Sufi – Persian Food in West London

I just got back from New York and it was a terrific trip – thanks for all your suggestions! I ate very very well and I still need some time to process all my photos and to collect all my notes on all the great food we ate. I’ll first write about Sufi, an excellent Persian restaurant in West London that I visited with Blai just before my trip. I had been thinking about Persian food all week and when I learned of this budget restaurant (with great reviews) not too far from us, I took Blai there for dinner one night.

We ordered the platter for two. The waitress immediately warned us that this Sufi’s special would take at least 15 minutes and would we like any appetisers? We decided not to have any, worried about the size of this just might overwhelm us.

As they seemed very worried that we had not ordered any appetisers for the wait, they soon brought over some yogurt with sweet garlic with freshly baked flat nan bread, complimentary for the wait. The warm flat bread, topped with sesame seeds, had been just baked in the oven by the window and the yogurt was a wonderful cold, creamy contrast. Delicious and a good sign of things to come.

The Sufi’s special for 2 consisted of one skewer of marinated chicken (joojeh kebab), one skewer of baby lamb fillet (kebab barg) and two skewers of minced lamb kebabs (kebab koobideh) served with grilled tomatoes and two plates of basmati rice, one for each of us.

All the meats were so tender and wonderfully flavourful. The minced lamb kebabs had a slightly different spicing to what I was used to but this didn’t make them any less delicious. The chicken was breast meat, my least favourite cut of the bird, but was so juicy and well marinaded that I snarfed it up. The lamb fillet, well, it was gorgeous – what else can I say? The rice was fluffy and well separated as most Persian rice is but while the tomatoes are normally my favourite part, these could have been a little riper. Still it was a great platter of meat and the waiter exclaimed great surprise that we were able to put away the whole thing between the two of us.

Despite the size of that platter, we still found room to share a small dessert. This is their homemade coconut pudding made with milk, coconut, rosewater and pistachios. It was creamy and flecked with many flakes of dried coconut. Who knew that coconut and rosewater went well together?

All this plus a large bottle of still water came to £30. Pretty good for the feast we had – definitely on my to-return list. The easiest way to get there is to either take the tube to Hammersmith and then take a 266 (it starts at Hammersmith bus station) to Askew Road or take the 207 bus from Shepherd’s Bush and walk down from the Askew Road stop.

Did I mention the belly dancer? She came and danced a 15 minute set (this was a Friday night) and if you want to watch the performance, make sure you get a table towards the back.

Sufi
70 Askew Road
London W12 9BJ