RESTAURANT REVIEW: Gloria, Shoreditch

If you follow news of restaurant openings, you surely won’t have missed the extensive coverage of Shoreditch’s latest venue, Gloria. It’s been reviewed and commented on by pretty much all of the top restaurant critics. PA Life went along to find out what all the fuss is about…

Gloria is the latest opening from the celebrated French restaurant group Big Mamma – and the first of its venues to open overseas (although a Fitzrovia site has already been announced).

And it is truly glorious. As other – far more respected – restaurant critics have pointed out, Gloria is quite outstanding in terms of its decor and ambience. As you walk through the doors of its Great Eastern Street entrance, you enter another dimension – the 1960s and 1970s of Med chic.

Louder-than-normal music (but not so loud that it affects conversation), and an ambience that transports the diner to a bygone era where snappily-dressed men entertained beautiful, Hepburn-esque women over a glass of red, seriously good pasta dishes and many cigarettes..

Gloria is bonkers and chic – indeed, one recent review claimed: “If Kate Moss designed an Italian restaurant, it would look like this.”

But enough has been said about the styling, furnishings, the many, many pot plants and crockery.

We’re here (and so seems pretty much half of London’s ‘in crowd’) to eat the food – and it didn’t dissapoint. Starters of Burrata and San Daniele ham, followed by Robert De Nitro (spicy) pizza and Big Ravioli with polenta and bone marrow were prepared to perfection and served with smiles by the mostly Italian staff.

The menu matches the feel of Gloria, with dishes such as Fillipo’s Big Balls (meatballs) and a bottle of red “guaranteed to get your Tinder date drunk”.

Situated over two floors, Gloria isn’t a ‘let’s crunch numbers’ venue. But if you’re looking for somewhere informal, fun and very memorable – with exceptional food – Gloria certainly delivers.

https://www.bigmammagroup.com/en/trattorias/gloria