Muhammara
Levant

Levant

Jason Court, 76 Wigmore Street London, W1U 2SJ, W1U 2SN, United Kingdom

Tea • Beer • Chicken • Lebanese


"I visited last night with my wife. We were very kind and polite with them, basically in a very nice mood. We were given a small lovely 2 seat table at the edge of the restaurant. 1. The hostess informed us that the Tagine was better than the tagines from Agadir in Morocco. We actually had visited a great little authentic place in a village outside of Agadir which was absolutely delicious, so although we were a little skeptical her confidence made us very excited and looking forward to ordering tagines. The waitress was very cheerful and friendly. 2. The menu was different to the menus which they have on both the Internet and their own website. Still, we ordered lamb tagine, and lamb shank (the fish tagine was not available . 3. LAMB TAGINE: absolutely disgusting. The 2 prunes and some almonds would suggest a certain flavour of dish, however the bland lamb (apart from the over peppering which choked and lingered in the throat sitting in a puddle of water drowned everything away. It tasted like water was poured onto the dish moments before serving. 4. LAMB SHANK: this was half decent. over spiced though. The lentils in the dish were like an Indian dish, so if you want a middle eastern lamb shank mixed with lentils from an Indian restaurant then you may like. 5. We arrived at 7:30pm. At 8:40pm, after the waitress offered to bring over the deserts menu and while she was getting it, the waiter gave us our bill and shoved the card machine in my face. At that moment the restaurant was half full (or empty! , however he instructed us to pay as they apparently had a booking. It seemed that despite the restaurant having ample empty tables, they needed our small 2 seater table-which was beside 2 other (empty! 2 seater tables. I informed him that the waitress is expecting us to order desert, yet he didn’t seem to care and just wanted us gone. Even though my wife was less than half way through finishing her drink. The waitress arrived with our deserts menu, which the waiter didn’t seem to care. NOTE: They add a 12.5% service charge to the bill. This is optional for the customer, however they casually include it when punching in the bill amount in the machine. 6. We took our half finished drink to the bar as the waitress told us to have our desert and tea there. Sadly the whole bar area smells of the toilet which is nearby. So while we were deciding to sit away from the toilet, the hostess approached us and very rudely told us to quickly decide and sit down. I am so glad I decided to leave. Their bad service, terrible food, and smelly bar fortunately didn’t ruin our day. We continued our night in the west end laughing about this experience. Swearing to never eat there ever again. But skeptical and gobsmacked about some of Levant and Kenza’s (same restaurant, different name and location positive reviews. Hope this review helps people to avoid wasting their money. Ps. £3.95 for a small glass of flat, watered down coke!"

Ali Ocakbasi

Ali Ocakbasi

16 Irving Street, London I-WC2H 7AU, United Kingdom

Turkish • Barbecue • International • Mediterranean


"You can’t deny that Central London has a certain buzz to it! We visited Ali Ocakbasi, a fantastic Turkish Restaurant in Leicester Square and dined alfresco on a warm evening. The staff were super friendly from the outset and there was a lively and relaxed atmosphere. There is a whole host of amazing dishes on the menu focusing on traditional Turkish feasts. You can choose main dishes from the grill or oven or, like us, choose several starter dishes as mezzes. There are 14 cold starters and 5 hot starters so plenty of variety and choice. We paired our mezzes with a glass of Turkish red wine each Buzbag, Anatolia, Turkey £7.75 glass/£39 bottle). It was a warming wine, yet light and crisp with deep fruity notes. We had the following Cold Mezzes all priced at £6.40: Beyaz Peynir – Traditional Anotilan white cheese Acili Yogurt – Homemade yoghurt served with chili red pepper slices on top Kopoglu – Small cubes of fried eggplant, potatoes and green capsicum pepper) served with special tomato puree and yoghurt on top Muhammara – Traditional spicy paste prepared with crushed walnuts, twice-baked bread, tahini, olive oil, garlic, lemon juice Kisir – Special bulghur salad mix with Anatolian spices and vegetables Turkish restaurant in Leicester Square We opted for the following Hot Mezzes: Semsek – Traditional pidette with cheese £3.80) Sigara Boregi – Deep fried pastry rolls, filled with cheese and parsley £6.40) Sicak Hummus – Warm homemade hummus served plain or with your topping of pastrami, Anatolian sausage or both £8.40-£10.90) As you can see we had 8 mezzes between the two of us and this was absolutely plenty. Each dish was pretty much perfect – amazing colours, great levels of spiciness.We were impressed by the quality and flavour of every dish and all had something different to offer the palate. This is just such a stunning Turkish restaurant in Leicester Square. In such a busy part of London you really do get the best of both worlds here – the tranquility of exquisite dining whilst watching the hustle and bustle of the busy tourist hub. There was amazing hospitality, something we saw them deliver to every customer which makes all the difference. A thoroughly recommended restaurant."

Arabica Bar & Kitchen

Arabica Bar & Kitchen

3 Rochester Walk London, SE1 9AF, United Kingdom

Beer • Turkish • Arabian • Lebanese


"this is a review of the new filiale in kings cross, which is not yet available in the zomato database. decent levantine eat, but not as good as my greedy, but cheaper favorite mangal1 in dalston for charcoal grilled dishes. they pay for chic environment here. in contrast to mangal1 arabica would be a suitable place to bring a date. mezzes not as inventive as some pricier other favorites like morito in clerkenwell or tuyo in hackney. what they do well at arabica is classic middle-east convenience food that I rarely see on menus. I love that she batata harra and mejadra (spels here as mujadarah.) another thing that they do very well is efficiency. the high amount of staff in the open kitchen and in the kitchen arrives very quickly. we started with the moutabel, which was pleasant but not as good as the cheaper patlacan salata at mangal1. the smoked aubergine lacked a pronounced carbon taste. I also had the same complaint for the grilled meat dishes. Although I could see the charcoal grill and open fire in the kitchen, I couldn't really recognize him in my eating. moutabel was served with some exceptional flat broths. extremely thin and delicate the green shhug soon came after. not as beaten and bright as my favorite train at the good egg in stoke newington. both strong comfort foods were excellent. the lenses in the mujardarah were beautifully spiced and the crispy paper thin triangle of fried wobbles was beautiful. also batata harra (fried potatoes) were fabulous. very crisp, so likely fried in quite a lot of oil and pronounced aromas of seasoned and garlic as well as fresh coriander. our grills of chicken wings and cattle villains were somewhat disappointing. beef was tender and very medium-sized, but somewhat underheated and lacked in speculative. accompanying brat tweezers in a sweet date sauce but was very nice. wings had a slight smoke. well made fat, but also under seasoned for my taste. they came with a rather refined tonum or garlic sauce. it doesn't matter to me that my gum is aggressiw garlicky, but if they prefer a mild nuanced toum, they will like that. we were too full of desserts, although the desserts looked great. they had no problems with providing a takeaway box for unfinished food. I would recommend arabica especially for beautifully executed traditional strength comfort food in conjunction with home cooking and street food that do not appear regularly on restaurant menus. the grill area of the menu is more diverse than most of the Central Eastern restaurants that are not limited to lamb and hawn. also they are good when they prefer to be refined and refined medium-east sauces such as toum and zhoug. I didn't try her harissa, but I expect that was the same story. for wood charcoal grilled meat and aubergine is my favorite London address still mangal1. for creative mezzen I prefer morito and tuyo."

Ayam Zaman

Ayam Zaman

258 Uxbridge Rd, London, W127JA, W12 7JA, United Kingdom

Kebab • Syrian • Chicken • Catering


"The problem with Vancouver is the halal scene is poor. Accustomed to halal fine dining in London , UK I may be slightly critical of Vancouver. My husband read that this restaurant had newly opened and from the pictures on social media the restaurant looked promising although certainly not fine dining. We both went last weekend with great expectations and we were really let down both with the decor of this place and the food. We ordered the soup, fattoush salad and hummus with meat as starters. For the mains We ordered a chicken dish on flat bread (a palestinain dish called musakhan) and a kofte dish as our mains. The starters and my MAIN dish came together with the server saying they were very busy and could not serve the starters separately. We started on our starters BUT I could not really enjoy as I was afraid my mains would get cold ... and to be honest it was not really warm when it arrived at the table anyway. The starters were good but I had to rush so that I could start on my mains. The Muskhan dish was disappointing luke warm and tasteless. My husband was still waiting for his mains but gave up and finished off the 3 starters. Then his mains came but we had to refuse it because it arrived simply too late. Oh and at the beginning my husband had ordered tea but that never came and the usual jug of water was not placed on our table either. The manager owner did apologise and he did not charge for my husband's mai dish, took 25% off the bill and gave my husband tea. But the point is we trekked from downtown Vancouver to what we hoped would prove to be an enjoyable dinner but it was poor. The decor is poor with a water fountain which is small and takes up needless space. I was disappointed with this restaurant but it was very busy (they do not take bookings) and I think you have to stick to ordering their standard mixed grill and this may be their dish which is good."