Palomar: trendy lunch in Soho

22nd March 2015
A belated Mothers' day lunch, and a suggestion arranged by one of my daughters.
It is difficult to work out why this Middle Eastern restaurant is called Palomar, as there appears to be no logical association. Some about face, there is a picture of the Palomar Observatory in Pasadena overhanging the stairs down to the toilet, but I am guessing whether there are really any connections. The food is said to be Jerusalem style, but more in theory in practice.
It is a modern noisy restaurant, full of Sunday Lunchers, and I certainly would not like to try and get in without a reservation.
There is a bar area at the front where you can sit in front of the food preparation, and a smallish seating area in the rear. It does not hold a lot of people.

The client base is by and large the young and affluent, and I thought that this represents the face of disposable income in London. There are those that have the money to spend, and this is the sort of place they come to.

The essence of the food is sharing and tapas style, and it is recommended that you buy a selection of dishes from the menu and share them. This became a little tricky when trying to share a chicken leg four ways.The menu can be found at http://thepalomar.co.uk/food . The waiter told us that we would need about 8 dishes between the four of us. The distinction between starter and main became blurred but we started with a piece of challah style bread withTahini dip and the Yiddish brochette with chicken liver pate

You cannot actually tell the size of the portions from the photographs, but each of the individual bits of brochette was like a mouth-full. Other reviews had said that the portions were small, and this is true. Best to look at the menu on line and try and work out what we had.

I lost track of what was coming next, but it included a seafood stew with mussels and octopus, a chicken leg, a deconstructed kebab and a plate of dips including houmus. The scale of the dishes can now be judged by the size of the cutlery, but all were taster plates.

The food is fantastic, with unusual combinations of taste and ingredients. As far as hotness was concerned it was a mixed bag, as the dishes ended up sort of buffet style with the four diners sharing until the plates were cleared and things that started off hot did not stay that way. There were no left overs. One desert went 4 ways.

So a lunch for four with half a bottle of wine and soft drinks and filtered tap water (£1.50/person) came to about £130. I am caught here, because the dining experience was excellent, but in my opinion, this is problematic value for money: it represents what people are prepared to spend, and as I was a guest, it was great. As quantities go, it was a little behind my requirements, but it was exactly as other diners had described, so it was no suprise.