Mon–Sun 7am–midnight
This small chain is a lot like many of London’s inhabitants—seems exotic and brings influences from over the world, but you can’t really tell where they’re from exactly. On the menu here you will find tabbouleh and dolma, boreck, tagines, pasta and fish and chips. My guess was Lebanese when I walked in, mainly due to the massive shisha pipes, but then I thought Moroccan, and kept guessing.
If you’re wondering about the name, it’s an abbreviation of ‘the delicatessen of Aziz’, which was the original name of this restaurant 15 years ago—they opened the deli next door. To this day the restaurant has two sides to it. There are paisley pillars, patterned benches, lots of cushions and deep red terracotta walls. Giving up my guessing, I asked the waitress what kind of restaurant this was and she said they were ‘Mediterranean’. Fair enough: around that warm sea are Morocco, Italy, Lebanon, Turkey and Greece.
Whatever; their margaritas (£8) were very decent. I needed the length of one to decide what I wanted. There are plenty of mezzes to choose from and if I were to go back, I would probably stick to those. Be warned however—they are no dainty little things. Four of them might well leave you replete. They offer tempting combinations of food; radish, cucumber, red onion and mint orange blossom (£6) proved a refreshing start.
The unadvertised star attraction was the addition of pomegranate molasses, which, if you’ve never tasted it, is like your favourite sweets without the guilt or tooth decay. Fennel, apple, coriander and more pomegranate jewels (£6.50) felt similarly clean and virtuous.
Other mezzes were less successful. Spicy salted squid (£7.50) looked mass produced, almost artificial, and tasted little better. Braised octopus, walnut and dill yoghurt (£9) came unexpectedly cold and therefore a little disconcerting as the tentacles were massive. The yoghurt didn’t help, becoming cloying after a few mouthfuls. A bit deflated, we listened to the Mediterranean guitar player in the other side of the restaurant doing a decent version of ‘Volare’ while we waited for a kebab.
The koobideh shish (£15, it’s Persian) looked like a kofte, was soft and delicately spiced and went extremely well with the accompanying mint yoghurt. Stranger than the mixed bag of influences here though, was our reaction to the saffron rice, which was something of a wonder, being long grained and lighter than air. It was truly great rice; a bit embarrassing, getting so excited about the most humble thing on the menu.
The wine list is helpfully grouped and the waitress was a total sweetheart. Del’Aziz might be the kind of place you go when you’re with a group of people and there’s disagreement about what to eat. Apart from that it left me feeling a bit like their menu—confused.
