Lardo Gombitelli.
What can you tell us about Legs?
It's the new restaurant from Magnus Reid, best known for his stint at the Rooftop Cafe in Bermondsey. It gets its name from the Hackney fashion district it's in (lots of designer outlet stores nearby) as well as from the term for droplets inside a glass of wine - which is a big focus of the place.
What kind of food?
It's a small-plates regularly-changing menu. As ever with small plates, we recommend only ordering in small batches - we'd say two at a time for Legs, to make sure there's room the table and you don't get overwhelmed.
Fried potato, creme fraiche and trout roe
Where is it?
If you've ever found yourself in the mini outlet village part of Hackney, where Burberry and Pringle are, it's there. Nearest station is Hackney Central.
Where's best to meet up?
There's very little in the immediate area, but we did like the newly opened Farley Macallan where we popped in for a quick drink after our meal, so we can happily recommend that. If you're willing to walk a little further, you're not too far from Tonkotsu or the Adam and Eve pub.
Where should we sit?
If you enjoy people-watching, pull up a seat at the window counter that runs the length of the restaurant. If you're a kitchen junky then there are also seats at the pass. We eschewed both for a table in the dining room and were just fine.
Pork shoulder, walnut and sage
What's recommended from the menu?
As it's regularly changing, it's hard to say for certain, but the Lardo Gombitelli (£7) - lots of wafer thin slices of melt in your mouth lardo is certainly a must-have.
We'd also recommend, if you get the chance, to try the generous serving of pork shoulder, walnut and fried sage (£12) slow cooked so it was just falling falling apart. And look out for the fried potato, creme fraiche and trout roe (£8). It's the second amazing potato dish we've had in a matter of weeks - let's hope it's the start of a tuber trend.
For desserts, the wild strawberries and strawberry sorbet was about as strawberryish as it's possible to get and a great palate cleanser.
"Strawberries" (wild strawberries with strawberry sorbet).
How about the wine?
The wine at Legs is mainly focused around small producers, so you'll get a lot of bottles that you may not have come across and there's a strong focus on natural wine. The overall list is certainly punchy for this area of Hackney - the cheapest bottle is £22 but a lot of it hovers around the £35-£50 range. We opted for glasses and found that the house - folle blanch, pierre luneau papin - was definitely good enough for us.
Overall?
From the welcoming, knowledgeable staff to the thoughtfully put together menu there is a lot to like here at Legs. We want to come back again to work our way through the rest of the menu. And given how often Magnus plans to change it, there's going to be a lot to entice Hackney residents to make regular visits.
Legs is at 120-122 Morning Lane, London E9 6LH. Find out more about Legs.
Hot Dinners were invited to try Legs. Prices were correct at the time of writing.
