Grace Dent reviews Gotto: Perfect for those who demand a little St-Tropez in Hackney Wick

Grace Dent knocks back a few at Gotto
Spanking new: Gotto’s designers have made a strikingly decent fist of creating a warm, authentic space
Grace Dent12 December 2017

Ambience: 5/5

Food: 3/5

Over the past three years, the capacious, freshly pruned Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, E20, has been a curious, clandestine joy. Having not yet fixed strongly in the metropolitan imagination as a destination, I’ve enjoyed many, many months of the type of London solitude one would only experience after a zombie apocalypse. For so long, food-wise there was only the drab corporate Timber Lodge café, and at the foot of the ArcelorMittal Orbit, a dire, unwelcoming tourist trap that begrudgingly sold coffee.

Of late, development within the park has gained momentum. Recent arrival Dark Horse — a Mediterranean restaurant and wine cave — on Victory Parade is one of my regular hideouts. Tina We Salute You, a sister branch to the Dalston original, appeared last summer alongside a bakery named Signorelli, both of which make dog-walks a longer, more calorific affair. But the strongest portent that E20 life will never be the same is the unveiling of Here East, Canalside. This gargantuan, albeit oddly pretty, new complex of independent retailers, cafés and bars is now open for business by the canal. It’s good to have a reason to head that way again since cyclists commandeered it as a freeway, pushing out anyone who had the temerity to saunter the canal path sniffing the wild flowers.

So far at Here East, two dining spots have opened; a ginormous branch of the canary-yellow millennial-magnet The Breakfast Club, and Gotto, a modern trattoria by the folk from Brewer Street’s Mele e Pere. I breakfasted outside at the former on a gorgeous sunny summery morning last week. The pancake stack was as big as my head and, unprompted, the waitress brought water for my Labrador and didn’t recoil when her ears were roundly licked. Hospitality-wise in London sometimes this is as good as it gets.

Definite strong points: it's early days for Gotto's cooking but still much to like

Gotto, next door, has several plus points as well. For a spanking new, hammered-together construction, Gotto’s designers have made a strikingly decent fist of creating a warm, authentic space sporting an open kitchen with sit-up dining, subdued lighting, quirky graffiti and home-made vermouths on tap. As well as cosy tables for two, there is one long table perfect for larger groups. From 10am to midday it serves coffee and pastries, and on a weekend offers a brunch menu with the likes of poached eggs with pancetta and cimbro cheese.

There’s al fresco dining so it’s perfect for entertaining difficult summer guests

Gotto’s dinner menu is changeable but expect robust pastas such as paccheri alla marina with surf clams, agnolotti with nettles, and paglia e fieno (yellow and green ‘straw and hay’ tagliatelle) with quail and girolles. There are sharing plates of burrata, a somewhat al dente chickpea salad laced with zhoug and pretty octopus polpette on cocktail sticks, which are perfect to demolish with Gotto’s impressive stock of craft beer and vino. There’s al fresco dining so it’s perfect for entertaining difficult summer guests who always demand a little Le Club 55 St-Tropez action even when it’s June in Hackney Wick.

Service was warm and chipper on the evening we went, and there were some definite strong points to the cooking. I loved a comforting yet decadent spring vegetable lasagna with truffle. The fritto misto was largely calamari but hot, fresh and tender. The focaccia Puglisi was pillow-like, but nevertheless devourable. Several things on this menu didn’t quite sing for me such as a simple but slightly anonymous carbonara and a lifeless vanilla torte della nonna, but this felt like early days in Gotto’s kitchen. And did I mention the home-made vermouths and on-tap Verdiccio? Maybe I did, but after several of those in the sunshine you’ll probably repeat yourself too.

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1/128

Gotto

1 Focaccia Pugliese £4

1 Fritto misto £6.50

1 Small chickpeas £4

1 Sopressa Veneta £5.50

1 Carbonara £8

1 Lasagna £10

1 Sparkling water £3.20

1 House red vermouth £4

1 Carafe Ca di Ponti £15

1 Espresso £2.10

1 Tart of the day £4.50

Total £66.80

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