Having recently moved from offices around Oxford Circus to a new one at Exmouth Market we were excited at the thought of swapping those sometimes-flabby M&S sandwiches, grabbed and eaten back at the office desk, with some proper grown-up lunch experiences.
We both knew Exmouth Market pretty well, but even during the year or so since my last visit I could see that there were some new contenders on the block, all bidding to catch my lunchtime eye.
The fact that these weekly lunchtime outings are not exactly planned in advance gives them the air of being on holiday; the kind of 'ah, where shall we eat today?'.
And that's exactly what happened when Lucy and I decided to pop along to suss out a relatively
new tapas bar from the wonderful Sam+Sam combo of
Moro. From memory I believe this used to be the old Brindisa shop - something that I'm sad to see has gone now - but I'm happy to report that we had a truly splendid snack of spiced lamb (with the wonderful warming aroma of cinnamon), padron peppers (no hot ones this time around) and an incredibly moorish dish of chic peas that appeared to have been coated and fried, making them not unlike savoury maltesers. That description perhaps doesn't do it justice, but Lucy and I were both politely insisting the other have the last mouthful, both secretly hoping that the other one wouldn't oblige.
To wash the marvellous snacks down was a small glass of Manzanilla, served in an ice-cold glass all accompanied by a perfect spot of people-watching from the window seat. It took all of our strength to leave and head the 20 or so paces back to the office.
Total cost for 2: £23.06
