A good Moroccan is a lovely thing. A refined thing, it is not. I hadn’t seen or heard of evidence to the latter until recently, when I was invited to a bloggers dinner at Zayane on Golborne Road, West London. It’s kitchen has recently been taken over by British chef Chris Bower, previously of Thackerays where he held a Michelin star and The Ivy, restaurants known more for their fine British dining (or rather, known entirely for) than North African flavours. Nevertheless, Chris is now at the helm and has designed a menu to blend British ingredients with Moroccan spices and fine dining presentation. I had to go see this.
The decor is modern but with more than a slight Moroccan twang. Owner Meryem Mortell has decked it out with burnished orange leather, midnight blue walls and Moroccan lamps, juxtaposed with British Denby crockery. Live music plays and we will later be encouraged to belly dance. I will politely decline.
The menu is very surprising. It reads with elegant flavours of smoked octopus, merguez sausage, quail, milk-fed lamb and butter poached Cornish lobster. All looks good. I’m driving and so I don’t drink, but the juices I’m served are freshly squeezed and delicious.
To start I try pan fried scallop cermoula (a Moroccan marinade), with chickpeas, tomato and cumin. This comes to the table plated fine dining style and eats well. The scallops are well cooked, rare in the middle, and the spicing in the chick pea ragout on the side is deft. I also try the Zayane platter; 6 Moroccan tapanades, purees and salads with hot, soft little breads.
I order the tagine of milk fed lamb next, described as accompanied by roast leg, pea puree, preserved lemon puree and asparagus. What arrives is not a tagine. It’s another fine dining plate, pretty as a picture, of sliced, pink lamb with artichokes, asparagus, dots of puree and a rich lamb sauce. It’s tasty, the preserved lemon puree isn’t horrid as I expect it to be, and chef has a deft hand with a sauce. It is not however a tagine. I asked chef about this and he said he looked to defy expectations, take the flavours of a tagine and put it onto a European dressed plate. I get it, really I do, but a tagine it isn’t. Perhaps if a spoonful of the more traditional style lamb tagine, slow cooked and melting, were served alongside the roasted leg, I wouldn’t complain. That’s just my suggestion though.
Dessert brings me a chocolate delice with pistachio ice-cream, both well executed and tasting, and some unnecessary honey spooned over the top. Others order the raspberry clafoutis and I am thoroughly jealous. It arrives, oozing in the terracotta pot it’s been baked whole in and sits there looking at me, steaming. A kind blogger lets me try theirs and it’s great. Like, GREAT. I’m envious.
I finish with a fresh mint tea and make my goodbyes. I’ve had a good evening and enjoyed Zayane. I get the feeling that Chris is still feeling his way through Moroccan flavours, having come from such classical routes, but it’s clear that he’s enjoying himself. Most stuff has worked for me really well, and I’ll certainly come back. After all, there’s a certain butter poached Cornish lobster with carrot and cumin cream waiting for me…
http://zayanerestaurant.com/
91 Golborne Rd, London, london W10 5NL
020 8960 1137
