Restaurants

Le Mignons business card features cheerleading quotes from various luminaries of the foodie scene and from BBC journo Robert Elms who happens to live just around the corner. Its impressive for such a modest corner eaterie in the backstreets of north London. If this suggests an extraordinary find, well, no, but Le Mignon is a very good little Lebanese restaurant, delivering a lengthy menu of well-executed dishes in relaxed surroundings. Chefs make the most of fresh ingredients: fattoush (a green salad with shards of crisp pitta bread) was given zing with lots of garlic and lemon juice, and there was a similar zest to the fatayer (pastry triangles stuffed with lemon-drenched spinach). Of the grilled meat and fish mains, the stuffed lamb (actually strips of lamb on rice, topped with sliced almonds, cashews and pine nuts) was lovely. The charcoal-grilled chicken was also terrifically tender, and beautifully flavoured with spices and marinade. The only downside is the gauntlet of winos and teenage substance abusers you have to run on the way back to the bus stops on Camden High Street.

Time Out Eating & Drinking Guide 2008