Restaurants

The combination of hard surfaces – stone floor, mirrors and a wall of glass – makes the noise reverberate at Sami’s, so if tables are full, attempting conversation can be frustrating. Staff are pleasant and efficient, bringing a menu that’s more varied than you’d expect from a small neighbourhood restaurant. They offer three types of cuisine here: ‘A taste of India’, charcoal grills and homely Iraqi dishes. You’d encounter starters like houmous, tabouleh and aubergines in Israel, but Sami’s also has dishes that you’d find in an Iraqi home, such as deep-fried cigars or kooba. The home-cooked theme continues with stuffed peppers, and a beetroot-sauced shwandar of chicken in a rice and semolina dough. Tabeet, the sabbath chicken and rice dish, was tasty but didn’t seem to have undergone the required slow cooking that gives deep flavour and melting texture. Perhaps this type of food can’t succeed in a restaurant, so an option is to choose chargrilled meat or fish. Lamb cutlets are especially good and there are 15 ‘snacks’ which can be stuffed into the freshly made Iraqi pitta bread. With portions generous, we didn’t have space for the desserts, though were tempted by the hot chocolate cake and baklava.

Time Out Eating & Drinking Guide 2009