So long as it’s not rugs, cats, or political upheavals, Persepolis is Peckham is your one-stop shop for pretty much every famous export Persia has to offer.
It’s part shop, part restaurant, part cultural hub, and all fantastic. The bright yellow shopfront opens into a quirkily laid out, bustling space lined with shelves all crammed with exotic & delicious goods. It’s a veritable treasure trove of Persian crockery, craftware and ingredients. Not one surface, wall or shelf, seems to be empty.
Among the goods, you’ll find everything from bars of traditional olive oil soap, a teapot with a traditional candle warmer, an aubergine corer, a mini Persian BBQ (and some lemon wood charcoal to go with it), a tagine, a couscous steamer, or a backgammon board. Feeling peckish? Then prepare thee for cardamom coffee, marsh mallow flower tea, packets of salted sour cherries, bags of lemon-roasted pistachios, and bars of saffron sesame brittle.
And if you can’t quite be bothered to buy those ingredients and, ugh, cook them yourself, then you can always wander into the corner of the shop that houses Snackistan, one of London’s finest vegetarian restaurants. It’s made up of a princely 9.5 tables (although if they’re full, then Mr & Mrs Shopkeeper will happily pull another table for you from the back) and it’s every bit as casual as the name implies. Order a little meze, and be astonished at how much food four quid will get you. There’ll be falafels, muhammarah, tabouleh, hummus, salads, pickles, dips, warm bread, and more. And that’s the *small* meze.
To top it all off you can score one of their sundaes (Saffron Banana Split? Hot Paklava Meltdown? Turkish Delight Sundae?) and a cup of Afgan green tea, which they assure us “separates the men from the boys”.
And if you really like it, you’ll be happy to know that Mr & Mrs Shopkeeper have published no less than five cookbooks on the subject of Persian cuisine.
And yes, you can buy them in the shop.
NOTE: You can book a table at Persepolis by calling 020 7639 8007. You can also find out more at their website right HERE.
Persepolis | 28-30 Peckham High Street, Peckham, SE15 5DT
Looking for something to do beforehand? Take a look at our guide to the best things to do in Peckham