Yalla Yalla - and then there were three

If you've travelled through King's Cross recently, you'll see that a big redevelopment of the station is coming to fruition. Lots of new shops and food places are opening about now (including Hotel Chocolat, who were excitingly handing out free samples as I passed through there last week).

Also opening is the third branch of Yalla Yalla, a hip cafe/ restaurant serving Lebanese street food. You may already be familiar with it. Now I can't claim to have eaten at the new King's Cross branch, which doesn't open for a day or two, but I was at the Winsley Street branch, just off Oxford Street, this week, and I imagine the food will be much the same.

If you haven't had Lebanese before, you will probably still find some familiar items which crop up around the Med and North Africa - humous and falafel, halloumi, vine leaves and kebabs, for example. And there are more distinctive dishes like fattoush (a summery salad flavoured with sumac) or mince-filled pastries flavoured with pomegranate molasses.

At lunchtime Yalla Yalla's wraps sell like proverbial hot cakes. There is also a menu of mezze and main courses (these latter are mostly grilled lamb, chicken or fish dishes).

As I love to try as many things as possible, we shared a selection of mezze. These included some unusually light falafel, which were made with broad beans as well as chick peas. My friend declared them the best falafel she had ever eaten. The garlic yoghurt served with it was a nice touch, too. There was baba ghanoush, a dip made with charcoal-grilled aubergines that at its best is addictively smoky, as this one was. Batata harra, fried cubes of potato with red pepper, chilli and spices, struck me as a drier cousin of the Spanish tapas dish patatas bravas (notice how the word for potato clearly comes from the same root in all three languages). The spicing was well-judged, moderate rather than overwhelming. We also had some humous and some pastries stuffed with cheese and mint, which were also pleasing. But I think my favourite was the muhammara, a dip of ground mixed nuts with olive oil. It was unlike anything I had ever had before - a bit drier and coarser in texture than peanut butter, with richness and flavour from the nuts and spices.

The mezze came with free pitta breads and pickles (for me some pickled cucumbers and olives always gets a meal off to a good start). I liked the round, slightly thicker than average pitta breads, and wondered if they were home-made.

There is a reasonable wine selection, and a few cocktails, but I was tempted by the home-made lemonade, which comes in several regularly changing flavours. I had pineapple and mint, which was delicious, and made me regret that so few places put any effort into their soft drinks selection.

We rounded off with some mint tea, which comes in rather lovely copper teapots. My friend had the alcoholic variation with the Lebanese spirit arak. To me it tasted overpoweringly of aniseed, but then I am not an aniseed fan anyway.

The original branch on Green's Court in Soho has a slightly shorter menu and is tiny, so I would recommend Winsley Street if you want to be sure of getting a seat.

Yalla Yalla has a reputation for low prices. I thought they were good but not outstanding - we paid £37 for mezze for two, tea (one with arak, without), glass of wine and lemonade. But in this part of town you can do a lot worse. And the food is well worth trying. 

Yalla Yalla
www.yalla-yalla.co.uk

1 Greens Court London W1F OHA
12 Winsley Street W1W 8HQ
King's Cross station Euston Street London N1 9AL