Review of 'Maison Bab'

Having very much enjoyed our trip to Le Bab we very much looked forward to visiting their sister restaurant “Maison Bab”. Thankfully, we were not disappointed though service was a bit spotty in this small and busy restaurant close to Covent Garden in Seven Dials.

Located off of Mercer Street in Seven Dials on the corner of Mercer Walk with it's large glass windows it is much easier to find than Le Bab. Our party of five were given a table in the corner. The interior is clean, modern and quite noisy. We had trouble making ourselves heard and I can't think this is a place you would want to linger over food though perhaps if you are here for drink and like the buzz?

Inside

The simple food menu is divided into “Starters & Snacks”, “Kebabs”, “Sandwiches”, “Sides” and “Saucy Naans”. We began with a few starters: The “Maison Hummus” (small £4.5 large £8) was “a garden pea and butter bean hummus topped with a green chilli relish”, in other words, not your normal hummus but quite good particularly with extra bread (£1) we requested to supplant the 4 fingers supplied with the dish. Very fresh. The “Doner Beignet” (£2) “crispy-fried lamb ball with the classic condiments of doner kebab: chilli (Maison chilli sauce) & garlic (homemade toum)” was good but quite small, don't let the £2 fool you, this is per smaller-than-golf-ball-sized beignet. Very delicious with the accompanying sauce.

I decided on the “15-Hour Pork Shawarma” (£10.5), “our shawarma is lovingly stacked in-house from free range pork. It's slow cooked for 15 hours, charcoal grilled to caramelise & smoke, wrapped with pickled cucumber & chermoula mayo” which was very tasty indeed with delicious, juicy pork, thin slices of sweet pickle, and the wonderful mayo. Beautifully presented, it was tricky to eat - Deciding against the knife and fork as being too tricky, wrapping it up and holding it ended up with juice dripping copiously on my plate (though I managed to sop up the juices later). The wrap was perfectly cooked and just the right thickness to not clog up the dish.

Kebab

My companion's “Lamb Adama” (£10.50) and “Chicken Shish” (£9.50) were all reported to be quite tasty and equally messy to eat. On the side we had a “Heritage Tomato Salad” (£5.5 small £10 large) “with coconut, dill and roasted tomato dressing” was surprisingly tasty with the tomatoes, unlike most in this country, full of flavour.

Tomato Salad

A few orders of “Double cooked fries” (£4) were a bit hit or miss. Some were delivered to the table cold and limp while another other was just out of the frier. The provided chilli sauce was a bit tasteless but had a nice kick to it.

Fries

A recommendation of our server was the “Meat Butter” naan (£5) which was very tasty indeed with a great yeasty flavour which was not overpowered by lashes of butter…

Meat Butter Naan

The dishes arrived pretty quickly after ordering but it was ordering that was the problem as it was often difficult to get the attention of the staff as they looked up so seldom in our direction as they dashed about the place, full on a Monday evening. They were quite pleasant when we actually were able to talk to them but it was difficult to hear what they were saying in the noisy interior - Indeed, we had trouble even hearing those sitting next to us.

The basement proved a bit of a surprise with false store fronts in the walls for both “Kebab Queen” and “Maison Bab”, it is this space that is used for the “Kebab Queen” tasting menu (£60 for 6 courses plus £45 for accompanying drinks – surely the creme de la creme of kebab experiences…).

Kebab Queen

Really good food at a reasonable price though you will want to probably at least have a starter and one side so count on at least £22 with a drink each (our bill came to £148 including a 12.5% service charge, for five people including both alcoholic, and non-alcoholic drinks as well as a number of sides…). Not really a place to linger but a nice meal in the heart of the theatre district.

Rating: “Nearly perfect, but not quite”

Review Date: 2019-07-01


Cuisine: Mediterranean

Address: 4 Mercer Walk, Covent Garden, London WC2H 9FA ENGLAND

Public Transport: TUBE Covent Garden

Location: London (England) - Covent Garden

Map:

 

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Telephone: +44 (0)20 7240 9781

URL: https://www.maisonbab.com/