It might look like just another Stokey neighbourhood joint (a small dining room with counter seating and an open kitchen) but Moio is so much more. A glance at the short menu reveals adventurous-sounding takes on Portuguese-accented, modern European cooking.
Starters are sensational. Lamb tartare with oyster and onion purée is a zingy raw-food take on surf and turf while cauliflower and buttermilk panna cotta comes with marinated scallops served in ceviche-style slivers and coated with raspberry powder. It’s not all so complex, though: beetroot and orange soup is sweet, earthy and fresh.
From the mains, it has to be the slow-cooked short rib with charred aubergine purée and wattleseed jus. And when we say slow, we’re talking three-days-in-the-oven slow, resulting in all the tender, fall-apart meat that the leisurely cooking-time implies.
We were less taken with desserts. Our intriguing-sounding lemon myrtle shortbread with Jerusalem artichoke ice cream, and more straightforward Portuguese custard tart would both have benefitted from being conventionally sweeter.
Other flavour fails included smoked eel and pickled watermelon radish overshadowed by the bitter chicory it was wrapped in, and a lacklustre plate of saffron cappelletti with fresh ricotta and roasted pumpkin. Service, meanwhile, was a bit rushed, though the friendly staff were knowledgeable and attentive.
All in all, though, if you’re willing to put your preconceptions of Portuguese cooking to one side, you’ll have a lovely time at Moio, and it won’t break the bank, either: the European wine list kicks off at £25 and there’s nothing on the menu over £18.50.