Levant
Restaurants along London's Edgware Road tend to anchor their food firmly in Lebanese cuisine. As you get further away, that attachment loosens and the variation begins. At the far end of the scale there's Dish Dash's Persian-Med mix in Fitzrovia, but halfway between is Levant in the West End.
According to head chef Mike Smith (English, as you may have noticed) the food is firmly based on Middle Eastern and, in particular, Lebanese style, but loosened up a touch for Westernised palates: "We keep it authentic, but we also open it up."
He's not talking fusion. Of the 50 or so mezze dishes on offer, there are classics like hummus sharwarma lamb (£5.50); baba ghannuge, the grilled aubergine dip with tahini (£4.50); and sambusak, a kind of Chinese dumpling-shaped samosa filled with feta cheese and mint or spiced lamb and pine nuts (£4.75). All are good, and served with plenty of home-baked pitta.
But Smith plays around with basic building blocks, filling sambusak with tiger prawns spiced wtih chilli, coriander and lemon juice. The prawn isn't traditional, but it works as a taste. "I want to do Middle Eastern food, but anything outside that is fine as long as it's a good flavour," Smith says.
One dish, for instance, is deep-fried squid coated in ground almond served with a sumac-flavoured mayonnaise (£6.50). In case you haven't used sumac, it's a Middle Eastern berry that's dried and ground to use as a spice, and has a sharp, lemony bite. Barrel-marinated feta wrapped in vine leaves (£5.50) is another traditionally rooted variation - it's grilled and served with the classic North African combination of orange and mint.
Like most Middle Eastern restaurants, Levant gives vegetarians plenty to choose from on its menu. But with a kitchen working its way through more than 200 chickens and 50 legs of lamb a week, you can tell where the emphasis lies. Popular with groups of men, Smith says, is the kharuf meshwi (£17.50 per person) - a whole lamb roasted in the oven for 10-15 people. Twenty-four hour notice is requested. The lamb is served on a 3ft plate, surrounded by pilaf rice and finished with pine nuts and pistachios.
Lamb and chicken account for 90% of orders at Levant, but despite this there's more fish than is traditional in Lebanese cooking on the menu - including skewered scallops (£22.50), and salmon marinated in pomegranate and sumac (£13.50).
Customers can lighten up with fruit, teas, ice-creams or frozen yogurts, all made on site. And there's always a shisha pipe to round off the evening.
Amazingly, Smith had never cooked Middle Eastern food before he came to Levant, having previously concentrated on modern European at Levant's former incarnation as Oceana. Now he cooks almost everything on the grill or through the clay bread oven, and he's become so immersed in the cuisine that he's even drawn up the menus at Levant's new sibling, Levantine in Paddington.
The 90-seater was bustling when I visited, with the nine-strong brigade turning out about 100 covers for dinner during the week, rising to more than 200 on Saturdays. The only time the basement doesn't get as much footfall is at lunch. "It's not ideal going back to business meetings stinking of garlic and lemon," laughs Smith.
Levant, Jason Court, 76 Wigmore Street, London W1U 2SJ. Tel: 020 7224 1111
Chef's Cheat
When we make hummus, as well as adding lemon juice we also add a little bit of powdered citric acid dissolved in water. It gives it that added zing and helps to keep the humous white.
What's on the menu - Stuffed cracked wheat shells filled with seasoned lamb, onions and pine nuts, £5.25
- Grilled French quails seasoned with cinnamon, £7.50
- Coriander-braised octopus salad, £4.95
- Mixed meat grill, £16
- Cumin-braised neck of lamb with baby okra in tomato sauce, £13.50
- Whole marinated and grilled sea bass with parsley and tahini sauce, £18
- Mouhalabia (rose milk pudding), £6.75
