Kitchen Rat can reveal another sordid, and one suspects final, chapter in the curious tale of Ortega’s five-legged donkey.
Those with good memories will remember the launch of Ortega back in July 2006, a stab by Café Rouge owner Tragus at a Spanish brand to take on the likes of La Tasca (since snapped up by pub company Laurel).
A lot of work went into the menu and creating an “authentic” look for the restaurant chain, which now numbers seven units.
As part of the décor for the first Ortega in Harlow, Essex, a cute miniature donkey was installed on one of the dining room’s shelves, which caused a few red faces amongst the opening team after they realised the “little fella” really wasn’t, hence the five-legs.
As a footnote to this curious story, we hear that the well endowed donkey obviously found favour with at least one diner in particular as he has now been pinched, almost certainly by a complete ass.