Azerbaijan Restaurant in North London: who would have thought?

11th January 2013
I bet that most of you don't even know where Azerbaijan is. I didn't, and it's sandwiched between Iran, Georgia and Turkey, or, at the north end of Ballards Lane in North Finchley, and that tells you a bit about the food. This place is where a Russian Restaurant used to be (patronised once), and we have tried to go there before. There is a web site on their menu www.azerbaijanrestaurant.co.uk, but at the time of writing it is just a holding page, which is a pity, as more information would have been useful.We previously had a booking for a Saturday night, and when we turned up, there was a double booking with a big party, and even though our friend had seen his booking written in the book, the staff suddenly lost the power to speak English, shoulders were shrugged and we were sent on our way. But curiosity got the better of us, and we forgave, but took care to go on a Friday to avoid the crowds of festive weekend Azers. And Friday night is music night.

For a Friday night it was quiet, with never more than 8 or 9 diners. I think it may get busy on Saturday if the ex pats descend. When you walk in, it is like entering a success of 1970's dining rooms, possibly in a well to do Soviet home, There are local photographs on the wall, and an old Pye valve radio, which actually pumps out some of the background music.By the bar, there is an incongruous mix of an electronic synthesizer, and a huge samovar on the counter. The musician played a mixture of plinkety local music and international wedding classics, and I guess that was where he made most of his money. I guess 'I just called to say I love you' is the lingua franca of light music.

The food is a mixture of Turkish, Persian, and stuff you never thought of. The wine list is Georgian, and the bottles we had at £20 each were quite ok, but seemed a little overpriced for what it was. You were paying for the provenance.

The menu is quite extensive. For starter, between us, we had a mixed starter from the hot starter section. Our waiter told us he could do better than what was on the menu, and we had a mix of dips, things with Aubergine and something with chicken egg and potato. This is served with nan bread

For main, there are a variety of kebab type things typical of that part of Asia, and some special stews. I chose Khoresht Ghorme Sabzi which is a mix of diced lamb (actually big chunks) and kidney beans, cooked in fresh herb sauce with whole lime. This is served with rice, and if you want for £2.50 extra, you can have a special rice which is a rice with different fruit and vegetables.

The green colour is not not an artefact, and this was how it really looked. I could not quite identify the taste at first, but if you have tasted lime pickles at an Indian restaurant, that is the basis. It was something quite different, and scored about 7.8 on the CHOF scale. The kebabs looked very interesting, and I would definitely try this place again with different choices. Starters are from £3 each and mains from £8, but one way or another for two courses and two bottles of wine between three of us, the bill came to £95 for three of us. Despite my previous experience of the cold shoulder, the service was helpful and friendly and in English. I think that this may be a place where expats come to get a bit of the home style cooking. Interestingly enough, there is a very Persian Persian restaurant exactly opposite which get packed out with them on Saturday night, and again does not seem to want to make local residents welcome. The question remains as to how authentic this experience was. I had a look at food web sites and there was not much concordance.