Highly recommend.

Also the wine recommendation was excellent and at a very fair price for London.
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andrew nelson
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 10
Monday, March 26, 2007

An absolutely delicious evening. Nothing more to say really. I went for an evening out with my husband and two friends who eat out a lot - but amazingly had not ventured to Moro yet. They were not disappointed. We spent much of the evening passing forks around the table and discussing who's choice was better. For my main course I had the bream which looked and tasted liked it had flipped out of the water and onto my plate - it was so fresh - and someone needs to write poetry about the raisin ice cream! Staff were attentive and very helpful on wine choices.

A great evening out.
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Tara
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Thursday, March 15, 2007

With the mixed reviews I was intrigued. Moro is in my neighborhood and after a year I finally tried it out with a friend Overall it was an OK experience at the usual London prices. The wine was relatively good by London standards, with the food being interesting, but only just a notch above mediocre. The pork my friend tried had a lot of fat and little meat. My chicken and prawn dish was very light on the meat with one prawn and two sad bits of chicken buried in the sauce. The service was pleasant if scattered. We were served the wrong entrees at one point and asked twice by different staff for a drink order as there seemed to be some confusion as to who was serving us. I would say that the atmosphere was the best part with the large and busy space, full of good smells and lively conversation.
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The american - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 3 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 2
Monday, March 05, 2007