We are constantly on the quest to find fun, inexpensive and frankly brilliant date venues for Lovestrukkers and Yalla Yalla has a perfect combination of great food, a relaxed and buzzy atmosphere and a wallet-friendly bill at the end. Hurrah!
Serving Middle Eastern and Lebanese cuisines, it is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner and there are branches in all the right areas – one in the heart of Soho, one just north of Oxford Street near TopShop and they also have a pop-up restaurant on Shoreditch High Street.
The self-styled “Beirut Street food” ethos has been winning Londoners over for years (and long before the rise in popularity of street food), so it’s no surprise how successful Yalla Yalla has become since it first launched in London in 2008.
All customers receive a complementary basket of pitta bread and pickles and we think a great date option is to pick a few of the tantalizingly good mezze on offer and share between you. Try the fantastically smooth and authentic hummus, spicy baba ghannouj and the well-seasoned falafel. We also recommend the makale samak, which is deep-fried calamari, white bait and tiger prawns with spring onions, crispy aubergine and a chilli minted Greek yogurt dip; the soujoc, which are homemade spicy Lebanese sausages cooked in tomatoes, parsley and lemon juice; and the samboussek jibne -pasty parcels filled with feta and halloumi cheese and fresh mint.
If sharing isn’t your forte, then grab a couple of mezze to start and choose from one of the larger dishes, served with vermicelli basmati rice. Favourites include the lahem meshoue – charcoal grilled lamb skewer with grilled tomato, sumac, red onion, red pepper and parsley salad and chicken or lakoz meshoue, which is charcoal grilled seabass fillet with citrus-scented rice and spicy tomato and coriander sauce. Round your meal off with a traditional Lebanese dessert, such as mohalabiya, which is Damascus fragrant milk pudding topped with fresh pomegranate seeds and syrup or osmalliah – crispy-based vemicilli topped with orange blossom clotted cream, rose petal jam and roasted pistachio. It also has an extensive, largely Lebanese wine and cocktails list for drinks.
If you’re heading there for lunch, there are platters of mixed mezze served between 12noon and 5pm and sweet pastries also on offer. Oh and there is shisha, obviously. Best of all, the price tag – for lunch you are looking at less than £10 per head, while for dinner, you can expect to get filled right to the brim for under £20. Perfect!
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