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Lemonia
London
Lemonia has the distinction of being an eaterie with the dubious honour of being associated with the celebrity crowd - in this case the Primrose Hill set of Kate Moss, Sadie Frost and co - that serves food of actual distinction. We were recommended a trip here by a friend when discussing - nay, speculating - the best Greek restaurant in the capital and as far as relaxed yet pretty restaurants go, it's definitely up there.
Most people come for the set meze. At around £20, it sounds a lot to pay for what could reasonably expected to be tiny bowls of houmous and taramasalata (unsmoked and pureed cod roe dip), but the amount of food served is actually pretty impressive. The order proceeds from cold meze, to hot meze and then a selection of cooked and grilled mains. The first round of cold meze will be familiar to anyone who has been to a Greek or Cypriot restaurant in the UK or abroad - bowls of plump, salty-sharp olives, a verdant parsley and grain tabbouleh salad, excellent baba ganoush (smoked aubergine dip) and taramasalata with the ubiquitous houmous. Warm meze steps it up with deeply satisfying spinach and filo pastries, grilled squid and anchovies, and the ever-popular halloumi. The set dinner is rounded off with a salvo of grilled meat - chicken and lamb skewers, and chargrilled lamb cutlets are all typical. Meals are finished with sticky-sweet paklava pastries and fresh fruit and a complementary espresso.
The dining room is pretty and consciously so, while service is formal and slickly polite; it gets very busy and we've always been able to get squeezed in after a short wait, but if you're averse to doing so it's advisable to book ahead of time.