Maroush,
4 Vere Street, London W1G 0DG
www.maroush.com
17/01/2015
She said: Maroush is a bit of a Middle-Eastern empire with five outlets in London, seven other restaurants linked to the group and a series of bakeries. Given our love of food from the region, we’ve kept saying we’d try one out. Finally we opted for the Vere Street branch near Bond Street which is a more casual setting with a wide ranging menu. The drinks menu was great with lots of creative cocktails. We ordered a series of meze’s including roasted eggplant, fava beans, baked fish and flatbread topped with cheese. He misread one dish which he thought was the delicious rice with lentils but turned out to be a ground paste of something similar (and not something I would have ordered) but otherwise, the food was fine. I’ve had so much amazing Lebanese food in the Middle East that I know what amazing is and what good is. This was fine for someone unfamiliar with the delicate flavours of the stalwart dishes but for a die-hard foodie like me, sadly it fell short. It’s a shame as the service was good and staff very welcoming; they even sent some complimentary baklava to our table with the bill after our confusion over the rice paste thing (which was his fault not theirs). I wanted to like it more…
www.maroush.com
17/01/2015
She said: Maroush is a bit of a Middle-Eastern empire with five outlets in London, seven other restaurants linked to the group and a series of bakeries. Given our love of food from the region, we’ve kept saying we’d try one out. Finally we opted for the Vere Street branch near Bond Street which is a more casual setting with a wide ranging menu. The drinks menu was great with lots of creative cocktails. We ordered a series of meze’s including roasted eggplant, fava beans, baked fish and flatbread topped with cheese. He misread one dish which he thought was the delicious rice with lentils but turned out to be a ground paste of something similar (and not something I would have ordered) but otherwise, the food was fine. I’ve had so much amazing Lebanese food in the Middle East that I know what amazing is and what good is. This was fine for someone unfamiliar with the delicate flavours of the stalwart dishes but for a die-hard foodie like me, sadly it fell short. It’s a shame as the service was good and staff very welcoming; they even sent some complimentary baklava to our table with the bill after our confusion over the rice paste thing (which was his fault not theirs). I wanted to like it more…
He
said: Maroush is legendary on London’s Middle Eastern scene; it seems like he
owns every other restaurant on Edgware Road. Yet, somehow, we managed to avoid
dining at any one of them until we stumbled into the one off Oxford Street,
even then somewhat by accident. Even a few days after the fact I’m still in
denial about this one; I really wanted to love it, but in the end it was just a
middle-of-the-road Lebanese joint. It might be that this one, because of the
location, tweaked things for a Western clientele: for example we tried to order
the Fattet with hummus and yogurt, which is always served hot; but our waitress
told us that here they serve it cold, despite customers having got into heated
arguments with the kitchen about it. The way she said it you just knew she also
thought it was a ridiculous thing to do. And the moujaddarah came without the
usual crispy fried onions, which I had to ask for. Just weird. The place is not
without some charm, but if there’s to be another Maroush meal it’s going to be
on the Edgware Road.
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