The Durum has been one of my local staples for several years. It used to be an Italian called Trattoria Trevi, but that was probably 20 years ago, and this place has been a popular feeding house for the locals of Finchley and ex pats for several years. It has a lot of competition in the area, but always seems busy.
They have a web site at http://www.durumrestaurant.co.uk/websites/123reg/LinuxPackage25/du/ru/mr/durumrestaurant.co.uk/public_html/en/ which tells you quite a lot, but the prices are a bit out of date. I usually book before going, as it seems that it times there are few tables left. Having said that, I have never had trouble getting in. The staff are pleasant and service is fairly efficient. Each table is given a plate of really tasty flat bread, and I am sure that over the years there may have been olives and chilies but, like most restaurants, the covers have become more sparse. We typically start with a cold meze between two. The starter portions can be quite substantial, and we have made the mistake of ordering too much food in the past.
On this occasion I had the beyti with yogurt sauce. Yogurt sauces are a common feature, and sometimes they are flavoured or spiced, and sometimes meat is cooked in them. Beyti is like a spiced version of kofte kebab.
As you can see it is meat on a flatbread base with yogurt, and really does not need any additional accompaniment. The thing was that the hotness of the meat was dumbed down by the coldness of the yogurt, and thus lost a little bit in CHOF score which otherwise would have been good. I should have thought about this before ordering, and my wife's chicken shish was excellently hot. The food is great and I will definitely be going back. A meal for two including drink, and sharing a starter comes to about £30.
No comments:
Post a Comment