Ranoush

Ranoush
338 Kings Road
SW3 5UR

Date of Last Visit: Friday, May 22, 2009

The Victims: Anna, Feathers, Jen, Ally

The Damage: £25 each

The Background: We've been over to the Royal Chelsea Flower Show. It was my first time. And I was a bit disappointed. I was expecting more than a handful of show gardens. I suppose show gardens are expensive these days and it's a recession and all. But after reading the Royal Chelsea Web site–where they say to wear comfortable shoes because you'll be doing a lot of walking, and where a day pass costs you £57 a head, well…my expectations were just not set correctly. (We opted for the much cheaper £18.50 evening tickets.) I mean, the hats made of flowers were cool, but not that cool.

So afterwards, we made our way down the King's Road in search of sustenance. Anna suggested Lebanese and we were all on board. But Al Dar, which got a good review from Anna, couldn't take us. So we kept walking. And walking. And walking. (The things I do for my blog.) Until we got to Ranoush. (We took the bus back to Sloane Square after dinner.)

The Entrance: I've called ahead to the restaurant and they've said no problem, they can take us. The staff were very nice and told us which table was going to be ours, and that they probably just needed 10 minutes or so. And they were right on. 10 minutes later, the table was ours. And I have to say, the departing guests were the nicest people ever. They kept apologizing to us that they had taken so long wrapping up their bill, etc. We didn't care. We were busy chatting.

The Food: Lots of meze to start. Labneh (great), hummus (ok), babaganoush (great), falafel balls (a bit too dry for me, but not bad overall), and some deep-fried spinach-y things (eh). And some nice hot pita bread (nice, but not that nice). All this washed down by the Lebanese house wine (eh) which we later replaced with some Tempernillo (much nicer and smoother). Oh yes, and green beans, which sorta tasted like they were straight from the can.

I was glad we had convinced the gals that we didn't need a main each. One chicken shish and one mixed grill were just about right for us. These were both just solid options. Nothing spectacular.

The Service: Super-friendly and nice. Kept checking in on us. Not bad.

The Loos: I've seen worse. These were okay.

The Verdict: £25 per head for the quantity of food we experienced and the quality of service we had is not a bad thing. I'd go back here for a quick meal. It's very small though. Very small.