Jason Allen
Berber & Q Shawarma Bar | Slow Roasted Dishes in Exmouth Market
Shawarma.
It’s a perfect anagram of ‘A-ha! Swarm!’
The relevance of which will become clear later. Trust us.
For now, let’s all just focus on the fact that it’s the centrepiece dish at Berber & Q Shawarma Bar – beloved by Avengers, Middle Easterners, and very-near-Easterners (in Haggerston, to be precise) alike, it’s essentially a delicious, verrrry slow roasted farmyard animal thrown into a pita with equally lovely herbs, spices, sauces, and veggies.
Dropped neatly into the middle of Exmouth Market, the restaurant itself sticks with the rough, unfinished-chic veneer of the B&Q original, with rusted Middle Eastern street signs on the walls, distressed wooden tables, Moroccan tiles lining the floors, and huge bi-fold windows looking out on to the market.
The real star though, is the grill sitting in the open kitchen. It’s here that the shawarma happens, with slow-roast lamb and rotisserie chicken being the stars of the show. You’ll get them on a plate (or in a lentil/rice bowl) with your grilled pita so you can ‘wrap it yourself’ with sides like blackened aubergine, confit okra & braised green beans – then douse it with sauces including their housemade ‘Yemenite Dynamite’, tahina, or toum.
After that, if you’re in the mood for something sweet, and well as a completely novel experience, you can snag a rose water milk pudding.
And speaking of novel experiences, the drinks menu is hardly run-of-the-mill either; they have cardamon old fashioneds, green tea gimlets (green tea vodka, pear liqueur & elderflower) as well as a generous selection of wines, and low & no alcohol options.
Now if only we could find a word to describe what people will do all over this place…
…a ha! Swarm!
NOTE: Berber & Q Shawarma Bar is open for lunch and dinner, Tuesday-Sunday. You can book a table right here.
Berber & Q Shawarma Bar | 46 Exmouth Market, EC1R 4QE
Looking for more top places to eat? Check out the best restaurants in every London neighbourhood…
46 Exmouth Market, Clerkenwell, North London, EC1R 4QE View On Map
020 7837 1726
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