To call Ombra an under-heralded gem is playing things down. This canal-side Italian, at the western end of Hackney’s gallery-strewn Vyner Street, has grown from being a respected but low-key neighbourhood joint into one of east London’s most beloved restaurants. It’s a fact helped by some canny pivoting during lockdown, wherein Ombra becoming a pastificio and delivery staple, emerging from the unknown as a bona fide community hub.
First opened in 2011, the restaurant is now helmed by Mitshel Ibrahim. Egypt-born and raised in Milan, he moved to London for university but instead took to the city’s kitchens – working at spots as esteemed as Upstairs at the Ten Bells and The Clove Club (both under Isaac McHale), Robin Gill’s Paradise Garage, and Ombra itself, before returning to the latter as head chef in 2018.
Carlingford oysters and pork tonnato, among other dishes at Ombra
His inventive menus are informed by the seasons but maintain a timeless, rustic sensibility. Regional spritzes complement some ace chicchetti; gnocco fritto with house-cured lardo and buffalo mortadella; pillowy focaccia; genius cacio e pepe gougeres, and so on.
Antipasti of whole, fried Roman artichokes, scallops with bottarga and corn, or superlative pork tonnato segue into the kind of perfect primi that made Ombra such a lockdown go-to – tonnarelli with guanciale and green asparagus, say, or paccheri tubes with mussels, ‘nduja and friggitelli, the pastas of which are made with organic UK grains – and then into heftier secondi of roasted meat or fish. The tiramisu is considered one of London’s best; and the wine list skews Italian and (in 2022, what else?) low-intervention.
Low-key, canalside interiors at Ombra
It’s a complete package – breathlessly muttered about by London’s esoteric gastronauts and a central cog in the fecund little canal-adjacent restaurant scene that also includes Bistrotheque, Café Cecilia and the Waterhouse Project. What’s more, Ibrahim’s star is definitively on the rise, with contributions to magazines like Olive and Suitcase, and a recent guest dinner at Merlin Labron-Johnson’s Old Pharmacy in Bruton, Somerset.
For ‘Where chefs eat’, Ibrahim looks to his beloved Italy itself – giving us the inside track on the best places to ciao down in the hallowed gastro capital of Rome.
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