Moro & Morito

Quail & Grapes? Yep

I've been wanting to go to Moro http://www.moro.co.uk/moro/restaurant/default.asp on Exmouth market for ages so one Saturday me & my old chum Matt wandered down for lunch. It was a lot more laid back then we thought, in a nice way that is & we sat out in the sun! I ordered a dry sherry for starters, I'm getting quite into them at the mo & we were given some lovely homemade bread with olives. Moro is a Moorish/Spanish restaurant & the menu sounded exciting & a little different so was a hard choice to make.

I chose for starter "Charcoal grilled quail with grapes & almond sauce" & Matt went for "Pumpkin mani - Turkish pasta with chilli butter, seasoned yoghurt, pine nuts & sage", MMMmmmhh! I have to say that the quail was absolutely delicious! The skin had a nice crisp to it & the sweetness of the grapes went very well with the quail. A great starter! Matt liked his pumpkin mani very much. I had a bite & thought it was very interesting & equally a good starter.

Paprikary

For main I chose "Mackerel a la plancha with chopped garlic, parsley, hot paprika & patatas a lo pobre" & Matt went for "Wood roasted pork with chorizo rice & braised chard". The mackerel was very light & tasty, very well seasoned & the paprika gave a little oomph. The patatas a lo pobre were simply amazing. As potatoes go some of the best I've ever had. All in all delicious again. Matt's pork was also tasty & absolutely huge. He can usually put away quite a lot of food but he actually couldn't finish it off.

Cake

On to dessert & Matt was absolutely stuffed where I was feeling quite sprightly & managed to scoff down a delicious "Yoghurt cake with pistachios & pomegranate". The pomegranate & pistachio was tangy & I did feel pretty stuffed after. I also had a espresso with a free shot of brandy which was very nice of the waitress after I ordered the wrong thing. Overall amazing food, lovely service & will definitely go back.

                                                                                                                  

Onto Morito which is next door to Moro & serves tapas. Me & Daisy decided to go the other evening after seeing an exhibition by my old college teacher Bill Jackson, http://www.troikaeditions.co.uk/front-room, which was excellent.

The outside of Morito looks pretty cool & it was packed inside so we managed to get a table outside. We had 2 very refreshing glasses of Cruzcampo beer & ordered 6 plates to share.

The first to come were "Jamon & chicken croquetas" which were ok. They looked a bit overcooked on the outside & the filling was a little dry!

"Butifarra sausage with white beans & alioli"  
was also tasty, the sausage was lovely but not  
much of it & Daisy thought the white beans were  a little tasteless, I had to agree.

The next was "Crispy aubergine with miel de cana" which was lovely. Honey on the aubergine really worked but there were only 2 slices!

The "Tomato toast" was excellent & we finished with "Octopus with potato & smoked paprika". I liked the octopus but Daisy thought they had prepared it earlier & heated it up because the potato was quite starchy & fell apart when you put the fork in. It was also a very salty dish.

We didn't have dessert but finished with a lovely sweet sherry. Overall it was ok but not the best tapas I've had recently & Moro is definitely better but there was a lot of other interesting sounding things on the menu so will have to give it another go one day soon.