Holborn, Middle Eastern Restaurant Guide

“Exceptional Middle Eastern food is the norm at Honey & Co” – “delicious multi-flavoured and colourful dishes with fresh ingredients, in awesome combinations” from a “menu that’s well-balanced between familiar options (houmous, falafel) and more adventurous items”. Sarit Packer and Itamar Srulovich inspired a huge wave of interest when they first opened in 2012 in a poky café near Warren Street tube, and they have been on this more comfortable (but slightly “bland”) Bloomsbury corner-site since 2022. Top Menu Tips – “The USP is that although many of the dishes are familiar, such as hummus, labneh, falafel and so on, the flavours are extraordinary”; “portions are generous, vegetarians are well catered for”; “carrot and blood orange salad is a must”; and “be sure to leave room for their cheesecake!”

2023 Review: “Outstanding delicious falafels” – “some of the best in London” – are the star turn at this Jewish-Moroccan veggie spot in Temple Fortune. “Don’t be put off by the strip lighting aesthetic, although there’s possibly better ambience in the street outside”. In the last couple of years the three Sabbo brothers have opened follow-ups in High Barnet (selling meat) and Clerkenwell’s Leather Lane (and also in Lakewood, New Jersey!)

2024 Review: Yuma Hashmi’s latest venture is a seventies-styled wine bar (complete with a peacock rattan chair, famous from 1974’s X-rated film Emmanuelle) directly opposite Tehran-Berlin (fka The Drunken Butler), his Persian restaurant in Clerkenwell. The wine list is modern, with natural and biodynamic options, and is backed up by French and Iranian snacks and small plates.

“The flavours are big, the combinations exciting and the breads fluffy” at these “cheerful and helpful” Eastern-Med cafés, created by (self-taught chef) Limor Chen and husband Amir, which have won a good degree of renown for their “sharing plate concept” of “creative Middle Eastern dishes” with a good level of “balance, imagination and good value”; and “although there are an increasing number of Middle Eastern restaurants in London, these are some of the very best”. Their original in Marylebone and rather "beautiful" new ‘Townhouse’ in Covent Garden are the most popular branches, although the one in Shoreditch is consistently well-rated too.