Elite Eatery: A Culinary Adventure at Le Menar!

On entering Le Menar, it has a real Middle Eastern feel to it, with low seating and the tables of brass trays. When it came to the menu though, we were treated to a fusion of Middle Eastern food with a Sicilian/​Italian fusion.
To start off, we were given a spicy Butternut soup, with green harissa and amaranth. It was served in a shot glass. It was really tasty, with a bit of a kick to it. Next up was Za’atar burrata with sumac datterino and baby basil. It was very good, although there was too much cheese for me. The watermelon and rosewater granite that followed was great at cleansing the palate.
We had a break before the main course, with the chef coming out to talk to us about his fusion of Italian and Middle Eastern cuisine through his work all over the world, including Sicily. He also talked about the main course, which he said took 13 hours to cook. We were in for a treat. The Ras el Hanout Beef cheek tajine. It was great. The meat just fell apart, it was so tender. If was accompanied by Cumin chantanay carrots, chick peas and agen prunes. The flavour of the prunes mixed with the beef, was a real winner for me.
For desert, we were given a Saffron and pistachio crème brulee. It was enjoyable, but the pistachios did not quite work for me.
This place has plenty of promise, and I would definitely come back.

It has taken me a week to get round to reviewing this event, perhaps because I’ve only just managed to digest the very generous amount of food they plied us with!
True to the Unilocal promise, this event showed us somewhere that I know I’ve walked straight past before and to be honest, would probably never have chosen to try myself. To categorise this place as Middle Eastern or North African actually does it something of a disservice, as the food was much more exciting than any of those labels. This was best exemplified by Chef Vernon who came out to chat to us about what he’s been trying to do with the menu revamp, and had our mouths watering with some of his flavour ideas and descriptions.
It made a nice change to have a sit-​down foodie event and get to chat to all the lovely nearby Unilocalers properly — I was lucky enough to have a fun mix of old pros, newbies and some I’d only met ‘virtually’ before sitting around me. Cue plenty of laughter, wine and studious photo-​uploading of every course :)
Our menu print-​outs triggered more questions than answers — how much of each course are they going to give us? What do they mean by an interlude? Who’s Sumac when he’s at home?! (props to the guy at my table who actually knew that one). Suffice to say it heightened the anticipation and the food didn’t disappoint.
My bouche was indeed amused by the soup, though it was a little tricky to get it all out of the shot glass without doing something very ungraceful with one’s tongue. The za’atar burrata was quite simply the best burrata I’ve ever tasted — perfectly matched with the surrounding tastes, oh so creamy and a very generous portion. Rosewater I love, so the granita was the perfect palate cleanser for me. Then just when I’d assumed it’d be downhill from the burrata, they cooked-​for-​13-​hours beef cheek tagine-​ed us. This meat was so tender that nobody needed to use their knife, and again a very sizeable portion per person. The veggie option also drew gasps being impressively assembled in a filo basket.
A healthy amount of crème brulee later and we were all slipping into food comas, with all of us on the upper balcony actually having to lie back on the cushions to recover! The staff of course responded by bringing out yet more treats — a tower of baklava and some mint tea. Even though I was stuffed (and very warm upstairs!) we somehow managed to find room to dig in.
I was surprised to see how late it was afterwards — they must’ve brought the courses out pretty slowly though the time didn’t drag. My only complaint is that the traditional low stool seating I ended up sitting on was really not suited for a 4-​hour meal, as my annoyingly long legs wouldn’t fit under the beautiful table, and nor could I gracefully straddle the stool as Andy next to me managed to pull off! It was all the more lovely to flop onto the cushions at the end though (and I could’ve moved to a proper chair downstairs if I’d really wanted to I suppose).
Thanks to the venue for hosting us so generously (and exclusively too!), and to Alex and Unilocal for making sure this culinary adventure lived up to its name!

Holy heaven. La Menar was absolutely delicious and I have had dreams about the buratta every night since. As ashamed as I am for eating an entire ball of cheese it was well worth it. Everything about La Menar was superb, great company, conversation and delicious fresh yet interesting food. Each dish was as exciting as the one before and you could tell the chef put a lot of love into his menu. I went with the vegetarian option which was presented beautifully and even though I was stuffed from the previous dishes, I managed to eat my way through. Another favorite of mine was the Crème Brûlée at the end, it was perfect and I could have eaten 5 more.
When the chef came out and spoke to us you could tell how passionate he was about the restaurant and the menu. I loved hearing about how he thought out every dish. I would definitely come back to La Menar and hope to soon!

I did not know what to expect from being a +1 but I was delighted to be invited as it was an enjoyable evening at this somewhat hidden Fitzrovia restaurant.
Upon arrival I was greeted by my friend and Alex. Once labelled with my name and having a few baklava treats, I was sat down in the warm and well decorated Le Menar with Elite Unilocalers, +1s and a glass of wine.
I scanned the menu and got kind of confused as I was expecting a traditional Middle Eastern menu as what the restaurant name, décor, baklava had made me believe but there was granita and burrata which screamed Italian. Only after chef Vernon came out to give us a little history about him and the restaurant it was revealed it was a Middle Eastern and Italian/​Sicilian fusion. Wow!
The food was great, well-​seasoned and could not be faulted. My personal favourite was the Ox Cheek and you can tell that a lot of time and effort had been spent making this dish. My only disappointment was the brûlée it was slightly lumpy and the caramel was not hard as it should have been. However, one little mistake will not dampen the whole experience as it was great. A definite must for all who like to try something a little different.

What a treat!
This was the first Unilocal event I’ve been able to make this year, and I had invited a friend new to London and new to Unilocal too, and what an event it was.
The dishes were well presented and absolutely delicious.
I love, love, loved the mozzarella dish. It was creamy and had such a nice delicate flavour, complimented by the tangy tomatoes and beautiful basil.
The beef cheek tagine was amazing. I haven’t had that cut of meat before and was really surprised at how incredible it was. I loved hearing from the chef about his passion for using different cuts and making them tasty for his diners. He certainly didn’t disappoint on this dish.
The pistachio and saffron crème brûlée was a lovely way to finish off the meal, though too much for me to eat after the other filling dishes.
The restaurant was really cute, beautifully decorated, though extremely hot by the end of the night!
Thank you so much for treating us to great food. The hospitality was fantastic and I’d be excited to eat here again.

What an amazing event! Le Menar and Alex really spoiled us :)
Le Menar is such a fun space — I was loving the vibe! Perfect place for both a group of friends or for date night.
As we settled into our comfortable two top, the servers brought out the first course — a butternut squash soup served in a shot glass. Cute presentation and the soup wasn’t overly sweet so it was a great way to start the meal.
The next course is what will have me definitely coming back to Le Menar. Burrata but not just any burrata. Some of the creamiest that I’ve been lucky enough to try and it went perfectly with the North African/​Mediterranean flavors. Usually not a fan of fusion cuisine but this was so nicely executed. I’m dreaming about this Burrata and need to come back for more!
We were then served a refreshing granita before our main course — beef cheek tajine. The chef came out and was chatting with us and let us know he cooks the cheek for 13 hours. You could definitely tell! The meat was so tender. Our only critique would be that we felt it was under seasoned but we recognize that we are probably in the minority as all those around us were absolutely in love with this dish. I think Adam and I need to reduce our salt intake :)
Lastly, we were served a pistachio crème brûlée that we both really enjoyed. Not too sweet and had that lovely thick sugar crust — yum!
Such a great night of food and meeting new friends! Can’t wait for the next event/​my next trip to Le Menar for that burrata

I was so thrilled to be a part of tonight’s event and as always, had a fantastic night meeting new Unilocalers! Not only did we sample some amazing dishes, we got to interact with the chef himself. It was fascinating speaking to him about how his experience and influences helped to shape his progressive dishes. I had to speak to him after I tried the burrata spiced ever so delicately with a fusion of flavours.
The beef cheek tagine was the highlight of the night. We could taste the 13hours of love chef put into preparing this cut of beef! The meat was so tender, you didn’t require anything other than your fork.
The night rounded out with a pistachio crème brûlée which was surprising in texture but it definitely grew on me.
It’s definitely worth the trek to Fitzrovia to try Le Menar again. I hope many others do the same as the food is so good, this gem has to be shared!
Thanks again to Alex and the other Unilocalers for making this another fantastic event.

I hadn’t been to a Unilocal event in forever, so it was such a surprise to find out that I got into Elite Eatery at Le Menar! The chef came out and chatted to us at the end of the meal, and he said that the restaurant had opened late last year, experienced with a few things, and then relaunched in January. The place started with a street food type of serving, then did some shwarma, but has since moved on from both of those and seems to me like fine dining. As for the venue, we sat on the ground floor near the door, which is a heavy metal door that is difficult to shut, at a row of small round tables along a cushion bench. I sat on the cushion bench, and to be honest, it’s not very comfortable. The cushions are the large, cumbersome ones that seem to only be for decorative uses, and I kept sinking into the cushions until I was at an awkward height vs. the table. There was a TV on the wall across from me, which kept showing pictures of the restaurant and the food. I thought that was a bit tacky, more typical of an Indian place on Brick Lane than of anywhere aspiring to fine dining. There is an upstairs section as well, and the whole venue probably fits in total around 50 people.
We got a tasting menu, which included an amuse bouche of squash purée, an entire burrata per person, an ox cheek tagine for the main, and saffron and pistachio crème brulee for dessert. There was also a free glass of red or white wine. I thought the squash purée (served hot) was very nice, but would have been easier to eat with a small spoon (not provided) because it was rather thick. The burrata was amazing… I am a big cheese fan, and normally we get a burrata for the table as a starter, served with bread. However, in this instance, it was accompanied by a few garnish leaves and a plentiful helping of tomatoes and olive oil, but that was it. It was tough to finish, but I did it. Some fellow diners had never experienced burrata before, and it wasn’t for everyone. The only thing is that I never thought of it as Middle Eastern, as it’s a pretty classic Italian dish. Oh well. And for the ox cheek… it was literally perfect. It was an enormous serving, and to me didn’t seem like a tagine but was just a braised, melt-​in-​your-​mouth type of meat. It came with carrots and prunes, which also were popping with flavour. I would highly recommend this dish.
Unfortunately I didn’t stay for dessert, as the meal ran quite late. For some reason, we didn’t begin serving food until after 7:15 PM, 45 minutes after the scheduled start time, and when I left we were already 2.5 hours in and it was 9 PM. But thank you Le Menar for a lovely dinner and for reinventing what I consider Middle Eastern cuisine! I will definitely keep you in mind when I am dining in the area in the future!

Oooh I love it when Unilocal spoils us this much! I really enjoyed this event as it was really nice to make friends (and have time to really speak to) so many lovely new Unilocalers!
The food:
— Butternut squash soup — this was lovely, although it was strange to have hot soup in shot glass!
— Burrata — Mmmm the creamy cheese went beautifully with the tomatoes and sumac flavours.
— Watermelon and rosewater granita — this would even work as a desert! I loved the balance between the rosewater and watermelon flavours… mine disappeared really fast!
— Beef cheek tajine — You could tell they cook this tajine for a long time (13 hours for the beef!) it was tender and flavourful. YUM!
— Saffron and pistachio crème brulee –this one was just a bit too sugary for me… the texture was a bit grainy from the excess sugar. Having said that I loved the flavour of the saffron and pistachio.
— Mint tea with baklava — I thought I was too full to move… but somehow I managed to eat two baklava as well. They were perfect!
The chef was really sweet and came up to speak to us and ask what we thought several times. You can tell that he is really passionate about his food… he has so many delicious sounding ideas.
The only bad thing I can think of was we were all soooo hot at the end of the night! The upstairs section must be scorching in summer!
I’ve already told my husband that we need to go back here — so THANK YOU ALEX for introducing us to this gem!
p. s. Drunken Josy somehow checked in here twice! I didn’t even know that was possible?! Oops!

What a great adventure!!!
So many meals to try and such an adventure of flavours.
For me, it all started with the Butternut squash soup, in a shot glass! And it was very hot. A nice twist.
The Watermelon and rosewater granita was extremely different to what I’m use to. Though it worked really well two the extreme flavours
And the Beef Tajine. Wow! Amazing. It just feel off your fork. I’m now actually getting hungry again thinking about it ;-) We were later told it was cooked for 13 hours and you could really tell!
The crème brulee was great way to finish the evening… and who puts pistachio in such a desserts? It’s absolutely brilliant!
A great evening to start April, so thank you to everyone making it possible :-)

Was so lucky to be my good friends +1 for this great Unilocal event. Spoiled indeed.
Le Menar is hidden in the heart of Fitzrovia, beautiful middle eastern styled interiors and multi level. We were sat in the loft.
We started with a butternut squash soup that was served in a shot glass. The soup was delicious, and a cool take on an amuse bouche, however the glass became quite hot from the soup so I needed to pick it up with a napkin. Next up we had burrata. Let me rephrase that, life changing burrata. It was amazing. The cheese was so creamy and the basil, tomatoes, and sumac melded perfectly. One of the best I have ever had. Following the starter we were served a rose water and mint granita. It was the perfect palate cleanser, not being a big dessert person, I would have happily had that in a larger portion to end a meal. The main was a very tender beef cheek tangine, there was no need for a knife, fell right off and just about melted in your mouth. And for dessert was a pistachio crème brûlée which passed the spoon test (give it a whack and see if it makes a good crack noise), very nice.
Following the meal there was a tea service and baklava. I did have to pass on the hot tea as the loft where we were sat was really really warm. It was a cool night and still made you a bit uncomfortable and could not imagine hot drinks.
The staff we all very professional and friendly. When the chef came up to talk to us about the food you could tell just how passionate he was about food and you could taste that passion in everything. Every flavour had purpose and was really a nice take on old classics. It was a pleasure to listen to him talk about his food and the pride he takes.
Am looking forward to going back and trying what else Le Menar has to offer.