Problem
Where to go for a belated birthday lunch? Informal, but great food and service.
Answer
We returned to a family favourite, The Carob Tree, in Highgate, which has easy parking outside. The drive was delightful, via leafy, historic Hampstead and Finchley. We passed East Finchley station with a statue on top of a man firing an arrow.
As their website promised, we found a parking place right outside. The restaurant is easy to find, on a corner.
Inside it is open plan and modern with the kitchen open to view from the restaurant above the countertop. We chose a banquette seat. I admired the modern lights, like collections of small globes or goldfish bowls. in the centre of the restaurant was a squared brick column with wine bottles lying flat across the middle shelving.
The service was great from the moment we entered. Where would you like to sit? That's what you would expect to hear, hope.
Our waiter was the manager, all smiles. His name is Ihsan. He is not Greek, nor Cypriot but Turkish originally from Istanbul. We didn't guess. Nor did we know, until we asked, that our waitress was from Romania, which we had visited last year.
Drinks
The manager allowed me to take a taste of the Pinot Grigio Blush and instead I opted for the Prosecco. I liked my prosecco. The others liked the Pinot Grigio, Pinot Grigio blush (dry) and the retsina, Greek speciality which I last had in La Plaka the old area of Athens.
Main Courses
A board above the counter shows special of the day. Two of our group chose the fish brill, for two, which was indeed brill (brilliant), a large white fish, like halibut, with the head on. The Chinese like to eat the cheek, the mound of flesh beside the eye.
I had already chosen my top two main courses, either my favourite chicken with cream sauce and mushrooms, or lamb moussaka. The cream sauce is marginally safer with a white jacket, but I had brought a coloured scarf as a precaution and protection. Moussaka is too complicated to make at home, so that is what I chose. Almost too generous with the meat. I would have liked more of the calorific topping.
Potatoes
Somebody ordered saute potatoes. They forgot, profuse apologies. Soon, up came the sauté potatoes, new potatoes fried quickly in butter, I surmised, not the crispy sort, but very good.
Desserts
I had my eye on baklava and that is what I recommend. We had a mixed plate of desserts to share, all cut into four for four of us. (Wouldn't you think that would be obvious - yet so many places serve three pieces for four people, or two pieces for you to fight over and destroy using a spoon as a knife or a knife as a hammer. The places which get everything wrong make you appreciate those which get everything right.)
Coffee
Complimentary (free) and complementary (matching) Turkish delight came up with the Turkish coffee. One of our group was not familiar with Turkish coffee. to make Turkish coffee, you boil the coffee up three times, so it foams in the small saucepan. The finely ground coffee makes a sludge at the bottom of your cup. You have a small cupful, like espresso.
They can mix in sugar before the coffee reaches you, if you prefer. When you order in Greece (where it is called Greek coffee) or Turkey, where it is called Turkish coffee, different names are used for well-sugared coffee, slightly sugared coffee, and unsugared coffee.
No need to worry about that here. They just ask you if you want sugar in your coffee.
Wash Rooms
Conveniently on the ground floor, no stairs to negotiate. Toilets - lights will come on unnervingly after you open the door but inside all is modern and clean.
A very satisfying lunch creating a great ambience. You might enjoy reading about the Carob tree which is on their card and is sometimes grown as an ornamental tree. More importantly, the tree produces pods and seeds which are sweet and used in cakes, health foods and drinks.
Useful websites and information
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Finchley_tube_station
CaroB Tree Mediterranean Kitchen
15 Highgate Road (Corner of Swains Lane)
London NW5 1OX
www.carobtreerestaurant.com
https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carob_tree
Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.
Where to go for a belated birthday lunch? Informal, but great food and service.
Answer
We returned to a family favourite, The Carob Tree, in Highgate, which has easy parking outside. The drive was delightful, via leafy, historic Hampstead and Finchley. We passed East Finchley station with a statue on top of a man firing an arrow.
As their website promised, we found a parking place right outside. The restaurant is easy to find, on a corner.
Inside it is open plan and modern with the kitchen open to view from the restaurant above the countertop. We chose a banquette seat. I admired the modern lights, like collections of small globes or goldfish bowls. in the centre of the restaurant was a squared brick column with wine bottles lying flat across the middle shelving.
The service was great from the moment we entered. Where would you like to sit? That's what you would expect to hear, hope.
Our waiter was the manager, all smiles. His name is Ihsan. He is not Greek, nor Cypriot but Turkish originally from Istanbul. We didn't guess. Nor did we know, until we asked, that our waitress was from Romania, which we had visited last year.
Drinks
The manager allowed me to take a taste of the Pinot Grigio Blush and instead I opted for the Prosecco. I liked my prosecco. The others liked the Pinot Grigio, Pinot Grigio blush (dry) and the retsina, Greek speciality which I last had in La Plaka the old area of Athens.
Starters
We had a plate of mixed, shared hors d'oevres to start, hummus and vegetarian 'spring' rolls and fried balls of cream cheese and spinach. All very more-ish.Main Courses
A board above the counter shows special of the day. Two of our group chose the fish brill, for two, which was indeed brill (brilliant), a large white fish, like halibut, with the head on. The Chinese like to eat the cheek, the mound of flesh beside the eye.
Potatoes
Somebody ordered saute potatoes. They forgot, profuse apologies. Soon, up came the sauté potatoes, new potatoes fried quickly in butter, I surmised, not the crispy sort, but very good.
Desserts
I had my eye on baklava and that is what I recommend. We had a mixed plate of desserts to share, all cut into four for four of us. (Wouldn't you think that would be obvious - yet so many places serve three pieces for four people, or two pieces for you to fight over and destroy using a spoon as a knife or a knife as a hammer. The places which get everything wrong make you appreciate those which get everything right.)
Coffee
Complimentary (free) and complementary (matching) Turkish delight came up with the Turkish coffee. One of our group was not familiar with Turkish coffee. to make Turkish coffee, you boil the coffee up three times, so it foams in the small saucepan. The finely ground coffee makes a sludge at the bottom of your cup. You have a small cupful, like espresso.
They can mix in sugar before the coffee reaches you, if you prefer. When you order in Greece (where it is called Greek coffee) or Turkey, where it is called Turkish coffee, different names are used for well-sugared coffee, slightly sugared coffee, and unsugared coffee.
No need to worry about that here. They just ask you if you want sugar in your coffee.
Wash Rooms
Conveniently on the ground floor, no stairs to negotiate. Toilets - lights will come on unnervingly after you open the door but inside all is modern and clean.
A very satisfying lunch creating a great ambience. You might enjoy reading about the Carob tree which is on their card and is sometimes grown as an ornamental tree. More importantly, the tree produces pods and seeds which are sweet and used in cakes, health foods and drinks.
Useful websites and information
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Finchley_tube_station
CaroB Tree Mediterranean Kitchen
15 Highgate Road (Corner of Swains Lane)
London NW5 1OX
www.carobtreerestaurant.com
https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carob_tree
Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.
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