The Observer
Jay Rayner was mightily impressed by a new Lebanese brasserie that has taken over from another Middle Eastern restaurant on Kensington High Street, the short-lived Pascor. Much on the menu was familiar, if well done: falafel, lamb kofte, chicken shawarma, labneh, stuffed vine leaves, tabbouleh and three versions of hummus.
But it was the unusual dishes cooked by Joseph’s father, Yazbek, that really struck Jay, starting with ‘fweregh – tender lamb intestines stuffed with a savoury mixture of rice’, according to the specials menu, and described by Jay as “a pleasingly gnarly sausage… sibling to the haggis and a cousin to bangers the world over” that weighs in at half a kilo, costs £80.
Best of all was ‘Sultan Ibrahim’: floured and seasoned red mullet, deep-fried until golden, served on a mound of shredded deep-fried flatbread with a bowl of sticky tahini sauce. “It’s the kind of dish you fantasise about eating at some restaurant on a corniche at the eastern end of the Med, with the smell of salt and seaweed in your nostrils, as a blisteringly hot day gives way to the close, sagging warmth of an evening by the sea.”
Jay Rayner - 2024-11-10
