Review: Za’atar Bake

If Za’atar Bake isn’t already on your list of go-to places on the Cowley Road, you should think about adding it now.

My recent outing for Sunday lunch (no English roast for me!) reminded me of how tasty the food is at this popular and friendly Middle Eastern spot.

The small space is very casual, though the decorative twinkly lights, colourful fabrics, and draped ceiling create a cosy ambience. The bakery focus is obvious from the moment you enter and come face to face with a large case of baklava and other syrup-laden pastries. More on those later, but for me the dominant feature is the large gas-fired oven in the middle: the real engine of taste in this little eatery. We nabbed a table opposite the oven to watch the chefs prepping, shaping, and baking while we lingered over our food.

Our starter was a bowl of silky fava beans, aka ‘fool’ (£7.50), rich with the fruity taste of olive oil. Destined for scooping, it is served with flatbread hot and puffy from the oven. I could have eaten a couple of extra pieces all by myself, but we had more food on the way.

There was a grilled veg and cheese fatayer (£12.50), a large, open oval of dough loosely folded over the rich filling. I liked the flavours, especially the balance added by the addition of earthy nigella seeds and sharp pickles on the side. However, it was much larger than the little Lebanese or Syrian fatayers you might find as a starter elsewhere, so it felt a bit hefty. This is a dish to savour when you’ve got a big appetite and next time I might sample one of the manakeesh (topped flatbreads) as a slightly lighter option.

Onto the mains…

Our main course was lamb maqloubah (£15.95), a traditional Palestinian dish whose name means ‘upside down’. The reason for the name becomes obvious when it is brought to the table in its metal cooking pot and flipped over onto the serving plate. The extra flair that involves banging with a small wooden club is just plain fun.

The real treat is what you get, a plate of meltingly tender lamb nestled in a bed of oil-flecked basmati rice fragrant with spice. The grilled tomato on top didn’t add much, though I appreciated the tang of the yoghurt sauce on the side.

Special mention should go to the fresh lemonades (£4.99) we ordered as an afterthought.

They were unexpectedly refreshing, bursting with flavour, and brightly coloured: one green with mint and the other all red berry. They could have served as dessert, but I’d been thinking about baklava since we arrived. In a moment of restraint, we only ordered two little pastries. Both were crispy, wonderfully nutty, and perfectly sweet, so it didn’t matter that they weren’t made in-house.