Restaurant review: Layla Restaurant

Lebanese is one of my favourite cuisines, mainly because of the wondrous invention of mezze. I'm a real sucker for anything small and varied - antipasti, cheese boards and tapas are all hugely enjoyable. Although I love Italian food, and I really do, I find it rather repetitive at times. Case in point, pasta. However stunning a pasta dish is, after about three mouthfuls I'm done, bored, and ready to try something else.

Mezze is therefore a concept I love, particular due to the health factor too. Chickpeas full of protein, check, herby salads check check.

M and I visited* a Lebanese restaurant in Wimbledon called Layla.

The decor is exciting and sumptuous - huge lanterns and large swathes of material hanging from the ceiling.

Picking from the large menu was easy. Being incredibly greedy, we obviously ordered a sharing menu for two, priced at a reasonable £25 each. The food was extremely plentiful - a large selection of hot and cold mezze, with lamb kafta and chicken curry for our mains and then for dessert it had to of course be baklawa.

So in more detail: the cold mezze - hommous (I never know how to spell this word - it seems to be spelled differently every time I see it. The same goes for poppodams), tabouleh, vine leaves and a selection of breads.

Hommous

vine leaves

flat breads

Tabouleh

Then onto the hot mezze: Kibeh (cracked wheat shells filled with lamb), potato harrah (spiced potatoes which happened to be my favourite dish of the night), and a second favourite, cheese bourek (if I had to compare these to anything I would say they're like cheesy spring rolls)

cheese bourek and kibeh

potato harrah

The mains: chicken curry and Kafta (lamb shish kebab). The kebabs were a little salty to my taste but they were beautifully soft and tender.

chicken curry

kafta

Finally onto our selection of baklawa served with coffee. I really love a double espresso to end a meal, the only problem I can never sleep when I eventually get to bed!

A special mention to the service which was excellent. The waiting staff were exceptionally attentive in totally unobtrusive way.