Hungry Donkey (Restaurant)

Top 10 things you need to know about Hungry Donkey restaurant:

1) To quote an old chestnut: “I used to be indecisive, but now I’m not so sure.”

2) I can never make up my mind, particularly at the dining table, and am therefore well-placed to state that Hungry Donkey’s try-anything approach to modern Greek cuisine is a perfect match for the hesitant, the meek and the eternally irresolute of East London.

3) Even the restaurant’s location is open to interpretation – situated near Petticoat Lane and Bishopsgate, a trip to Hungry Donkey can be a business power-lunch or the conclusion of a leisurely jaunt to Brick Lane, or both, if you’re unwilling to pick one.

4) Full-length windows frame a very simple layout, with wooden furniture, exposed ducts, blackboards, bright colours and an open-front kitchen making up a veritable Rorschach test of a restaurant that still packs plenty of personality.

5) If you can’t make up your mind between breakfast, a quick bite or the traditional starter-main-dessert format, not to worry; at Hungry Donkey you can order all of these simultaneously, with the size of the table your only limit.

6) In a positively Hamlet-esque fit of indecisiveness, my guest and I ordered a platter of pan-fried Saganaki cheese, tzatziki, aubergine dip and bread, a feta salad, chicken souvlaki skewers and a wild boar sausage pita wrap – an ordering technique I like to call the “Everything but the Kitchen Sink” approach.

7) Our total lack of commitment to any one dish was rewarded with a magnificent spread of tasty Greek cuisine, although regrettably it meant we missed out on the intriguingly-named “smashing plates” of moussaka and fasolakia.

8) The drinks list was similarly wide-ranging, with authentic Greek coffees, beers and retsinas all available alongside a selection of red and white wines.

9) The only binary choice we had to make all afternoon was whether to dine indoors or on the Donkey’s small, sunny outdoor terrace – splitting the difference and eating in the doorway just wasn’t an option, unfortunately.

10) Torn between feta, fritters and filo pastry? Trying to organise an office lunch for a dozen uncooperative colleagues? Wracked with indecisiveness in every waking moment? Why not head to Hungry Donkey, one of the best new restaurants in London, probably....read more