Ombra, E2 - review
Ombra, a Venetian bacaro run by Italian architect-turned-chef Andrea Michelon, opened shortly after the Mare Street riots in a former art gallery next to the Regent's Canal.
It's a long way from the Rialto, but this watery part of Hackney is home to an increasing number of arty types - and Ombra has already become a popular lunch destination. In the evenings, with its glass front revealing a lively young crowd, brightly topped tables and antique decanters, it serves as its own advertisement.
A couple of weekends ago it was as fun behind the glass as it looks from outside. At the wooden bar an authentic Venetian genially introduced a group of bearded east Londoners to the spritz - a mouthpuckeringly bitter cocktail, popular on the Veneto. In the kitchen behind him a female pasta chef manufactured spaghetti by cranking an old machine. Out front, a tall German waitress managed to be both hopelessly elusive and completely charming serving the five tables.
The bacaro is a sort of Venetian take on the gastropub - a wine bar where the cichetti (posh bar snacks) got out of hand. It is one of Ombra's quirks that there isn't much wine to choose from, just three bottles of red, with nothing between the £16 and £28 mark where I suspect they would do the briskest trade. It is another that the over-designed wooden chairs are less comfortable than an iron porcupine and too high for the tables, meaning we had to sit side-saddle.
The menu is scrawled on a blackboard according to Michelon's mood, its brevity inspiring confidence.
A carnal plate of antipasti (prosciutto, salami Milano, mortadella and divine cotto, £8) arrived with a bag of toothsome bread from the E5 bakery, to which we did ample justice. Bruschetta (£4) was tomatoes on toast, but transcendentally so.
Spaghetti pomodoro (£6.50) was impressively redolent of Italy in its buttery richness, but here the minimalism began to underwhelm. Once we had been through a pungent, silky aubergine parmagiana (£6.50) and an indifferent plate of sardines with polenta and iceberg lettuce (£6.50), we had been through the entire day's offering.
Anything else up their sleeve? The kitchen obliged with a massive hunk of crumbled parmesan and more of that delicious bread (£6, off-menu).
That would appear to add up to poor service, uncomfortable surroundings and a patchy food offering. Oddly, it worked out as a genial way to spend an evening, a rough and ready take on Soho's impossibly popular Polpo. Amazing value too: after a tiramisu (£4) that could have been drunker, we had been through four courses plus cocktails, wine and coffee for around £22 a head (£32 once they remembered to charge us for our mains).
I suspect the frustrations will be rectified in time and, hopefully, a passing rioter will loot those chairs. Until then, what Ombra gets right - hospitality, in a word - it gets so right, you would rather be here than any of the modish, management-consulted places out west. There's a lack of cynicism that is rare in London. It's even rarer in Venice, come to that.
Ombra
1 Vyner Street, E2
