I've got seriously bored with my Pret sandwiches recently so I've made a conscious effort to grab lunch out at least once a week. There are a few new places near the office though my faves like Goodman and Ramen Seto are still top of the bill. However after my visit to Yalla Yalla this week I can see this going into heavy rotation. My lovely wife had visited the original one in Soho and had recommended it to me, we used to live near Edgware rd so I'm a big fan of lebanese food. I like the focus on simplicity and high quality ingredients. I noticed that they had opened another branch near Market Place which is short walk from the office. I had a few things to go through over lunch so I popped out with a colleague. It took a little while to find as it is down a very non descript side street/lane of Oxford st. However when you go in your are greeted by a busy but airy restaurant.
We were shown to a breakfast bar type table which we had to ourselves though the rest of the restaurant was busy. We were quite pressed for time so we skipped the delicious sounding starters and went for mains. I had the lamb swarma whilst Dave went for the chicken version. Both came out quickly but were pipping hot and delicious. The lamb came with a beautiful salad, flavoured rice, a flat bread to keep the lamb warm and a pitta bread. The lamb itself was wonderful, crispy but moist. In fact the food was so nice we soon forgot about the boring piece of paperwork we were meant to be discussing. The waitress was very helpful bringing us refills of iced tap water. The food coming out for other tables looked really nice, big mounds of humus, taboulet and the like.
Lunch was both tasty and satisfying so no room for desert but I did order an arabic coffe which is their version of the turkish coffee. It was very nice and had a lovely aftertaste possibly cardammon. Lunch came to a very reasonable £27 for two which for the quality of food we had was great. I really can't wait to go back and try out the rest of the menu. This is one chain that deserves to do very well.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 9
been here since and it was less good which is often the way with chains