Though London’s tastes have evolved since Sam and Sam Clark’s Moro opened in 1997, the restaurant is still name-checked by enthusiasts as the blueprint for perfecting the elegant, communal style of dining the city has fallen in love with. Therefore, it’s of little surprise that two decades later, the duo are still enlightening younger contemporaries. Their third and latest venture, Morito, combines the Southern Spanish and Moorish flavours the pair are known for, along with a dash of the post-industrial terroir of London’s Hackney.
The space - a high-ceilinged expanse of polished concrete and large windows – was co-designed with longtime collaborator Dillwyn Smith, who was entrusted to merge the room’s rawness with the brand’s evocative interiors, starting with the bar. ‘Finding the Azul Macaubas marble for the horseshoe bar was the key’, he says. ‘It was a bold move that informed the other design decisions. The Moors created spaces in which all ones sense are stimulated’. Traditional fish scale tiles adorn concrete pillars, while an open kitchen injects warmth and intimacy into the space, where chef Marianna Leivaditaki adds a dash of her Cretan heritage to the menu; the kid mechoui with goat’s curd is a standout, and always order the seafood rice if it’s on the specials board.
INFORMATION
ADDRESS
195 Hackney Road
-
How Billecart-Salmon became the hospitality industry’s champagne of choiceNeil Ridley ventures into a subterranean temple to patience and precision beneath the village of Aÿ-Champagne, France, and discovers a winery not of spectacle, but of soul
-
In Baku Sakashita’s new lighting collection, hand-dyed silk threads are delicately illuminatedIn ‘Haku’, ultra-fine LEDs are woven within plant-dyed threads, showcasing intricacy, artistry and traditional Japanese craftsmanship
-
Discover the chic simplicity of CC-Steding jewelleryNic Farnan and Ben Chaplin create delicate silver jewellery in their east London studio
-
Tobi Masa lands at The Chancery RosewoodChef Masa Takayama’s debut London restaurant transforms modernist geometry into a space of ritual calm and culinary purity
-
London’s smash burger obsession goes haute with Supernova MayfairNew York designer Sarita Posada taps into 1970s nostalgia and cinematic restraint for the group’s third outpost in the British capital
-
Peek inside Uchronia’s celadon green suite at the Mandarin Oriental Hyde ParkThe Paris-based studio teamed up with Pantone to transform a suite at the storied hotel into an aquatic dreamscape. Here’s how to check in
-
The Chancery Rosewood: A new chapter for London’s modernist iconAfter years behind closed doors, London’s most anticipated hotel opening finally arrives, proving that some things are worth waiting for
-
The Hart Marylebone marks the next chapter in London’s design-led pubsThe trio behind The Pelican and The Hero turn to Marylebone, fusing Victoriana, intimacy and culinary honesty in their most ambitious project yet
-
This 100-year-old private members’ club in London feels young at heartThe Sloane Club unveils a stylish new rebrand and redesign courtesy of Russell Sage Studio
-
The ancient and the erotic inspire Sessions Art Club’s Frieze London 2025 pop-up‘I think food should hum beneath the skin, like a good painting,’ founder Jonny Gent tells Wallpaper* on the opening of his temporary restaurant-cum-art-installation
-
Somerset restaurant Osip sets the table for a different kind of art showChef Merlin Labron-Johnson’s Michelin-starred restaurant hosts an artist-in-residence exhibition exploring form, materiality and the poetics of place
