Yamal Alsham (Restaurant)

Top 10 things we learnt about Yamal Alsham restaurant when we visited:

1) Yamal Alsham might be 15 minutes from Stamford Bridge, but this is no typical post-Chelsea football match kebab. It’s a feast fit for any Russian Tsar, like Roman Abramovich.

2) Even the name of the area where the restaurant is based sounds fit for royalty: Imperial Wharf.

3) Being a Lebanese-Syrian restaurant, the menu is in both English and Arabic; which is reassuring. The old adage still rings true; ethnic restaurants without menus in their mother language lack authenticity.

4) I don’t normally start at the back of the menu, but the restaurant’s chefs prepare a stuffed whole lamb with rice or buckwheat, nuts and gravy for £350 for outside catering. How absolutely decadent! Now, if I only had that many friends and/or a ravenous appetite.

5) If faced with the more mundane task of picking mezzé, there is an expansive selection, from the reliable stuffed vine leaves and hummous, to lamb and cumin sausages and spinach pastries.

6) For the restaurant that has everything, what next? Yamal Alsham’s bread is stupendous, and there’s a whole section in the menu devoted to “from our bread oven” - the one to try is the Mana’eesh, which is a Lebanese pizza - so to answer the above question: get a specially ordered bread oven.

7) It’s compulsory for all great banquets to offer fine wine, but Lebanese wine? Lebanon has actually been producing wine for thousands of years and dates back to pre-biblical times. Our glass of 2011 Coteaux du Liban, the house wine, was easy on the palate yet had complex aromas.

8) Wine was actually a drink for the masses in ancient Lebanon, nobility drank Arack. Arack is the spirit of choice for Lebanese and is an anise-flavoured, distilled alcoholic drink. Do give it a try if - no, when - you visit Yamal Alsham.

9) For those on a post-Christmas detox wanting to experiment, popular Middle Eastern non-alcoholic beverages like Jallab – a syrup drink made from carob, dates, grape molasses and rose water - and Ayran – a cold yoghurt beverage mixed with salt - are available.

10) Prices are not cheap, with mains approaching £20. However, unless you want to buy an air ticket on Middle East Airlines, can you really put a price on an authentic, regal experience?
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