‘The Best Route To Beirut’ – Bakchich Bold Street
Bold Street is booming. It has an embarrassingly good selection of places to eat right now and that is something to celebrate. And everybody knows that the best way to celebrate is with Lebanese street food. And, as luck would have it, you can fill your boots with it at Bakchich.
Open from 8 in the morning if you’re in need of a full Lebanese breakfast or Breakfast Beiruty, it then segues into a selection of hot and cold mezze, salads, shawarma, wraps and grills. Each dish is explained simply for the uninitiated although this is the kind of menu where you’d be hard pushed to get it wrong.
We had the meat mezze which, at under £15 for two, gave us plenty to choose from: chicken wings in garlic and harissa, falafel, hummus, lamb parcels with pine nuts, mixed shawarma with chicken and lamb, plus pickles and home made bread. Oh, and the eternally wonderful Baba Ghanoush. Always worth ordering just to savour the words… Baba Ghanoush. If I was ever going to be a cabaret singer, that is so what I’d call myself: ‘Put your hands together for The Most Fabulous Baba Ghanoush!’
The service is as friendly and enthusiastic as it gets and they couldn’t do enough for us. It got busier while we were there and there was a nice little buzz to the place. There was a mixed clientele; a big family group in the corner, a handful of beardy hipsters, a smattering of top scalls and some homogenous business people. The interior is a kind of a modern take on middle eastern and it’s clean and fresh-feeling.
Haven’t a clue how authentic it is but, even if it isn’t, it’s good food. If you’ve got one of those annoying friends who thinks they wouldn’t like it ‘cos it’s too spicy’, or maybe you are that annoying person, worry not; it’s tasty and full of interesting flavours. So pull yourself together and go try something new. Today. Go on. Even if it’s just the Baba Ghanoush….
Christiana Bennett
