If you Google ‘best Middle Eastern restaurant cheap London’ at some point in the listings, Abu Zaad will appear. It has immensely high ratings by nearly every punter (with the exception of one irate customer who bemoans their lack of general niceness). Not wanting to tread against the grain too much, I’ll start with the positives.
It looks authentic enough. Al Jazeera is on television on a muted television screen, which lends a novel way of enjoying Damascene food: watching the waiter’s city of origin getting bombed to smithereens. Different, but helped to put my London life into perspective, which I suppose is an ethical bonus, but maybe not what you really want whilst trying to enjoy falafel.
The restaurant was, in itself, an interesting anthropological study. In the front area, non-Muslims were seated on pleasant tables with a full view of busy Uxbridge Road outside. When I went to the bathroom however, I passed a middle room full of Muslim families and the very backroom, hidden away from the prying eyes of the London street, were tables that consisted solely of women wearing niqaab. On a separate point, the air-conditioning was much better in the backroom too.
The décor was Syrian-a usual handful of old pottery and a beautifully tiled ceiling and walls made the dining experience feel ‘Middle Eastern’. But it was for the food that I had come here. Reams of reviews describe the food here as being ‘the best in London’ or at the very worst ‘a thoroughly decent Syrian restaurant’.
Now, maybe they just didn’t like us. Maybe they took offence to me because I double-checked that the moussaka didn’t have any dairy in it-some of the moussakas I’ve had pre-dairy allergy have been smothered in mozzarella for no real reason other than it seems Mediterranean. My boyfriend ordered lamb with okra, and we shared a plate of falafel. The vegetarian and even vegan options on the menu were adequate. There was cold moussaka for £3 compared to my £6 main, there was tabouleh there were spinach pastry and pine nut bites which looked unbelievable: I would have devoured platefuls had they not been unsuitable for coeliacs. My advice would be to go armed with your own knowledge, as the idea of having an allergy to anything seemed alien to the waiters.
The falafel were fine if a little oily, and unlike some of the better kind, were dry. It was as though they had make the falafel from a packet of falafel mix. As I had falafel rather than rice or bread to accompany my meal, I appreciated the difference in texture from the wet tomato, and the flavour was strong and enjoyable.
My moussaka when it arrived, was redolent of microwave. Most parts were stone cold, while other bits burnt my tongue. A thin layer of filmy grease had gathered on top. They hadn’t even bothered to stir it. I was unimpressed.
However, the aubergine had been grilled (sometime earlier in the day, or perhaps last week) which gave the stew a smoky, interesting taste. I enjoyed the flavours, although there was far too much tomato. I’ve never seen a moussaka quite like it, but it was a tasty-enough, vegan, gluten free stew. The aubergine melted in my mouth and was tender. Accompanying the smoky aubergine were strips of wire-thin red pepper and a smattering of chick-peas.
My boyfriend tried mine and said that it tasted extremely similar to his, except that his had lumps of lamb in it rather than aubergine. We both agreed that they had probably been quickly whizzed through a microwave and that the flavours were moreish, but it probably didn’t deserve the glowing reputation that every citizen of London seems to bestow upon it.
My most glowing praise of this place is that it’s cheap. You can fill your tummies from £5, and as I have today, still have enough left to take it to work and eat it at lunch for leftovers. In my opinion, it isn’t worth the trek west, but if you live or work around Shepherd’s Bush or Hammersmith, it might be worth popping in. You might have more luck than we did.
Vegan Voyager 