Moro

I am surprised by the lukewarm reviews of Moro on here... went there last night for the ?fifth time, although the first for about a year and found it as good as ever. But it is all about the food... if you want what Americans call 'gracious' (fawning ad/or supercilious) service and fancy nappery, or pointless squirts of sauce on the plate go to the West End. The awful The Square, maybe.

Maybe we were lucky but we were approached by the maitre d' the minute we went in (we were booked - don't expect just to turn up and get a table) and our Kiwi waiter was attentive and clued up on both food and drinks. When he didn't know one thing I asked he fessed up to it. Extensive and unusual list of wines and sherries. Starters came quickly - bizarrely the thing I fancied most was cabbage - Hispi cabbage with capers, brown butter and smoked paprika - and it was satsfied in a way I never thought cabbage could. Theother - Manti (a kind of ravioli) filled with lamb with a creamy tomatoey sauce also very good though more bearably toothsome. Only service fault was rather a long wait for main courses which I don't feel was necessary as we were dining relatively late. They didn't disappoint [one s two ps everyone...]... chicken always seems especially good at Moro and this was the case with Wood roasted chicken with walnut and pomegranate sauce and saffron pilaf. Complex concentrated flavour and a jolly big plateful. Pan fried scallops with fennel and almond puree and fino sherry also very tasty although I wasn't so keen on the slightly vinegary broccoli ...but then I have an issue with vinegar so perhaps the problem is mine.

Only room for one pudding - rosewater and cardamom ice cream. Creamy and rosy, what can I say? Maybe not as fragrant as I might have expected but we were a bit sated by then. Good bread, good coffee... Gilliam Anderson sitting at the next table if you likethat sort ofthing, though this isn;t the Ivy. Bill £128 inc service for two and a half courses, two glasses of Cava, four sherries and two digestifs, two cups of coffee. Good enough value I'd say. Oh and the room is fairly noisy... try to get to far back corner ifthat's an issue though it's not as pleasant and you are right by the loo. Tables at the front more desirable if that's your bag.
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Soyer
Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 7
Wednesday, January 27, 2010

I have always enjoyed visiting Moro but was disappointed recently

my starter of clams consisted of just ten clams on some salad, served tepid and with a bland sauce costing 8.50

there were no main courses below £18 , and my lamb, while tender, was also served tepid

It seems that some changes have been made to the prices and the drinks menu, but unfortunately the standards seem to have dropped
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harriet
Overall rating
Food 6 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 6
Monday, January 25, 2010

I have been to Moro a good few times over the years. My most recent visit the other night was a bit of a dissappointment. The old place looks a little tired and could do with a makeover or at least a few new tables and chairs. The main attraction however, clearly, is the food: my girolle and prawn arroz was a hearty tasty starter, the main of pork [belly] and churrasco sauce was again robust and flavoursome, maybe a little too salty. Wine choices were good if the usually 3.5 or more mark up we have come to expect in London. Service was helpful althought our meals were slow to come out of the kitchen. Staff were generally new so their opinion's on wines,etc were not really that helpful or informed. So overall good and competitive with the top end gastropub market but Moro could do with a new broom...
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Ben
Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 6 | Atmosphere 6 | Value for money 7
Thursday, October 22, 2009

Went a couple of weeks ago for a birthday celebratory lunch with family.

The hospitality on arrival was mediocre and not very welcoming .This continued throughout the meal with the waiter- very unimpressive service -I would speculate he was an out of work actor and he seemed a bit demeaned by the work. - could have been an off day... Was expecting a more welcoming atmosphere, especially with small kids in tow. longtime fan of their delicious food- have all their books and chose this restaurant as i perceived it to be a relaxed environment., perfect for an occasion , where i hoped we could pick from lots of the dishes in the books that maybe were on the menu .The menu was in fact very limited and a lot of items were charcoal grilled- which is nice, but expected more variety to choose from . food quality was good - the tortilla was out of this world. Overall not bad . Wont be rushing back though- will go back to cooking from their books- they definately need to brush up on their service to their customers to win peoples loyalty and return
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goody123
Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 7
Thursday, September 17, 2009

We went on Saturday night and had mixed thoughts. The atmosphere was good - very convivial and busy. The service was so so. We were not offered drinks when we sat down and had to wait a while before we were served. The house white wine was above average for house wine and the bread and olive oil was sensational. The starter I had was grilled pepper and prawns was a bit dissapointing considering the price but the mains (the lamb) was really good. Perfectly cooked and just melted in the mouth. The ice cream for desert was incredible. I don't usually like ice cream but this was the best I have ever tasted. The prices were not too bad but not certainly not cheap. Overall an enjoyable meal but don't think it deserves as much hype as it receives.
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Jon
Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 6 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 7
Monday, September 07, 2009

We had a great meal here for 6 people last weekend. I ordered tuna carpaccio salad, and the mixed meze. Everyone at the table ordered different things and everyone was very happy, the food is very well done and usually comes with an interesting twist, e.g. (e.g: the gaspacho soup with fig or the greek salad with anis croutons). We found the wine selection very interesting, some lesser known (in London) catalunyan wines. Agree that its very noisy, and the place looks basic, but for food quality, I cannot fault this place. We did find the service mixed at times, but we didn't care as it was still pretty reasonably priced for the quality meal we had (around £55 a head with wine). Will definitely go back!
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lisa - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 5 | Atmosphere 4 | Value for money 8
Saturday, August 22, 2009

I had a business lunch here yesterday. With regards to the comments below, the restaurant was noisy but it wasn't too noisy to not do business in.... I think it just added to the atmosphere.

I thought the menu (maybe it was because we came at lunchtime) was very short, particularly for those that don't eat meat. There was only one choice of starter and one choice of main meal. Anyhow, I had for a starter the mussel salad, it was very good, the flavours were lovely and it seemed a really refreshing light starter! For my main meal I had the vegetable mezze. This was huge!! It was a mixture of typical mezze such as houmous and baba ghanoush (sp??) plus beetroot in a yoghurt type sauce, lentils which were lovely and garlickly and flatbreads amongst others! It was a lovely meal though I left half of it as it was just too big. The star of the show was definitely dessert, cardamom ice cream. Really lovely and again refreshing, perhaps the most unusual icecream I've ever had!

The service was good, they aware we had a business meeting and didn't interrupt and payed us the right amount of attention.

Now, prices.... I did not pay for this meal so have no idea how much it cost or how much the wine was, but I think it was quite pricey, considering what the food was... and I doubt that I would come here again if I was paying! However, the food was good and it was an enjoyable meal!
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D - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 6
Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Nice place but a bit overrated. The service is friendly and good but its very noisy. Noise is obviously not on the owners radar as there are plenty of ways to improve a venue's acoustics. This is not helped by staff banging pots and pans in the open kitchen and really spoils what would otherwise be a pleasant venue.

The menue is pretty imaginative and very tempting but unfortunately not matched by delivery as three out of four dishes lacked sophistication. Decent enough for the average London taste but would fail to satisfy in foodie cultures such as Sicily or Lisbon. And there are definitely better places to eat in London.
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punakai - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 6 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 6 | Value for money 6
Saturday, July 11, 2009

When I read the reviews on this website I do sometimes wonder if I've been to the same restaurant as the other reviewers...

I went to Moro last night with my wife and had a fantastic meal. To start I had a Venison Kibbe; quite difficult to describe but from the outside it looked like a rugby ball shaped scotch egg. Needless to say it tasted rather differently (wonderful in fact).

For a main course I had wood roasted pork which was also very nice, delicious crackling and accompanied by a fiery green mojo.

The waiting staff were in my opinion just right, I never felt like I was getting too much attention and I certainly never felt rushed.

The wine list has something to suit every budget which in a smart restaurant you can't always guarantee. Moro also has a good selection of sherry which you can have as an aperitif.

Moro won the Observer Food Monthly's restaurant of the year 2009 and you can see why. Great food, service that is just right (not too attentive but there when you need them), and actually not really that ridiculously expensive.
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Peter Thornton
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 8
Tuesday, June 02, 2009

ordinary food for extraordinary prices

won't come back again
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Overall rating
Food 6 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 2 | Value for money 1
Wednesday, April 01, 2009