Last week, the wonderfully talented Sabrina Ghayour held a one night only pop-up at the Grain Store on Granary Square, Kings Cross along with chef and owner, Bruno Loubet. The theme was Middle Eastern Autumn Feast.
I have been to many of Sabrina’s supperclubs and every time I’ve been amazed by the flavours of her food. You can see my write up here. So as soon as she announced on Twitter that tickets were on sale for her Autumn Feast, I booked a ticket for myself and my favourite boy and foodie partner, Paul.
When we arrived at the Grain Store we were shown to our table and handed a cocktail. Each table sat 10 people and as the table filled up everyone introduced themselves, a bit like being at a wedding! The kitchen is open plan so we could see Sabrina and the other chefs hard at work plating up the starters.
As I walked past the kitchen I could see all the delights that awaited me…
Soon enough, piles of beautiful grilled flatbread were placed on our table and then dish after dish came out. Firstly, smoked aubergine salad with garlic, lemon, peppers and parsley…
Carrot and orange salad with spiced goat labneh…
Spiced squash hummus, pistachio dukkah and vegetable merguez sausages…
Spiced lamb kofte with pine nuts, currants and herbs…
Yoghurt and cucumber with mint, dill, rose petals, walnuts and golden raisins. Unfortunately I didn’t get a photo of this. The problem with sharing a table with so many people…as soon as a dish hits the table, there are at least three spoons on it within seconds with everyone eager to get their share!
My plate looked like this at least three times over! Luckily, every time a dish emptied, a waitress came along and replaced it immediately.
Once the starters were finished, and by that I mean when everyone was nearly full but had to stop eating so they could save space for their mains, space was cleared on the table and then out came the main dishes starting with Persian lamb stew with saffron and quince…
Moroccan pastilla, dates, eggs, caramelised onions, pine nuts and chicken…
Jewelled barley couscous…
Chilli and cumin roasted carrots with honey and citrus dressing…
Purple and green kale was also served but I didn’t get a photo of that. Every single dish that landed on our table was wonderful. The flavours were like a party in my mouth. My favourites, if I really had to choose, were the aubergine (I’m obsessed with aubergines) which was beautifully smokey and layered in flavour, the roasted carrots with honey, the lamb kofte which melted in the mouth and had a lovely sweetness which came from the currants, and the Persian lamb stew with lamb that again, melted in my mouth it was so soft and tender.
The restaurant was filled with chatter and lots of ‘oooh’s, mmmmmm’s, and wow’s’ and then lots of ‘I’m so full I can’t move!’ were heard from the neighbouring tables.Everyone had a fantastic time.
Then, just as we thought we couldn’t eat any more, dessert came out…cardamom and orange blossom poached pear served with flourless orange cake.
This was a delight. The cake was dense and delicious, the poached pair was soft and full of flavour and we had the added bonus and sweetness from the caramel drizzled around the side of it.
By then we really were stuffed! But oh so happy. It was a fantastic meal and Sabrina and Bruno are to be congratulated for doing such a great job. The menu was well thought out and executed and we really did get a taste of the Middle East.
Grain Store, Granary Square, 1-3 Stable St, Kings Cross, London N1C 4AB
020 7324 4466 / Twitter
4 Comments
Looks epic! Would love to experience a meal like that some time!
Looks like an epic meal! Would love to experience something like that some day!
Oops…my first comment disappeared and now it reappeared 🙂
You should go along to one of her Supperclubs, she does then every couple of weeks and they’re fab.