“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.
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Tom Parker Bowles was happily seduced by the “sexy as hell” second edition of Zoë and Layo Paskin’s North African/Middle Eastern-inspired Soho grill, which “stretches languorously over a vast space on a corner of Westbourne Grove”.
Cooking over fire may seem like a cliché these days, he said, “but here it’s taken to a high art” – and there’s a “rather thrilling wine list, too”, with a “hell of a selection by the glass”.
Tom Parker Bowles - 2025-01-12
