Comptoir Libanais
Tony Kitous, founder of Comptoir Libanais, came to London travelling aged 18 with just £70 in his pocket and the dream of one day owning his own restaurant.
There are now an incredible 25 restaurants in the UK and others internationally! Well done Tony, you’ve smashed it out the park there 👏🏽
Over 60% of the menu is already vegetarian or vegan, each month there are Lebanese flavours of the month special items too for even more variety.
Kicking off the year in style for 2020 with the Vegan Flavours of the Month I was very happy to accept my invite to sampling the Middle Eastern delights.
After speaking with the lovely and very helpful manager, we opted for a vegan mezze platter to go alongside the new flavours taster menu as we wanted the full experience.
We were spoilt for choice with the drinks menu too but after a lot of deliberation we decided upon a jug of Roza lemonade - lemon and lime with rose syrup. It was sticky sweet liquid heaven Turkish Delight yet refreshing from the citrus. Right up my street!
What aren’t usually ‘up my street’ are aubergines. I don’t mind them in lasagna/mousakka etc but would never usually choose them on their own as a dish. So I’m so glad I’ve now experienced them in all their glory. Baked aubergines with pomegranate seeds, amazingly hot proper red chilli, fresh mint, coriander, pistachio and molasses dressing. Drool.
The main on the vegan flavours menu was equally impressive. Slow Cooked Vegetable Tagine - tomato, pepper, aubergine, onion & chickpea stew served with vermicelli rice. It was so juicy and moreish we quickly ate the lot.
Give me a mezze any day of the week. This was so nourishing and highly recommended. Delicately soft minted quinoa tabbouleh, fattoush salad with crispy pita chips, baba ghanuj sprinkled with jewels of pomegranate, batata harra spicy Lebanese roasted potatoes, falafel and hommos with chickpeas. All each packed with flavour yet worked so well together.
The hommos and falafel... I always tend to avoid hommos and falafel recently as it seems like it’s on almost any menu from a non-vegan restaurant nestled safely beside a chickpea curry.
Yet again I’m SO glad it wasn’t avoided this time. So beautiful and authentic, silky soft hommos with the tastiest, freshest falafel I’ve ever eaten garnished with parsley and pickled turnips. Definitely not any old hommos and falafel!
Thank you very much for the invite, I enjoyed every single dish. The decor was beautiful and I felt like I was far away somewhere warm exploring a souk with hidden delicacies it was amazing. I’ll 100% be back in future, I could eat it all again already!
Until next time, Lisa @ThatVeggiePlace xox
