Exmouth Market in London EC1 isn’t by any means a secret hotspot, but it’s a fair bit less trampled by food lovers than, say, Borough Market or Spitalfields. Sure, this thoroughfare may well be one of the nicest places in London to waste three to six hours over lunch, drinking vermouth and eating ice-cream, but it’s still a hard sell to tourists.
“Did you know that Moro was the birthplace of the British small plate?” I tell people, brightly. “And it’s so close to Sadler’s Wells, too!” Reactions are generally muted, but those naysayers will now miss out on Morchella, a new place by the people behind the much-loved Perilla up in Stoke Newington, which recently appeared on the corner of Rosebery Avenue inside an imposing, former late-Victorian bank. In recent years, this gargantuan space with its high ceilings has been leased by various pizza restaurants, so you’d expect that by now its yesteryear charm might have been somewhat flattened, but, oddly, it’s quite the opposite. In fact, due to Morchella’s revamp using natural wood herringbone floors, the ghosts of the London & South Western bank have never been so present.
