If a restaurant should be judged by anything, it isn’t the food, the location or the price, but the quality of service. You could be served the finest dishes imaginable on the boulevard of your dreams, at negligible prices, and the whole experience would be negligible if it was done badly or rudely.
It’s a rare thing to turn up a restaurant and be charmed from beginning to end by your waiter, but in the case of the ultra-hospitable, endlessly warm and very friendly José, the twinkly-eyed star of Delamina’s Marylebone outpost, he made the whole experience a profoundly memorable and hugely enjoyable one.
Not, of course, that Delamina is any slouch in superbly accomplished professionalism in any case. Situated at the Bond Street end of Marylebone Lane, it’s the brainchild of a husband and wife, Limor and Amir, who wanted to offer patrons a fusion of Middle Eastern and Tel Aviv cooking, with emphasis on healthy, seasonal ingredients, served in unusual and innovative ways.
At a time when – for unfortunate but understandable reasons – large parts of the Middle East are unavailable to even the most intrepid of culinary travellers, Delamina offers wonderfully cooked and beautifully presented dishes at more than reasonable prices for the quality of what you can eat here.
Obviously, you start off with a cocktail, and the selection here is both unusual and highly satisfying; a Rosemary Mule is the perfect, refreshing way to kick off a meal that challenges and surprises but never disappoints, especially accompanied by the hummus and pita of your dreams.
The menu is neatly divided up into ‘vegetables’ and ‘meat and fish’, which in practice means that you could either have an all-vegetarian, even vegan feast by lingering in the top half of the offering, or alternatively segue from the one as starters to the other as mains. Whatever you choose, you’re not going to be disappointed.
Indeed, heretically for a committed carnivore, I found myself wondering if the vegetable dishes here were actually more successful and enjoyable than the (excellent) meat and fish options. Crispy oyster mushrooms with truffled artichoke mousse are some of the nicest things I’ve eaten all year, but they might be trumped by the exemplary courgette, which is not a phrase I can ever have imagined writing. Served two ways and festooned with labneh and other good things, with the whole shebang accompanied by a very fine Lebanese Bekaa white wine, I began to think, for the first time, that there might be something in this vegetarian lark after all.
It wasn’t entirely dispelled by the main courses, although they were very good indeed. I was tempted by the lamb Baharat on the grill, but José knew best and steered us towards the exceptionally fine beef shawarma – imagine the kebab shop special of your dreams, then made a hundred times better, thanks to the judicious addition of dates and pine kernels, to say nothing of some well-placed tahini – and an equally superb seabass served with shoestring fries, those unsung heroes of the chip family, and herby yoghurt. (If you don’t like yoghurt in all its many forms, incidentally, Delamina may not be for you, but then there is no hope for you, either.) A wine was asked for, and recommended, in the form of a fine Nero d’Avola, which was both inexpensive and hugely drinkable.
Desserts were, to be honest, something of an afterthought, given how replete we were by this stage. I enjoyed the chocolate and praline ganache, but José’s recommendation of the parfait of halva and roasted almonds was a little too heavy on the peanut butter-esque flavours for me, so the (excellent) espresso martinis that rounded the meal off were the true conclusion of a fine dinner.
Delamina has, stealthily, become one of London’s best places to experience true Middle Eastern cuisine, and with the imminent arrival of a third restaurant in Covent Garden (opening on November 1st), this shows every sign of blossoming into a mini-group of sorts. To which all I can say, happily, is bring it on.
