Legado opens in Shoreditch with a flourish as Nieves Barragán Mohacho brings Spanish kitchen to the East End

Legado, the new Shoreditch restaurant from Nieves Barragán Mohacho, opened to paying guests on a night when London's hospitality sector is facing its toughest test. The room at Montacute Yards was packed, the bare brick and concrete walls amplifying a jubilant hubbub, and Barragán Mohacho at the center of it all in the open kitchen that seemed to move as one. The chef, widely credited as a pioneer of London’s new Spanish revolution after stints at Fino, Barrafina and Sabor, appeared to be guiding a confident debut rather than a tentative first night.

Tom Parker Bowles, the food critic and author, visited Legado on opening night and framed the menu as a culmination of Barragán Mohacho’s broader Spanish lexicon, with courses that balance finesse and bold flavor. The repertoire opens with pan con tomate elevated by thin slices of air-dried cecina, a reminder of how good ingredients can lift a simple plate. The Legado “sandwich”—chard, cecina and tetilla cheese formed into crisp triangular morsels—arrives with a crisp bite and a molten center that invites a second bite. Basque morcilla, soft and iron-rich, is plated with a fried quail’s egg and a shard of fried bread, a pairing that moves between delicate and robust. Slices of ripe tomato are crowned with bottarga and shaved dried tuna heart, a maritime note that mingles with the room’s earthy wood-fired heat.

The kitchen’s star turn, Parker Bowles noted, is the milk-fed lamb’s kidneys, a preparation that has become a Barrafina staple and which here is described as soft, delicate and downright divine. Fideuà, the noodle-based dish dyed jet-black with squid ink, comes with a punch of pungent aïoli, while a quarter suckling pig roasted in the wood oven offers golden skin and tender flesh, accompanied by a light, almost ethereal broth for dipping. The overall impression, the critic wrote, was of a kitchen moving with a single, confident rhythm, not a sequence of disparate courses. The waiter’s timing, the kitchen’s flow, and the bold yet balanced flavors suggested Legado is more than a boastful debut; it is a statement about the direction of London’s Spanish cooking scene.

About £70 per head is the going figure for a full evening, Legado’s materials note, with the restaurant positioned at 1C Montacute Yards in London’s E1 district. The opening confirms Barragán Mohacho’s continued influence on the capital’s culinary map, reinforcing her role as a central figure in London’s evolving Spanish repertoire. The first night’s energy—an electric dining room and a kitchen that felt in control from the outset—offers a snapshot of Legado’s trajectory: a restaurant that leans into its chef’s strengths while aiming to carve out its own identity in a crowded market.

![Legado interior](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2025/09/22/11/102343469-0-image-m-462_1758536524461.jpg