On a lovely end-of-summer's bank holiday Monday, it was surprisingly difficult to find open restaurants to visit for lunch. Luckily a walk to the Barbican centre meant a route past Exmouth Market and both Morito and Shawarma Bar were open. I'm a big fan of souvlaki, shawarma, döner and all the like. My partner less so - but with a "gourmet" and middle eastern spin, it was easy to convince.
Unlike the nights of queues, there was space on this glorious day probably because the majority of London was sleeping off the alcohol and festivals.
- Iraqi hummus with fried aubergine, amba, boiled egg £7.5 - the hummus plate was beautifully set in colours with the clear highlights being the crisp fried salty aubergine slices (sadly I wanted more than just 2) and the smooth intense chickpea flavour bursting through the hummus. The added extras were nice for balance but I suppose there so the dish could be standalone;
- Lamb shawarma plate with harissa, sumac, onion, pickles £17.5 - I have to admit the amount of lamb for the price was a bit underwhelming. But it was tender and mildly flavoured, certainly not intense as I had hoped. The salad bits and chunky thick very spicy harissa were the bases for an excellent pita sandwich;
- Cauliflower shawarma side with tahini, rose, pomegranate £5.5 - the blackened surface gave a little apprehension but even though it did have a slightly char flavour to begin with, it blended nicely with the overall roasted flavour and the tahini, parsley and sweet rose and pomegranate.
Great flavours, textures, colours and combinations. I really enjoyed this meal and hope to visit Berber & Q (and get the cookbook) soon.