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The Hedonist

Ceru – Review

February 19, 2015 by Adrian Leave a Comment

Ceru                                 Fitzrovia

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29 Rathbone Place, W1T 1JG,
0203 195 3001/www.cerurestaurants.com
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Fitzrovia has an eclectic and vibrant restaurant scene ranging from the austere modernism of Ollie Dabbous’ eponymous restaurant to the fizz and haute hot-dog frivolity of Bubbledogs. The latest arrival is Ceru, a three-month Levantine pop-upwhich Fiona and I have been asked to review; it’s an all-day kind of place where you can breakfast on a za’atar laced wrap and move onto something more substantial for lunch and dinner.
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Ceru is a friendly if cramped space seating only 20 on cheerful yellow high stools either at a wooden counter or at the high tables that circle the room. The food offer is based around small sharing plates which adds to the informal feel of the place.
Executive chef is Tom Kime, whose credits include The River Café, Le Pont de la Tour and Rick Stein’s Seafood Restaurant, and the menu takes inspiration from his passion for Levantine cuisine showcased in his award-winning book “Tasting”.
CERU3
From 5-7pm Ceru has a happy hour when all cocktails are just £5. Fiona and I tried the  Pomegranate Margarita (£8) with fresh pomegranate, lime, lemon, agave syrup & mint which had an unexpected salt/sugar rim, and the excitingly named Passionista (£8) with vanilla-infused vodka, fresh passion fruit & kaffir lime syrup, which was particularly good .
CERU2
We started with a selection of dips (£6.50) which include Pancar (roast beetroot, yoghurt, garlic and pistachio) and Fadi (fried baby courgette purée with tahini, roast garlic, yoghurt & lemon) served with freshly baked pita; they all had great texture and zinged with flavour.
CERU7
 Seared Sea Bream, oregano and chilli served with warm lemon dressing and fried garlic (£9) was a lovely way to serve this fish; it was iridescent, flaky, full of flavour and able to stand up to the robust herbs and spices. By this point we were glugging a bottle of Lebanese Ixsir Grande Reserve (£26.50), a blend of Viognier, Sauvignon and Chardonnay with a very fresh mouth feel and oak and vanilla notes.
CERU8
Slow Roast Lamb shoulder with Shawarma spices (£9) was fall off the bone tender with delicious spicing.
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Roast Baby Aubergine with tomato and chilli (£6) were spicy and squishy.
CERU4
Prawn, tomato and feta tasted like the best of home-cooking; juicy prawns given a kick by the feta.
CERU5
Salad of Baby Spinach and Labne £5.50 with dried cranberries and toasted flatbread with za’atar was a great collision of crunch, sweet and chlorophyll.
CERU10
We tried two of the three desserts; a dish of roast pears with cinnamon and orange zest (£4.50) had a rich flavour but wasn’t uniformly cooked-some bits were crunchy and some soft. Yoghurt, walnut and pistachio cake (£5.50) came with vanilla poached apricot and was moist and tasty.
CERU12
Post pop-up I’d love to see Ceru located in Soho rather than the primmer environs of Fitzrovia. The food is reasonably priced, focussed and sits at the level of recent Soho hits such as Palomar, and with Ceru’s lack of formality it seems like an obvious fit. I’d go.

Ceru Restaurant on Urbanspoon

Square Meal

Layla – Review

March 2, 2014 by Adrian Leave a Comment

Layla                                          Wimbledon

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33 High St, Wimbledon Village. SW19 5BY

0208 944. 7696/www.laylarestaurant.co.uk

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Lebanese food is firmly rooted in the geography of the Levant, that area of the Middle East that also encompasses Egypt, Palestine and Syria. But because of the country’s location there is also a strong Mediterranean influence as well as elements from the cuisines of erstwhile invaders, the Turkish and the French.
Wimbledon Village is one of London’s wealthiest and more conservative  suburbs and certainly a far cry from the urban bustle of the Edgware Rd, the hub for Lebanese food in this country. So it was going to be interesting to see how Layla could engage with a suburban clientele.

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The interior is spacious and comfortable blending Middle Eastern style with western comfort. The waitress suggested that we had three starters and a couple of main courses between the two of us so we chose two from the cold and one from the hot mezze menus.

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Raheb is a smoked aubergine salad with tomato, peppers and onion (£5.45). The gently smoked aubergine had a soft melting mouth feel and a lovely taste. For me there was slightly too much of the tomato and peppers in the dish. I would have been quite happy with the aubergine on its own!

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Vine leaves (£5.50) were clearly home-made and came stuffed with rice, herbs and spice.  They were very fresh and tasty with a good crunch to the rice and a citrus tang.

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Falafel (£6.45) were authentically made with chick peas and broad beans and were served with the classic tahini based tarator sauce and pickles. The falafel were hot and crisp and couldn’t have been any better if they had been flown in directly from a sidewalk cafe in Beirut.

To accompany the food I was drinking a Blanc de l’Observatoire from Château Ksara (£22.50/£6.50). They have been making wine in Lebanon  for 5000 years  but Château Ksara has only been around for about the last  150 and is at the heart of the country’s wine industry in the Bekaa Valley. The wine is light with a floral nose and a soft white fruit palate. Perfect with the mezze.

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My dining companion had gone for an altogether sweeter proposition. The Raspberry Collins  (£8) was a raspberry take on the classic long drink the Tom Collins replacing the lemon juice with fresh raspberries and raspberry liqueur. She sank a couple so I think she enjoyed it!

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Sayadieh (£15.95) is listed in the menu as being an authentic Lebanese fisherman’s dish and my guess is that the version served at Layla is precisely that. I found several recipes online; some dressed the fish with pine nuts and camarelised onions, some fried and some baked the fish and a variety of spices were used. The Layla version (I think) had the fish and rice baked together and for my palate the fish was a bit overdone but that is probably how the fishermen would do it rather than a trendier deconstructed version!

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Prawn Machbous (£20.95) was a fairly straightforward prawn and rice dish. The prawns were of good quality, firm and plump and served in a piquant tomato sauce with peppers and onions and served with a spicy rice.

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With some complementary sticky pastries for dessert we left Layla feeling very well fed. Lebanese food offers an interesting alternative to the French, Italian and Indian restaurants that dominate our high streets. I particularly enjoyed the mezze at Layla and would happily come back and work my way through all of them!

Disclosure: The Hedonist was a guest of Layla’s
Layla on Urbanspoon

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