Place of the week: Yalla Yalla, a Beirut street food spot in London
13th July 2015
I’m so happy to have a chance to tell you about Yalla Yalla, an incredible restaurant serving up the tastiest Lebanese and middle eastern dishes ever!
My mum took me here a couple of months ago after reading some really great reviews, this place has been named as one of Time Out’s & The Evening Standard’s top ‘cheap eats’ in London and it so deserves it. I was loving it so much I completely forgot to take any of my own pictures, ooops… So this blog isn’t going to be a pretty one, but that’s ok because all I really need to say is that you guys have got to give this place a try!
Yalla Yalla have got three locations across London… The first is a trendy little pop up restaurant in Greenwich Peninsula, this one is super popular for people who want to grab a quick lunchtime street food snack or eat some yummy mezze outside in the sunshine.
Then there’s a tiny restaraunt down an alleyway in the red light district of Soho, a very cool location…I guess it must have that authentic Lebanese souk vibe, plus this one only has 24 seats so be prepared for a queue!
We decided to visit the Winsley Street location, which is situated really conveniently just off Oxford Street, making it the perfect joint for a feast after a long days shopping. The restaurants are really informal and have a real buzz about them which I love, they’re nothing pretentious, just good, honest, family food.
We visited Yalla Yalla on a week night and it was very busy, the tables are packed pretty tightly together too, so if you’re into having plenty of personal space at a restaurant maybe give this one a miss! Unfortunately you can’t book tables here either, which seems to be the case at most cool London spots these days, but I’d say it’s definitely worth the wait.
The restaurant deco is clean and simple but still feels really cosy and homely. The place is filled with wooden tables, decorated in a monochromatic black and white colour scheme with vibrant pops of yellow and cushions made from vintage scarves.
But the best thing about this place is the delicious food!!! They’ve got it spot on with the menu, all of the mezze and middle eastern grill classics… there’s not so much on there that you feel overwhelmed but there’s enough to make you really, really hungry! Mum and I found it super hard to pick, we actually wanted to order everything, but we narrowed it down to a selection of small starter dishes which were just perfect for sharing. I love being able to have a little taster of everything rather than having to settle on just one dish.
Of course we had to go for the ‘Hummus’ with warm pitta breads and the ‘Fattoush’ salad with sumac and topped with little bits of crispy pitta, both really good. We also gave the ‘Jawaneh Meshou’ a try, these were seriously yummy garlic, harissa and chilli marinated grilled chicken wings, which melted in your mouth and tasted like heaven, honestly the best chicken wings I’ve ever had. The last starter we picked was called ‘Samboussek Jibne’, I knew I was going to love this one as mum’s made it for me at home before… it’s little crispy pastry parcels filled with warm melting feta cheese and fresh mint, sooooooo good!
I’m so gutted I didn’t take any pictures! but I grabbed this one from the Yalla Yalla website to give you some kind of an idea…
The portion sizes are very generous and by this point we were pretty full, so the fact that we had decided to only order one main to share made us feel quite relieved! We went for the ‘Shish Taouk’, a big plate of succulent juicy marinated chicken breast skewers with a grilled tomato, sumac, pepper and parsley salad and a big portion of steaming hot vermicelli basmati rice. It was comfort food at its best. You might think it sounds a little basic and boring… trust me, it wasn’t, it’s crazy how pieces of chicken breast on a stick can actually taste so good.
We were so surprised at how cheap this place was too, especially for how amazing the food was, and the fact that we were sitting just off Oxford Street in the centre of London. The whole meal came to about £40 ish for the both of us which included a whole bottle of wine, such great value, thanks mum!
I really recommend you go and check this place out before those queues get any longer! And if you’re planning a trip to our London showroom Yalla Yalla would be the perfect place for a bite to eat, it’s just 5 minutes away on the tube.
To view the whole menu and find out lots more info on Yalla Yalla, check out their website here.
Image Credits: Yalla Yalla
