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Please note, Bel-Air has now closed. Time Out Food editors, November 2017.
When a place with a name like Bel-Air turns up near Old Street roundabout, you could be excused for a sharp intake of breath. Surely it will be more like Lungful of Polluted Air, no? But in this case, the intake is cut short. Wholesome food can turn up in the unlikeliest of places – even a takeaway close to Silicon Roundabout. And who needs a proper meal more than a tech geek, slumped over their laptop all day?
Bel-Air is a Shoreditch takeaway of very high quality. Vibrantly coloured salads, zingy fresh-herb flavours and hot dishes that make you wish you could eat breakfast or lunch twice. However, if you do over-order, it’ll cost you. Hot dishes cost from £6.25 (crab cakes) to £7.45 (chilli-braised beef). These are terrific, but the salads look too tempting to resist. A side-salad combo of beetroot, apple and mint with another of dukkah-dusted roast aubergine with yoghurt and tahini is £3.50. If you stick to four salads, a takeaway box costs a mere £5.50.
It all sounds healthy, and it is. But it looks brilliant and tastes great too. There’s just one catch: it does breakfast and lunch weekdays only, and shuts at 3pm. That’s not much use for someone working late at the start-up, but good for those on early shifts. If you work in the area, go and sample the fresh Bel-Air. This is soul food to go for Silicon Roundabouters.