Massis

Inexpensive oasis for lovely lunch. I only tried one item: fattoush salad topped with lamb, which was roasted to succulent, juicy perfection. This dish was wonderful enough to make me bookmark the place and plan to return next time I’m in the neighborhood. Only reason my review is 4 stars instead of 5 is that I can’t rate a place as perfect after trying just one dish. Definitely worth a visit. Nice sidewalk seating for those rare days when London weather is inviting enough.

Now in my master plan for my friend Jo’s birthday, I thought that a great idea would be Middle Eastern food. Exciting, love the chickpea! Jo was also onboard so perfect. We wandered to St Christopher’s Place and found Massis, a small and simple looking restaurant. Initial plans for another place fell through so we got seated here and decided to sample some of their mezze.
The place looks like a fast food takeaway inside where the owners have decided to throw in some chairs & tables squashed together. In order to seat us they had to pull out the table so we could get to the chairs. Of course this meant that muggins here was stuck between the table and the wall, let’s just say getting out to the toilet proved an interesting challenge. Haven’t done a climb like that since I was little running round adventure play areas, but why not make life more interesting!
The food was yummy, £4-£6 for a variety of mezze. We decided on standard middle eastern fare — hummous, falafel, spicy lamb sausages, pastries stuffed with lamb and pine kernels and halloumi. All were brought quickly to the table and tasted delicious, washed down with a decent bottle of white wine.
If you don’t love hsaring food, don’t come here. But for the price it was a great choice and would definitely return.

I ended up here when I was shopping and really wanted something a bit different from the usual cop out option of just grabbing something in Pret a Manger. It was pretty quiet and I was only nipping in for a quick lunch, so I didn’t experience any of the bad service that other people have commented on.
However, the food was nothing special, really. I had a lamb salad and there wasn’t much to define it as particularly Lebanese. I felt quite disappointed, because I like Lebanese food, and the meal I had I could have easily ordered from an alright-​ish kebab shop… and at a much cheaper price as well!
The fresh apple juice was nice, though. And they have a lot of toilet paper. I don’t know if they’re trying to create some kind of modern pop art installation in their loos, or just preparing for apocalypse, but at least your mediocre dining experience won’t be further marred by a bad toilet situation.

Had dinner for 4 here. Two of their sharing platters, some extra felafel, a little bit of yogurt dip and kibbeh kras. Excellent meal in a nice neighborhood with tons of street seating on a nice day. Quite a tiny place, so I imagine when the weather turns for the worse and you need to eat inside it will likely be packed. Service was good, bringing extra bread and felafel with no questions asked and in a timely manner.

The food was wonderful, the service was not. In fact, I found the staff to be so flippant and frankly rude that I won’t be going back. Plenty of other good Middle Eastern restaurants around, where the staff actually care about their customers.

So we are tired after a long day of sightseeing and looking for a place to have a good meal. We came upon Massis on James Street on a brisk but not super busy night. All the outside seating was taken so we sat inside. Literally no one came back to us, not even to bring water (well over 10 min). Finally I got up and asked the staff if anyone was planning to take our order. One of the staff came to take the order and in a very short turnaround we had our very mediocre food. Almost every dish was dried out, and the lamb especially disgusting. We were both so disgusted with the bad treatment that we asked for our bill and paid and left. We stayed simply out of fatigue. I would like to say it was us, but on our way out, a family of Middle Eastern people asked the same waiter if he could add a chair to their table and he simply said no and told them they could go some place else. I would never recommend this place to anyone. Both the food and the service sucked.

Take a few steps along James Street off the busy and noisy Oxford Street and you come to this quaint joint, Massis. Small place with a limited eating inside for about 15 people. But they have outside seating. Its better to sit outside.
They have a good variety on their menu including classics like falafel and hummus. I think their chicken Shawarma is outstanding. Also try their apple juice which is freshly made. And don’t forget to end your visit with the Baklawa.
After a sumptuous meal for under 10 Pounds you are ready to get back into the hustle bustle of Oxford Street.