Moro is a Spanish and North African restaurant in Exmouth Market. I’d read a fair bit about Moro before our dinner last Saturday, but in the spirit of not burying the lead, we didn’t enjoy our experience.

Firstly, the vibe in Moro is fairly stuffy, especially for the location and its down to earth décor. The service was decent, although Shiima wasn’t too happy at the waitress’s seeming confused reaction to being asked that we move to a table further away from the door.

The Food

Moro is described as a tapas restaurant, but most of the dishes aren’t small plates. The menu were were given is clearly split into what you’d regard as “starters” and “mains”. We ordered deep fried rose prawns, lamb and Gaziantep pistachio kibbeh, and Mansaf for starters. Wood roasted pork belly and charcoal grilled lamb for main.

Starters

The deep fried rose prawns were good. Perfectly fried fresh prawns. Simple, but delicious. That’s about it in terms of the food we enjoyed. Both the mansaf and Kibbeh lacked any particular flavour. Truly felt like they forgot about seasoning.

Mains

The trend continued and was even more noticeable in regard to the lamb. It tasted of nothing. Not even lamb.

The pork belly was okay. Well cooked, succulent, and the skin perfectly crispy. But again it lacked seasoning.

Dessert?

No, nothing really interested us.

Verdict

We didn’t enjoy our dinner at Moro. The atmosphere was relaxed and the service was decent, but the food wasn’t to our liking. It lacked the North African or Spanish flavours that we really enjoy.

Cuisine: Spanish and North African
Dress Code: Casual
Price: £30-£40pp
Rating: 1 out of 5

Moro
34-36 Exmouth Market
London EC1R 4QE
Reserve at OpenTable,
Or call 020 7833 8336