When it comes to of modern Palestinian food, we’re not saying that Fadi Kattan is its saviour per se…
…but he was born in Bethlehem.
And he did pioneer the region’s first food tours, as well as open up an innovative restaurant – Fawda – which seeks to rehabilitate the image of the area’s cuisine, pulling it away from its international slumber of basic “hoummous and falafel” and towards something a little more palpably regional, helping to wrench itself free itself from within the broad, catch-all canvas of Middle Eastern cuisines.
Now, he’s coming to London to open his second restaurant. It’s going to be called Akub (named after Fadi’s favourite vegetable, a delicious and tiny, wild artichoke) and you’ll find it in a surprisingly quiet side street off Notting Hill Gate. It’s slipping into the two-floor space formerly occupied by an Indian restaurant with nice big windows and booth seats. It’s nothing huge, but it makes up for it in intimacy.
The menu is currently being road-tested in a residency at Carousel, but it’s going to drawn from across Palestine and the “hot bright salads of the Gaza coastline”. Expect dishes like braised dandelion (from Jericho), prawn & tomato stew (from Gaza), lamb & freekeh (from Jerusalem), and orange givrée sorbet from Jaffa. Ingredients not directly bussed in from Palestine itself will be locally sourced from the British Isles.
And yes, there will be akub.
NOTE: Akub is set to open later this year. We’ll be back then with the full scoop. In the meantime, you can find out more at their website right HERE.
Akub | 27 Uxbridge Street, W8 7TQ
While you’re in the area… here are the best restaurants in Notting Hill