Restaurant: Ali Baba - 32 Ivor Place, London NW1 6DA
Egypt is in the north east of Africa and has the second largest river in the world flowing through it, the Nile. Its bordering countries are Libya, Sudan, the Gaza Strip and Israel. The capital city of Egypt is Cairo.
It is shown by ancient carvings in tombs and many paintings that Egyptians loved food and that their cuisine dates back to a very long time ago. Many Egyptian dishes include lots of fresh vegetables that were grown by the river Nile like rice and lentils, which still are. Their cuisine is largely influenced by Middle Eastern and Mediterranean countries, for example, salted fish is very popular for families living near the River Nile. One of their most well known dishes is Koshari. This is rice, lentils and macaroni served with spicy tomato sauce.
We managed to find an Egyptian restaurant that was said to be very authentic, called Ali Baba. This is a small, family run restaurant that has recently celebrated being open for 40 years. We thought we'd give it a try!
Our Meal:
Starter: Humous - Chickpea puree
Flatbread
Cabbage Leaves - Hot filled cabbage leaves with rice and minced lamb
Falafel - Fried balls of ground beans and spices
Foul - Broad beans with lemon and garlic
Mains: Molokhia - Corchorus leaves (leaves of a tall green plant) stew with chicken or lamb (we ordered chicken)
Bamia - Okra (green flowering plant) and tomato stew with chicken or lamb (we ordered chicken)
Ali Baba Special - Combination of of lamb and nuts on a bed of rice
Koshari - Rice, lentils and macaroni served with a spicy tomato sauce
White Rice
Desserts: Baklawa - Layers of pastry filo pastry with honey syrup and nuts
Rating: ☆ ☆
The starters were very nice; especially the Cabbage Leaves, but the main courses let the meal down a lot, especially the Ali Baba Special and the Molokhia. The Ali Baba Special was a lamb shank, which was nice, but there were literally only four nuts on the bed of rice that came with it, which was disappointing. The worst dish, however, was the Molokhia. The owner told us that this is what Egyptians eat it everyday, this may have just been that we were not used to it. The service was functional but the owner wasn’t very smiley and we could hardly understand what she was saying. The restaurant was, however, well kept and in a nice location.
Best Dishes: Cabbage Leaves, Foul
Not so good: Molokhia
All in all, I think the starter were good, but if you want to try Egyptian food I wouldn't recommend Ali Baba.
