Restaurant of the Month – Legado

Last Updated on February 20, 2026

Nieves Barragán’s Hipster Heaven

4.0 out of 5.0 stars

Legado, our restaurant of the month for September, was an easy choice to make. Nieves Barragán Mohacho has been one of the key players in the London restaurant scene since 2003, when she joined Sam and Eddie Hart’s new Spanish restaurant Fino as a sous-chef. By 2007, she was head chef, raising the bar for Spanish food in London. By 2008, Nieves was also in charge at Barrafina, the Hart bros. superlative group of tapas restaurants where she won a Michelin star and helped to kickstart the ‘small plates’ trend. Her Barrafina cookbook is an essential primer for Spanish cuisine, featuring the famous Barrafina tortilla recipe with its runny eggy interior. 

In 2017, Nieves set out on her own, backed by the Sethi family, who are behind top Indian restaurants such as Gymkhana and Trishna. She opened Sabor in 2017 in Heddon St in the West End to great acclaim, winning a Michelin star in 2018. Now Nieves has just added Legado to her portfolio in the edgier environs of Shoreditch. The restaurant’s mission is ‘to celebrate the diverse regional food cultures of Spain and its islands, allowing the lesser-known to take centre stage’. In addition to the restaurant, there is a tapas and pintxos bar, ‘The Taberna’, which deserves a separate visit.

On an evening blighted by strikes on the Underground, Legado is buzzing. There’s lots of brickwork and a vaulted ceiling with an angled glass roof, and the young urban crowd is making a lot of noise, but that’s all part of the vibe. 

There are potted trees, cream paintwork, sage green banquettes, wooden floors and tables. You can eat at a counter, at a table or outside, weather permitting. A large open kitchen is the focal point with a sizeable brigade of industrious-looking chefs. The model for Legado is a larger Barrafina, but with table dining and more substantial dishes, including some substantial meat dishes using suckling pig, Iberico pork and lamb.

The drinks list at Legado features a small cocktail list, beers, gin and tonics, vermouths, sherries, wines and cavas. There are some fun looking 3-sip serves such as Beetroot with Rum, Tomato with Gin and Peach with Vermut, each ‘an ode to a different region’. But to honour Nieves’ Basque roots, I have a glass of Txacoli, the dry sparkling white wine that is the signature fizz of the region. My glass of Flysch, Gorosti, Getariako, Txakolina is crisp with lime and wet pebble notes. My guest’s glass of Albariño from Lías Finas, Attis, Rías Baixas, is gorgeous with a lovely balance of peach notes, acidity and salinity.

The menu at Legado is extensive and split into many sections. There are starters, rice, pulses, pasta, fish and seafood, lamb, suckling pig, Iberico pork, poultry, game and beef, vegetables and dessert. We kicked off with a starter of pert, raw queen scallops on the shell, served in a fresh, vegetal vinaigrette. Hot from the fryer came a plate of monkfish tempura with a ridiculously light batter. The monkfish flesh was flaky yet firm with a chilli jam alioli perking things up.

From the Rice menu, Black Fideua, made with pasta noodles, squid ink, sweet little rock shrimp and alioli, was surprisingly delicate. Delicious!

A vegetable dish of chargrilled leeks came in a sensational escabeche sauce, finely diced carrot, pine nuts and onions marinaded in vinegar.

From the piggy section of the menu, Iberian pork ribs were tender, caramelised and falling off the bone, served with carrots and celery just like a ragu. 

A skate wing tortilla was more of a skate pancake, flavoured with a dill-heavy mojo verde.

A classic Spanish Cream Catalana was rich, eggy and infused with the subtle perfume of bay leaf. It’s topped with a wafer-thin topping of hot, burnt sugar that cracks open pleasingly to reveal the almost orange cream.

Nieves has a way of elevating simple, rustic dishes into something more refined, but without losing their essential core. Flavours are subtly amplified, and texture plays an important role. Legado sets the benchmark for social eating in East London and is a surefire hit.

Legado
1C Montacute Yards,
Shoreditch
London, E1 6HU

Other new openings that have caught our eye this month include
 
Kuroyoko
We recently reviewed chef Scott Hallsworth’s Freak Scene pop-up at 100 Wardour St.
His new project, Kuroyoko in Balham, has been inspired by Tokyo’s neon-lit backstreets
Kuroyoko is a 30-seat kushiyaki-style restaurant serving smoky skewers, bold plates,
and cocktails in an atmospheric late-night setting. Menu highlights include: Chicken Tsukune with sweet soy glaze, Oyster Mushroom skewers with garlic butter, Octopus with scorched yellow chilli miso, Sticky Soy Short Rib rice pot with ginger and sweet treats like Toasted Marshmallow with strawberry-yuzu dip and Kinako Sugar Cookie with milk choc chips and a brown rice ice-cream.

Kuroyoko
5 Ramsden Road, London, SW12 8QX

Orion
Masterchef The Professionals winner Alex Webb is opening his first restaurant, Orion, in Wimbledon Village. Webb describes the restaurant as “a British/French sharing style and seafood-led.” With a fish counter showcasing the day’s freshest catch, dishes include mini crab waffles crowned with brown crab mayonnaise, crème fraîche, lime and a touch of caviar; Webb’s celebrated lobster and prawn toast with black sesame and chilli jam; and an ever-evolving fish of the day.

Webb brings a sense of theatre to the closing act, with cinnamon-sugared doughnuts served with raspberry compôte and vanilla crème pâtissière, while his playful take on a Twix layers tonka bean shortbread with salted caramel, dark chocolate, and a scoop of crème fraîche ice cream. On Sundays, a dessert trolley is available through the dining room, offering nostalgic treats to guests.

Orion
75-77 Ridgway, London SW19 4ST, UK

Punk Royale
With branches in Stockholm, Copenhagen and Oslo, Punk Royale describes itself as ‘energy in its most concentrated form’ with a dining experience that is ‘playful, intense and uncompromising’. You can now have their ‘brutal bistro’ experience in Mayfair. Try the ‘caviar on the back of your hand’ with a shot of vodka in your glass.

Punk Royale
6 Sackville St, London W1S 3DD