Berenjak
We do love a kebab here at OJT and lately, there’s been a bit of a trend of the posh kebab with places like Le Bab (see what we thought of it here). So when the people behind Bao, Lyle’s, Bubbledogs and Gymkhana’s opened their Persian take on kebabs, it was only a matter of time before we headed down to give it a go.
We started off with their bread, they have taftoon which is a baked sourdough seeded flatbread and they have sangak, a wholewheat flatbread that is baked on pebbles. Both were really tasty but I think of the 2, I preferred the taftoon just because it had that slight tang and chewiness you get with sourdough.
As a starter, we went for the panir sabzi which is a plate of Persian feta cheese with nuts, radishes and a bunch of herbs. The cheese was crumbly and salty and the herbs and radishes were really fresh and light. It was all brought together with a drizzle of olive oil. A really simple dish but really nice.
The dish you see above is the mirza ghasemi which is a mix of aubgergine, garlic, tomato and egg. The egg is I think hard boiled and then chopped up so there is a bit of texture to the dish and not just a paste. This went really well with the bread and there was a nice smokiness to it from the aubergine.
Now onto the kebabs themselves. This was the Chenjeh Kabab, beef rib eye chunks marinated in onion, salt and pepper. It came skewered with peppers and roasted tomatoes. The beef was nice and medium rare, really juicy and so full of flavour! I really liked this.
The other kebab we ordered was the Jujeh Kabab which was chicken breast chunks marinated in saffron, lemon, yoghurt and tomato. It came on a sangak and was just incredibly tender. You could almost just cut it with a fork! The flavours were also fantastic.
We also ordered the house rice which was saffron rice with butter. It had little crunchy bits of rice where the rice had been almost burnt with the butter. The crunchy bits were delicious and you could really taste the saffron which was nice.
I had a really nice meal at Berenjak. It’s very different to Le Bab and even more removed from the idea of a late night kebab. This isn’t somewhere you’d find a doner, it’s all just quality chunks of meat cooked on skewers.
The mezze is really tasty and the meat is cooked really well. Definitely a place to try!
Berenjak, 27 Romilly Street, Soho, London, W1D 5AL
Cheers, JL
