Hera
You’ll find Hera, named after the queen of the Olympians, on the backside of Stratford Cross – past Westfield, past the newly opened Everyman and just opposite the new V&A East Storehouse. As soon as you think you’ve gone too far, there it is; a corner restaurant with tall glass doors and windows that make anyone who’s wandered this far want to peer in.
Inside, there’s a bar with an illuminated liquor shelf as tall as the ceiling. If Beauty and the Beast’s Belle had a penchant for booze over books, she’d roll her ladder from one side of the bar to the next in search of her top-shelf favourites.
Even more impressive is Hera’s gloriously vast dining room with chandeliers, elaborate foliage and plush booths. In the kitchen, chef Mario Salimis whips up a classically Greek-inspired menu with modern twists. The melitzano salata, diced aubergine with honey and balsamic, is a savoury delight, more so when spread thickly across any of the assorted breads at the table. The fried calamari has a perfect squid-to-batter ratio, and slivers of seabass carpaccio are fresh and silky smooth, though quite oily. Better still is the seafood orzo, one hell of a dish, with plump prawns and vibrant-orange mussels.
Cocktails are interesting, too. The Arriani is Greece in a glass, with feta gin, Greek yoghurt, fig cordial. Meanwhile, the Helen of Spice is basically a mango marg with a kick.
But the finest moment – as basic as it sounds – is the Greek salad. Chopped cucumbers, onions, olives, peppers