Bloomsbury, Middle Eastern Restaurant Guide

This 10-year-old group with six sites offers a “good-value and tasty” take on the Middle Eastern kebab, served with a “modern twist” alongside “noteworthy cocktails”. “A seat at the counter is fun” at the original Kingly Court branch in Carnaby Street, which has a ‘fine dining’ option downstairs, Kebab Queen (see also).

“Flavours that transport you to the Middle East” inspire adoration for fans of Sarit Packer and Itamar Srulovich’s “interesting” café, which moved to Bloomsbury (to the former site of Cigala, RIP) in 2022 having been a major media sensation when it first touched down near Warren Street 10 years earlier. The “brilliant range of eastern Med tapas” is “fresh and delightful” and acclaimed by many for their best meal of the year: an impressive achievement for a relatively humble operation. If there’s a criticism, it’s that some reporters feel the raves are overdone, judging the performance “enjoyable but not exceptional”. Top Menu Tips – “The Falafel starter is magic (and I am comparing it with a number of experiences in the Middle East)”. “Slow- cooked lamb is smooth, tender and tasty, and the stuffed aubergines are a flavour and texture sensation”; “finally onto cheesecake… unlike any previously experienced!”

“Superb North African food is served in this dimly lit, bustly counter-style restaurant with bags of ambience” in Neal’s Yard, Soho, opened in 2016 by Leyo and Zoe Paskin as a follow-up to their nearby hit Palomar: “the hype is fully justified” (although “the fixed bar seating can be mightily uncomfortable if you’re tall”). And in September 2024 they are to expand to the Notting Hill/Bayswater border, with a 75-cover restaurant newcomer in a Grade II listed building on the corner of Westbourne Grove and Chepstow Road: it will feature a take on the popular kitchen counter format, in addition to an open-plan dining room and a cocktail bar.