Yamal Alsham

Groupon deal. Delicious but kind of annoying that we had to pay 12,5% service of original price. Not hospitable as we would have given a tip anyhow but to force it upon us was kind of rude.

We had 24 hours in London so of course we went to the Christmas Market. On the way we passed the Yamal Alsham Restaurant. My traveling companion and I both mentioned it looked like a nice place to go, but we figured we would get some good street food at the Market. Well nothing seemed appealing as most were pork based or fried so we decided to try Yamal Alsham. We walked over 3 miles trying to find it again since we didn’t make note of the name earlier. By the time we found it we were famished. We were pleasantly greeted and asked if we had reservations (note to self for next time… make reservations). They found us a table and sat us quickly. The atmosphere is nice, would make a great place for a date, nice décor all around. When I asked for the Ladies’ Room, I was informed that both bathrooms were inoperative and they had talked about closing for the day because of it. Hopefully that gets fixed soon. On to the food. The menu is pretty extensive, we had a hard time deciding and almost went with the Price Fixe £35 per person option but decided that would be way too much food. So we opted on sharing Hummus, Fattoush Salad, Samousas with Lamb, Rice, and Chicken Kabobs. We had a nice House Red Wine to start and were given olives, and a bowl of fresh veggies. There was a small misunderstanding on our order, the server thought we ordered chicken soup not kabobs, but it was quickly rectified. I can’t say enough about the food. Everything was fresh and delicious. We almost needed a third person to share it all. We were served a small tasting of assorted baklava at the end that were… well they were like heaven on a plate. Fresh, buttery, not too sweet. The perfect ending to a great meal. I would not hesitate to come back on my next trip to London.

I went with a groupon as usual. The deal highlighted a Lebanese experience in Knightsbridge with wine.
I like eating new things so I decided to test it.
Restaurant was empty at the time we arrived, 12 on a Saturday.
When we entered, we got a nice feeling, very cozy restaurant, well refined in terms of interior.
The guys where waiting for us as a booking was requited, so nothing strange we received our meal almost quickly.
However, although I cannot claim to be a Lebanese expert, having been on similar restaurant before can only lead me to a poor comment.
Don’t get me wrong, apart from the green beans in a tomato sauce the rest of the stuff was nice but not so much labanese-​ish. Just an ordinary set of meze for two.
Restaurant who use grupoun to promote themselves should understand they are investing in their future trying to attract new customers. I appreciate they barely make profit in such a circumstance, but they should think about the long term strategy and that’s not what this restaurant has done IMHO.
They served what looked like oven bites which was definitely pre-​heated, not fresh The 3 items I recognised as Lebanese was the hummus, the rice with lentils and the lentil soup as a starter.
As we were in three, one of us went for a la carte mixed grill too. So I cannot entirely blame the responsibility on the voucher. Well, for a £17 dish you normally expect a decent amount of meat, whereas the predominant element was chips, with yes some roasted stuff not well presented and hidden by the bread.
As for the service, although I cannot say this was bad, the waiter was not really professional by bringing the main without leaving the soup cups beforehand and letting then behind when in the middle of the service he rushed to the phone to pick a call.
A final note about the toilets and the kitchen, which are probably not of any interest for the most people reading this, but I felt this important.
It’s not tolerable finding the kitchen door open with guests being able to snoop into it. Especially when you leave the toilet, which requires a bit of maintenance and regular cleaning (I found empty bottle in the pavement, probably from the night before?).
Final bill came with a surprise too. We’ve been included something into the bill which I wasn’t sure it was the extra bread we never asked or the third lentil soup not included in the voucher. We’ve also asked to pay a cover charge on top of what we already paid.
So overall, although the portion was adequate for what we paid, I don’t feel like I had a real Lebanese experience.

From the welcome at the front door to the attentive service with a smile, you’re treated like royalty here throughout.
My friend and I had a 10 course taster menu so that way managed to really get a good idea of the quality of food — and quality it was! Things included were: cheese pastries, lamb pastries, salads, humous, falafel, small spicy flatbreads. All of it was scrumptious and generally the mezze style really worked.
Had to try a cocktail of course… the watermelon martini impressed!