Moro

Sam and Sam Clark opened Moro on Exmouth Market in 1997, after driving a camper van through Spain, Morocco and the Sahara and building a menu from what they ate along the way. The kitchen works Moorish and Andalusian ingredients, rosewater, dukkah, butifarra sausage, against a wood-fired oven and charcoal grill visible from the bar, where diners can eat solo without booking a table. The dining room runs the length of a converted shopfront, plain and functional rather than dressed up, with the sherry list handwritten and updated by the glass. The Clarks later opened Morito next door as a tapas offshoot, then a second Morito on Hackney Road, keeping the group to three sites under one ownership. Moro's own cookbooks, drawn from the same research trips, have shaped how the restaurant is read as much as any menu.