Gloria

Italian

54-56 Great Eastern St, EC2A 3QR

££

Gloria is the first London establishment from group Big Mamma. The France-based Italian restaurant group are spread over Europe, with bases in London, Paris, Lille, Lyon, Bordeaux and Madrid. It opened back in 2019 and two further locations followed soon after in the West End. Gloria is nestled in the centre of Shoreditch, and has been described as ‘pleasantly deranged’ and ‘kitsch, orchestrated chaos’.

There is a lot of energy about Gloria. Firstly, it’s beautiful – but not in a bare-boned, understated, hip and cool ‘London’ way, but an over-the-top, camp, decadent way. The owners describe the look as 'Capri in the seventies that doesn’t take itself too seriously'. It is warm and loud, but still manages to remain intimate through a series of plush booths that make you feel as though you’re having dinner in front of the telly. The busyness of the restaurant doesn’t feel at all claustrophobic, however with the amount of open-flame candles, furnishings and large plates, I was surprised at how effortlessly the staff managed to navigate the floor.

The menu itself is in keeping with the extroverted attitude of the setting: with dishes such as ‘Queen Cilla Black’, and cocktails like ‘Basic B*tch’. Despite the puns in the name, and the somewhat novelty feel to the whole place, it manages to remain pretty authentic. For a start, the staff are all Italian and the menu is made with products direct from 180 small producers in Italy. They even sing happy birthday in Italian to diners choosing to eat there on their special day. Whilst there was a little wait for our table (15 mins after our booking time), the service remained timely and on-point throughout. It is stylish and bold, fast-paced yet relaxing, with the correct balance of warmth and urgency – just what the Italians do best, right?

We ordered a Burrata (£12) served with slow cooked tomato sauce and crispy black kale, alongside some Focaccia (£4.5) to share. Burrata is an easy pleaser for me, and this was no different. However, I wasn’t wholly convinced on its accompaniments – original for sure, but I think other Italian flavours go better with Burrata (parma ham, fresh tomatoes, peach). The Focaccia was lovely: crispy exterior, fluffy and light interior, moist throughout with undertones of olive: a great way to mop up the juices and runny cheese. We then went for the La Gran Carbonara (£16 for one but only served for 2 at dinnertime) which was home-made spaghetti served in the whole round of pecorino, with crispy guanciale, egg yolk and pepper. This was delivered still in the massive cheese, and we watched the waiter go around pulling out our pasta from within – a gimmick for sure, but a very fun one. The carbonara itself was overwhelmingly filling – at first I thought the portions looked a bit small but don’t be fooled. The flavours however were all there: a perfect saltiness from the cheese and bacon, the richness from the egg yolk and the tang from the pepper. The only thing I would say would be that I would have liked it a little ‘looser’. I know this is the traditional way to have it and people think Brits ruin a carbonara by making it a little runnier but I like to feel there is some kind of sauce to my pasta, rather than just a cheese lining clinging to each strand of spaghetti. Cuff me.

We washed our meal down with a really delicious bottle of red, the Nero D’Avola D.O.C. 2019 – a light, fruity, peppery wine which was described on the menu as ‘Guaranteed to get your tinder date drunk.’ A little naff? For sure, but it’s fun and light-hearted here so stop taking yourself so seriously and get on with it. After food we were so full on carbs and cheese that we didn’t want desert, but did finish the night off with a ‘Basic B*tch’ cocktail (£11) - if you can’t beat em, join em - which we had to relocate to the bar to enjoy. This was a frozen cherry daiquiri (yep, you heard it right) and was topped with white and blue candy floss. It was as sickening as it sounds, but also undeniably yummy.

Overall, Gloria is the place to go with some girlfriends for a silly, fun and totally delicious evening. It’s not for those wanting to maintain any semblance of ‘cool’ as it is potentially the most Instagram-filled place you could imagine. Sometimes it borders on naff but this is outweighed by the fact you are sitting in a really lovely restaurant and being served by really lovely staff. The prices are reasonable given the popularity of all of the restaurants in the group, and the food quality remains authentic and completely delicious. It’s hard to go wrong when your spaghetti is being served out of a massive wheel of cheese - so swallow your ego, embrace your inner basic bitch and come and gorge on some very good food.

OVERALL RATING: ****

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