El Ganso (Restaurant)

Top 10 things to ready you for El Ganso restaurant:

1) Wrestle with the truth. Alongside cocktail bars in Soho, and nightclubs in Shoreditch, tapas restaurants on Broadway Market should also be in the elite school of cool for nights out in London.

2) Dress appropriately. As with the aforementioned, a certain sartorial sense is required. This restaurant is extremely Hackney, so go for hirsute (big hair up top; substantial facial growth; and a hairy jumper if you have one).

3) Practice your best whimsical chit-chat about the minutiae of London life. The restaurant has high levels of buzz. You can’t hear the music, you just feel the spirit of fiesta.

4) Take a notepad. Jot down ideas for that small, independent restaurant you aspire to opening: mini booths; alfresco dining; candlelit tables; and cookie-jar lighting. That feature wall of mirrors could probably extend to the entire room in your vision though.

5) Leave the diet at home. The ridiculously tempting menu is swimming in oily options, far too many to choose from, each served with jamon, chorizo, or alioli. The menu’s dearth of green stuffs may require you to live off spinach for the preceding week. Although moorish and inviting, the honey-drizzled courgette and aubergine flowers come decadently brown and stuffed with goats’ cheese.

6) Don’t ignore your own habits. The alluring Spanish menu is helpfully split into three sections - vegetarian tapas, fish tapas and meat tapas - but you’re still English and you need fish and chips (patatas bravas with deep fried tempura hake, presented with a colourful Damien Hirst beetroot splatter across the plate, revealing the chef’s love of Japanese cuisine). The ROI on the tricky, freaky pak choi is only negligible, though.

7) Save those fluffy potatoes. A jus of forest fruits is occurring around the menu’s star casting, the duck breast. That gravy’ll need mopping up.

8) Prepare to share your fare. Sharing plates weigh in at around £7 so pace yourself and settle in for a 4-hour stretch. It’s all about the second or third wind when grazing. Indecisiveness is your friend.

9) Stay within the Iberian Peninsula when choosing wine: a 2013 Joven De Silos, Tempranillo, Ribera Del Duero, or 2011 Bobal, Domaine De La Vega, Utiel Raquena; or both.

10) Go on a Spanish adventure to East London, any day of the week. El Ganso is waiting for you, even if you hunger for a hearty breakfast....read more