Legardo

 Deep fry chaos

Gambas Cristal, Fried Egg

Legado arrives in Shoreditch with a clear brief: bring the breadth of Spain to London without falling back on the familiar tapas shorthand, and to do so with real theatricality and craft. The restaurant is the latest project from Nieves Barragán Mohacho — the chef behind Sabor — and that pedigree shows in every thoughtful touch, from the bespoke ovens imported from Spain to the decision to do much of the butchery in-house. Based on my first visit back in late summer, I liked it enough to come back, given that the menu is so big and I was keen to try out other dishes.

Prawn & Wild Mushroom Stuffed Squid

Orzo, Crisp Fried Lamb Sweetbreads

Black Fideua, Rock Shrimp

The black fideuà had the depth and smoke that transports you to the north-east coast of Spain, but I don't understand why it was topped with tempura prawn, such a waste given the kitchen does use high-quality prawns, and crispy and oily texture is not a welcome element when the fideuà was already so rich thanks to the ink sauce. The pig trotter dish was the same story, came deep-fried but it wasn't mentioned on the menu; the kitchen can cook, so not sure why they need to cover the trotter up with some unnecessary batter. Far too many dishes contain deep-fried elements for me.

Pig Trotter, Romesco

Roasted pork belly

Churrasco de Cordero, Chimichurri

All that said, the overall impression lands squarely in the middle: Legado is ambitious, occasionally brilliant, and undeniably lavish in its aims, but it doesn’t yet cohere into the kind of consistently excellent whole you’d expect from a fully settled, flawless dining room. Service is professional and often warm — front-of-house staff are attentive and capable at explaining the regional provenance behind many dishes — but the scale and bustle of the room mean that the experience can skew loud, hurried, or a little theatrical in ways that distract from quieter culinary pleasures. On balance, then, my rating for Legado is average: it’s a solid 3 out of 5 — a restaurant with memorable highs and avoidable lows, one that’s worth visiting for its scale and occasional moments of culinary brilliance but which still has room to mature into the greater consistency its ambition promises.

Food 3/5


Average cost without drinks and services:
£80

Yards, Unit 1C Montacute, London E1 6HU

https://www.legadorestaurants.com/