Eyre Brothers (City, London) review on Fluid Eating

Eyre Brothers Overview

Robert and David Eyre, two brothers with over thirty years of experience in every last aspect of restaurants, were presented with a vacant four hundred square metre ground-floor warehouse space early in 2000, and within a matter of a minute or two had, through squinted eyes, seen the restaurant of their dreams.

Eighteen months of endless design meetings, material and equipment forays and recruitment followed before the restaurant finally opened in August 2001.

Eyre Brothers Restaurant is fundamentally the type of place that Rob and David, seasoned punters that they are, would like to spend rather too much time in: friendly and professional, comfortable and with a reassuringly honest and old-fashioned approach to food and drink.

Rob works with Damon Green hosting the front of the restaurant, while David runs the kitchen with Joao Cleto. The restaurant dining area’s floor and ceiling is mahogany-panelled within a larger contemporary space and makes much use of American black walnut and leather for their chairs, banquettes, sideboards and bar. Their twelve-metre long bar has been designed to be as comfortable to eat at as a table, and the restaurant has been split into four dining areas.

They see the restaurant as metropolitan and that it is probably the only grown up restaurant in the area. Many of their varied clientele reflect the environs; Shoreditch, Hoxton and Whitechapel are well populated with artists, photographers, architects and designers as well as developers and city professionals.

That’s not to say that some of their regulars don’t visit them from much further afield to enjoy their Iberian influenced cooking – the Eyre brothers spent their childhood in colonial Mozambique, where they first developed a love for authentic Portuguese regional cuisine, and David has developed a similar passion for real Spanish food through years of cooking with Spanish chefs.

They have been recently listed in the 2003 Good Food Guide as ‘Best Newcomer’ to London, were runners up at the Time Out Perrier awards, and have been nominated in the Best Iberian category at the Carlton Restaurant Awards.

Eyre Brothers Restaurant is at 70 Leonard Street on the southern edge of Shoreditch, and on the fringe of the City; close to Finsbury Square, Moorgate and Bishopsgate. They are five minutes walk from Liverpool Street station and less from Old Street underground station. (Updated 10/09/2005)

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