Persepolis

Persepolis

http://www.foratasteofpersia.co.uk

Reviews and related sites

Persepolis: Peckham's diamond in the rough - Restaurant Review ...

Review analysis
food   menu   ambience  

With its neon-lit windows set against a particularly worn-down corner of Peckham High Street, Persepolis is mildly reminiscent of Brendan Gleeson’s fairy-light bedecked zombie hideout in 28 Days Later.

Persepolis’s focus is firmly Persian, and its menu boasts an impressive array of dishes ranging from mezze platters to hotpots; it also includes an exotic list of smoothies, juices, teas and desserts.

Given that its menu is comprised of some more costly imports, one of the things I found most impressive about Persepolis is its modest pricing.

Persepolis is, first and foremost, a Persian corner shop, and the restaurant feels as though it is something of an afterthought.

This is in no way a bad thing, and the casual love with which the food is prepared and presented is a welcome rarity within London’s increasingly detached eating culture.

The Cafe – Persepolis

Review analysis
food  

It’s not actually going to have Costa looking over its shoulder: we only have nine and a half tables, and you’ll probably notice that the food drone is the same as the till drone and the sweet drone.

The idea is that it gets really really busy, and then we install more tables, and then we buy a new food drone, and then we extend into the basement/garage/Job Centre next door.

Whilst we are always happy to see hungry passers-by, we do take reservations, and if you want to come along of a weekend or in the evening, it is a good idea to phone first so we can hold a table for you.

This is a good thing for several reasons.

Here's some nice things the press have said about us: People are very kind.... Time Out | Evening Standard | Marina O'Loughlin in The Guardian

Café Love: Persepolis | Blog | London Review Bookshop

Review analysis
food  

If she’s not behind the till she’ll be behind the kitchen counter at the back, cooking up beautiful vegetarian dishes which are both distinctly Persian and have that instant, soothing familiarity of the best comfort food.

Warm soups thick with pulses and pasta, scrambled eggs sweetened with dates and spices, and the most incredible selection of ice cream and pastries (‘they’ve all got nuts and fruit in so they’re health foods already’, the menu prompts).

The recipes are accessible, turn out beautifully, and are interlaced with stories from her life, fragments of food history and advice on food as medicine.

We’ve been making recipes inspired by her books at the Cake Shop over the last few weeks: spiced rice with saffron yogurt, pomegranate and halloumi baguettes, bulgar wheat salads.

Her books, like her shop, contain a little bit of everything as well: humour, knowledge and good food.

Persepolis - restaurant review | London Evening Standard

Review analysis
food   ambience   desserts   drinks  

From the outside it looks like a corner shop but among the tins and spices there are now tables and chairs where owner Sally Butcher and her Iranian husband Jamshid are branching out with a little restaurant.

Turkish and Lebanese food are well represented in London’s Middle Eastern food scene but Persian restaurants are more difficult to find so this is a welcome addition.

We feasted on lovely things including a subtly spiced bean dip, a deep crimson harissa pepper tapenade, sweet potato kibbeh and, in a rogue nod to Peckham, a single Cheeto crisp on top of yoghurt.

Baked sweet potato with home-made beans, halloumi and baby lettuce sounds simple but was exceptional — the sort of home cooking you would expect if you were lucky enough to live with a top chef.

A three-course meal for two with soft drinks and service, about £25 (BYO encouraged) Latest restaurant reviews Latest restaurant reviews 1/128 Sackville's 2/128 Paradise Garage 3/128 Asma Khan's Darjeeling Express Daniel Hambury/Stella Pictures 4/128 The Trading House 5/128 Le Chabanais Daniel Hambury/Stella Pictures Ltd 6/128 Aqua Nueva 7/128 Les Deux Salons Adrian Lourie 8/128 Vintage Salt 9/128 The White Onion ★★★ Adrian Lourie 10/128 Chutney Mary 11/128 Social Wine Tapas ★★★★ 12/128 Berber Q 13/128 The Ivy ★★★★★ Paul Winch-Furness 14/128 Fu Manchu 15/128 José Pizarro ★★★ Daniel Hambury 16/128 Taberna Do Mercado ★★★★ Matt Writtle 17/128 Chick ’n’ Sours 18/128 Wolfe ★★★ 19/128 Craft London ★★★★ 20/128 Queenswood ★★ 21/128 Grain Store Unleashed 22/128 Duck Rice, W1 ★★ 23/128 Percy Founders, W1 24/128 Kitty Fisher's, W1 Alex Maguire 25/128 Shikumen, E1 ★★★★

Snackistan, London SE15: 'How could I resist?' – restaurant review ...

Review analysis
food   drinks   staff  

The juice bar that imports its Med-influenced food from the super-hot restaurant next door?

Presentation is hilarious: a “small” meze plate, a steal at four quid, is laden with muhammarah (a luscious, spiced walnut dip), falafel, salad shirazi (with cucumber, tomato and mint), nutty tabbouleh scented with, I think, orange-flower water, thick yoghurt spiked with spinach and topped with dried rose petals, homemade hummus dusted with sumac, wizened little black olives and sharp pickles (“Iranians will pickle anything”), plus warm bread.

She seems to be able to turn the humblest ingredient into something sparky and vivacious: florets of broccoli and cauliflower, say, with cherry tomatoes and frills of kale and spinach, sharp with lemon and rich with garlicky tahini and sesame seeds, the juices soaking on to rough, flat barley bread, is so much more than the sum of its (many) parts.

“Albaloo pulao” is Butcher’s interpretation of the classic Persian cherry rice, the long, nutty grains of basmati given a delicious kitchen sink approach with, in addition to dried morellos, an almost gin fragrance by fennel and juniper.

Instead of dessert – although I’m most taken with the idea of a Turkish delight sundae or Iranian faloodeh (sweet frozen vermicelli) – we have more halloumi, this time fried with figs and pumpkin seed kernels and served on warm bread, with a sticky, dark juice of sour cherry and pomegranate on top.

Persepolis | Restaurants in Peckham, London

Review analysis
food  

This little café inside Peckham’s Persian delicatessen, Persepolis, is a fun place serving fun food.

Sally Butcher has made it her mission to bring the flavours of Middle Eastern and Levantine cooking to South East London with her shop, and with three cookery books: ‘Persia in Peckham’, ‘Veggiestan’ and more recently ‘Snackistan’.

They provide the setting for a liberal vegetarian interpretation of Iranian and Levantine dishes, with Peckham influences: Moroccan harissa is used with fried plantains, for example.

Share one of these followed by a saffron banana split or ‘Hot Paklava Meltdown’ (all £3.50), and you won’t be hungry even by teatime.

We thought that the best dish of all was the Turkish delight sundae, which had my 12-year-old daughter in raptures: chunks of Turkish delight and slivers of halva in clouds of whipped cream, vanilla and saffron ice cream, drizzled with rose cordial and rose petals.

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