Grace Dent

She loves modern Middle Eastern food, and was well into the idea of fancy hummus, braised hispi cabbage and charred oyster mushrooms on skewers. It was only ...

There were also grilled skewers of soft leek with [amba](https://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/fruit-recipes/amba-sauce/), as well as an unusual Chinese cabbage with preserved lime and cardamom. [Chris Pine’s new hair](https://www.harpersbazaar.com/beauty/hair/a41094805/chris-pine-long-hair-dont-worry-darling/); there are no dry bites here. [pilpelchuma](https://www.theguardian.com/food/2022/mar/26/mothers-day-brunch-recipes-poached-eggs-avocado-yoghurt-soda-bread-strawberry-spritz-yotam-ottolenghi#:~:text=For%20the%20pilpelchuma%0A3%20small%20garlic%20bulbs%0A105ml%20olive%20oil%0A2%20dried%20chipotle%20chillies%2C%20stems%20and%20seeds%20removed%0A1%20tsp%20cumin%20seeds%0A%C2%BD%20tsp%20caraway%20seeds%0A2%20tsp%20sesame%20seeds%0A%C2%BD%20tsp%20aleppo%20chilli%0A1%20tsp%20paprika%0AFlaked%20sea%20salt%20and%20black%20pepper), and warm challah to drag greedily through bowls of baba ganoush made glossy with curry leaf oil and pine nuts. The [latkes](https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/dec/19/how-to-make-latkes-hanukah-food-recipe) are like the delightful, deep-fried concertina’d spuds you get at [the Quality Chop House](https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/oct/06/quality-chop-house-london-ec1-restaurant-review-marina-oloughlin) and on the fanciest Sunday roasts, though here they’re served with a puddle of [toum](https://www.theguardian.com/food/2020/jul/25/yotam-ottolenghi-recipes-for-summery-green-side-dishes#:~:text=Toum%20is%20Levantine,and%20fatty%20cuts.), AKA Lebanese garlic sauce. On a Friday lunchtime, the new Bubala is thriving with both groups of friends and business meetings. Service is that type of warm that makes you want to stay and hang out with the gang afterwards, because they seem to be having such a good laugh, and besides, they’ve got air-con, which, on a day that reached 40C in London, was joyful. [Bubala in Soho](https://bubala.co.uk/soho/) has a menu so deliciously worded and branding so smoothly positioned that my lunch guest was for some time quite unaware she was in a meat-free restaurant. Dishes as glossy and luxuriantly finished as Soho is an unfathomable entity right now: rents and business rates are extortionate, commuters show their face only three days a week, if that, and retail openings seem to be made up entirely of American Candy Stores, yet in W1 restaurants are still opening at lightning pace. It’s just a totter along from the delightful new Firebird that I did wonder whether the pandemic might finish such places off, leaving only the financially cushioned big beasts thriving. It was only after the third time she attempted to add “perhaps a chicken dish” to our order that the penny finally dropped.