Tabun Kitchen
Best menu items
- Mini Mezze
- Akkawi Cheese & Za'atar Manaeesh
- Za'atar Fries with Toum garlic sauce
Where to pray Salah
- Soho Islamic Centre
- Goodge Street Mosque (MWL)
Tabun Kitchen is one of London’s only places to eat authentic and Halal Palestinian cuisine. Their name comes from the Tabun Oven which has been a staple of Palestinian Cooking for many years. They offer a range of delicious dishes based on traditional dishes, all with new twists however!
We love their core message, as well as their food. Definitely give this place a try! P.S. a voluntary £1.00 per table will be added to your bill for the Galilee Foundation, which helps to educate Palestinians in Israel!
Follow them here on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and their Website to keep up to date with their special offers!
What did we order?
First we tried these yummy minty Tabun Mocktails. They were ice blended with mint and other special ingredients, and were extremely refreshing! Their mixologist also informed us that they are looking to get non-alcoholic cocktail syrups, so that real mocktail tastes can be simulated.
We got the Mini Mezze and Jerusalem Falafel for starters.
The Jerusalem Falafel [£6.00, Vegan], was a great way to start off our Palestinian meal. They were crispy on the outside and cooked well within, with a lovely taste. The salad was average, but the Falafels itself were amazing. I had been off falafels for a while due to getting too many of the supermarket kind, but this one made me love them again.
The Mini Mezze [£6.00, Vegan] consists of small bowls of their hummus, Moutabal smoke aubergine and Ful Mudammas (fava beans), which is all served with some Tabun Bread [Vegan]. Their tabun bread was fluffy, and went extremely well with the Mini Mezze. My favourite bowl was actually the Ful Mudammas (I thought it would be the hummus!), which was a yummy and slightly tangy dip, with pomegranates on top which added a lovely flavour. Our next favourite was the Moutabal smoked aubergine, which was a hot and flavourful tomatoey aubergine mix. Surprisingly the hummus was our least favourite, but it was still good.
We also tried two of their Manaeesh (Palestinian pizza). The first was a Lamb Tahini Kofta Manaeesh [£9.00], which was a crispy flat bread, topped with minced lamb, chilli sauce, pine nuts and tahini paste. The mince and sauces worked very well together, although we felt that there could have been a bit of cheese on top as well! However if you like a bit of crispyness then this is a perfect pizza for you.
Next we tried their Akkawi Cheese & Za’atar Manaeesh [£8.50], Veg]. We preferred this over the meat one because the cheese, olives, sun-dried tomatoes and Za’atar worked so well together. The cheese also helped to soften the crispy flat bread underneath, which I preferred.
For our next mains we tried the mixed grill and burger.
This is the Tabun Grill [£18.00] which was a hefty plate of grilled meats! It came with a marinated lamb filet, spiced kofta, lamb chop, za’atar chicken and sujuk lamb sausage. The za’atar chicken and lamb sausage were amazing, and the chicken was very moist and well cooked. The spiced kofta and lamb filet were our next favourite followed by the lamb chops.
The Jerusalem Burger meal [£14.00] is a seasoned lamb patty in a sesame bun, served with pickles on top, shat’ta sauce and salad. This is all served with the yummiest za’atar fries. We really enjoyed this meal, especially due to the amazing za’tar fries. The Toum garlic sauce on the side is the best garlic sauce i’ve tried, and goes so well with the burger and fries. If anything, I would come back here just for a portion of za’atar fries with toum sauce!
We tries the Knafeh and Tahini ice cream for dessert.
We tried a traditional Knafeh [£6.50, Veg] for dessert. This is akkawi cheese wrapped in kataifi pastry, and drizzled with orange blossom syrup and pistachios. This was a bit harder than I thought a Knafeh would be, so I am not sure I would get this one again.
The surprise favourite was this Tahini Ice Cream [£6.00]. Tahini is sesame seed paste, and I didn’t know it could be incorporated into a dessert, but it was here and it was great! I associate tahini with hummous but this was very sweet and unique, I would definitely order it again!
Overall…
We loved sampling such a unique cuisine, and throughly enjoyed all of it. The restaurant itself was also a lovely place to sit in, and service was amazing.