Tag: Lebanese food

Meza Restaurant – London Tooting Broadway

On By Bao Bao QiuIn UncategorizedLeave a comment
Had a tough time at work last week. Still having a bad week this week too. 😖 I wish I had a month off…

Happy Valentine’s Day too!! 😍

I don’t often eat Lebanese food but it was an option for Ms LuFu and Mr Yellowcloak. We ended up at this place as Ms LuFu was decorating and couldn’t come up to Central London, so I was browsing the Internet on what we could eat around the Tooting Broadway area…

And I found this place called Meza. Tooting Broadway area is known for their Indian and Asian spices (as I was so told by one of my colleagues) but Ms LuFu and Mr Yellowcloak don’t like spicy foods, and I don’t think Ms LuFu eats out in her area much. She likes Lebanese food though! Phew!

A few minutes away from Tooting Broadway Tube restaurant is this small restaurant. It got very busy as our food came along… Customers kept coming and going!

All three of us (although only 2 cups showing here) had a pot of mint tea. It was really tasty even without sugar. 

We ordered a few starters… this one’s hummus with flatbread.

These hot pastries were AMAZING! Yum yum!! I don’t usually like pastries with like a solid edging, because they taste quite dry and tough when you eat them. That’s not the case with these. They were nice and warm, easy to bite into and very appetizing. We had two different kinds, soft cheese (Sambousek Jebneh) and lamb mince (Sambousek Lahmeh). I preferred the soft cheese!!

Ms LuFu had the falafels. They looked humungous!

She also had these… a lamb sort of pastry…

Mr YellowCloak decided to go with the fish of the day (sea bass)… That looked amazing! I wish I ordered the fish…

But I decided on the mixed grill… My desire to have lots of meat that night… ^_^ All of it was grilled nicely. Superb!

We even got a free piece of cake, but Ms LuFu decided not to have her piece – not a coconut lover. ^_^ So lucky!!

Total came to £52.31. Not bad for the three of us. Mr YellowCloak attempted to pay in Scottish pounds, and got away with it, no glances like what we get in the other restaurants we go to… Phew! Sometimes we get embarrassed with these attempts. 😌

My geeky rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐(5/5)

Good points:
– Polite service
– Good starters (hot and cold plates)
– Enjoyed the mint tea

Bad points:
– Nothing that I can think of…

Address: 70 Mitcham Road, Tooting Broadway, London SW17 9NA


Tel: 07771 333157

Website: http://www.mezarestaurant.com/

Reem Lebanese Restaurant – London Camberwell

On By Bao Bao QiuIn UncategorizedLeave a comment
Been a bit lazy with the blogging… :p Busy social life… peh…
A few weeks ago I think I had some sort of craving for Lebanese food and after eating at Bayroot I thought I’ll try the newish one in Camberwell.
Reem Lebanese restaurant has replaced the Italian restaurant Gusto. Oh deary me, the food was really good in Gusto but I don’t think they were making much money… 😦 Reem opened up a few months ago and I was going to try it out at the start but my colleague Miss Vegan (new girl) tried it out and said it wasn’t as good as Falafel in Camberwell New Road with how they wrapped their wraps. Humph… But I just had to try it out!!

It didn’t actually take me long to decide because I had already looked online. Remember what I had in Bayroot, well I had something similar – a mixed grill kebab for £9 which including chips and salad! Wow!! It made me full, the meat went a little cold because I walked back to work with this. It was good! Well seasoned and the pitta bread was not dry!! Phew!!

The second time I went there I saw that they had a deal for a chicken shawarma, chips and a drink for £5. I asked for an apple and ginger juice instead of a soft drink and they charged me an 80p which I did not mind at all.
To start off with, the shawarma wasn’t well wrapped. I think the bread was too small or maybe because I destroyed it whilst taking a picture. >_<" This was what Miss Vegan was talking about! However it smelled nice and it tasted great… very filling too!! But be careful of the sauces… it almost ruined my skirt. 😦

Chips as always was very fresh… I really liked these chips for some reason!

And the apple juice… this was much tastier than Bayroot’s… you could taste the ginger and it was cold. Woohoo! I can not fault them on this. ^_^

My geeky rating: 4.5/5 – hope this place will stay a little longer than Gusto

Good points:
– Cheaper Lebanese food
– Friendly staff
– Good use of previous restaurant’s furniture ^_^

Bad points:
– Just the poor wrapping of my shawarma but everything else was really good!

Address: 55 Denmark Hill, Camberwell, London, SE5 8RS
Tel: 0207 358 5271

Menu: https://www.zomato.com/london/reem-camberwell

Bayroot Lebanese Street Food – London Camberwell/Walworth Road

On By Bao Bao QiuIn Uncategorized3 Comments
At the end of Walworth Road and at the start of Camberwell is a new Lebanese Street Food restaurant. I was actually quite excited to see this new and upcoming restaurant which is probably trying to make Camberwell and Walworth Road a little more trendy. I think the area already has become trendy with the variety of food that’s building up in the area. Think Walworth and Camberwell is becoming the new Dulwich… only joking!! ^_^

There seems to be a trend of kebabs along the Walworth Road. I’ve counted four in my head and now we have a Lebanese restaurant. Do you count Lebanese food as kebab food? I don’t know. I leave that for the experts.
Bayroot is a different spelling to the capital city Beirut. Good idea for a restaurant name!

They already had a few customers in the restaurant and I was allowed to sit anywhere. I had a quick browse at the menu and they were only serving the skewers either on it’s own or as a platter. I chose the platter option where you can choose up to three meats. I felt one skewer by itself would’ve been too boring.

I sat for a long while and had a look around. There seems to be a lot of lighting but it actually looks quite dark inside. Don’t worry, I think it’s to make you feel cool and they do have candles for I believe a romantic setting in the evening. There was no music in the background when I went in… I think they forgot because I could hear some music just before I was leaving

The tables look trendy, don’t know why… very simplistic!

If you sit near the entrance you will notice this clock. The background is shaped into Lebanon (I checked on the map).

First came out the apple and ginger juice which is freshly squeezed. It wasn’t cold enough and it didn’t have enough ginger. I’m sure I’ve had freshly squeezed juices that were cold…

Then the meal came out. It looks cool!

The platter came with one piece of lamb kofta, beef rump steak and king prawns. I actually wanted the squid steak but I think they ran out. There’s also a few pieces of grilled vegetables underneath. I started off with the prawns. They are definitely fresh but were only lukewarm and not spicy enough. The lamb kofta was well seasoned and went well with the sour cream sauce. The beef steak cooled too quickly, a little bland but went well with the spicy red sauce. I had all of this and felt quite satisfied with a full stomach

The Bayroot Fries is not anything too special, it just had some spices added on to it. Didn’t finish them. 😦

My disappointment was the mainly the bread. Yeah. The pitta bread. It was a bit too dry when it reached the table. I had half a piece and didn’t eat the rest… 😦

There’s always room for improvement!
Total came to £27.22. Woah a bit expensive for grilled meat, fries, bread and juice. The kind owner gave me a small discount – was quite surprised about that… Well I have had expensive food but not sure if this was worth that amount… maybe the rump steak was my mistake. ¬_¬”” After examining the menu leaflet I think I should have chosen to eat a wrap instead! 
My geeky rating: 4/5 (it was better than eating at Duck and Waffle considering this place had only opened for less than a week when I went!)
Good points:
– Polite service, although still new so still rusty with what they’re doing (I’m sure it will improve)
– I felt full after eating which is a good sign that I enjoyed the filling meat
– I think the lunchtime menu will be a hit – must try out a wrap next time
Bad points:
– Meat and prawns cooled down too quickly – but that happens to most grilled meat I guess
– Pitta bread was a bit too dry to my liking
– A bit expensive (maybe because I chose the expensive meat!)…defo have to try out a wrap ^_^
Address: 8 Camberwell Road, London SE5 0EN
Tel: 02079984030