Review: The Hungry Donkey

kiri | 2nd June 2015

Hungry-Donkey-bringing-Greek-cuisine-to-The-City_strict_xxl

By Tom Gatehouse
@tragatehouse
tomgatehouse.com

Sitting round the family table, an idea of an East London restaurant very much on everyone’s mind, with a name now the latest potential stumbling block. Something catchy, but something that also says ‘Greek food’ clear as the cloudy skies over Aldgate currently permits. One pipes up, ‘How about something about a donkey?’

Synonymous with the working man in Greece, with silhouettes of heavy laden troupes ascending mountains, the donkey captured the attention of the prospective restaurant family. Being hungry is rather why us punters entertain the pastime of eating, and so the Hungry Donkey was born, the manager told me, with other variants and even Greek translations failing to match the quaint, amusing image of a peckish ass.

And with ours, my companion and I took our seats in the café-esque dining area. One large banquette sat half of a twelve strong party to our left, with the other five or six tables, plus kitchen side seating, either full or soon to be. The open kitchen was hard at work, with waitresses excitedly recommending the traditional Greek fare found on the small, clipboard-held menu.

Here, we’re talking spanakopita (filo pastry spinach pie), koukouvagia (dakos barley rusks), and moussaka; fresh Greek salads and souvlaki. The chefs are Greek, the wine is Greek (and decidedly hard to pronounce), and all housed in a very modern interior. Yellow-lined cork, blue-dipped wooden chairs, ceiling high cage walls, ice white hanging lamps; this is very Central London, rather than Cretan paradise. And not to say that’s a bad thing in my book, but I did once long for a donkey or two in my eye-line looking up from the menu, just to give the room maybe a little more flavour.

HungryDonkeyinterior-33

We quickly enlisted the help of a waitress to help us negotiate the food, being not particularly knowledgeable of Greek cuisine. This was a feature for most of the diners, I found, but with the staff eager to please, I felt this to be a positive point.

We jumped in with a plate of pan-fried saganaki cheese (£6), the aforementioned barley rusks (£5.50), and a small Greek salad (£5) to start. Two bottles of the Septum Monday’s Pilsner (£5.25) soon joined the table.

The two of us agreed that while the beer went down a treat, it was pricey. It does however maintain Hungry Donkey’s general authenticity, being from a microbrewery on the Greek island of Euboea. However, you do get your money’s worth with the Greek salad, with this feta-driven medley entirely shareable despite being a ‘small’. The barley rusks turned out to be the stars of the round, balancing a hefty band of tomatoes, capers, further feta and a drizzle of olive oil. The saganaki unfortunately had both of us imagining cheese on toast.

Having ordered away for our mains and more drinks, our bottle of the Savatiano arrived with the manager, who explained that Greek wine often have cute back-stories. This particular grape, he says, takes its name roughly from the Greek for ‘Saturday’, purely because the Savatiano grape used to exclusively be picked on that day. Not quite as entertaining a subplot as the Assyrtiko, I thought, whose vine thrives in the volcanic ash on the island of Santorini, and is the only type resistant to the devastating Phylloxera insect which caused the Great French Wine Blight in the mid-19th century. But at least I’d learnt a spot of Greek.

Our mains consisted of Fasolakia (£8), with one each of the souvlaki skewers (Chicken £2.50; Pork £2.75; Vegetarian £3) and a side of pitta bread (£1). Not the largest main, but we were honestly on the way to being full after our starters.

A traditional summer dish in Greece, the Fasolakia is stew of green beans, potatoes and tomato. The word actually means green beans and is served as a main despite a lack of meat. This came the way of our cheap and cheerful souvlaki skewers, bar the aubergine/mushroom/peppers veggie version (which tasted great, by the way). We still had a little Greek salad left over, and with this, took us right to the edge of satisfaction. A nice change in an Asian cuisine-dominated area, and an honest replica of Mediterranean grub.

A Manouri Cheesecake (£6), an Eeyore (mini-cappuccino at £2.50) and a classically dense Greek coffee (£2.50) did for us in spades. The donkey was full, but he’ll certainly be back.

 The Hungry Donkey
Address: 56 Wentworth street, London, E1 7AL
Twitter: @thehungrydonkey
Phone: 02035381448
Website: www.hungrydonkey.co.uk

HungryDonkey-8