Chatting to lawyer-turned-restaurateur, Ali Yousef, about his Palestinian restaurant, Baity, he explains that it’s actually been open for just over three years.
“Well, we did open just before lockdown…”, he says.
Not such a newcomer, then, but the cooking is as fresh as you like. Think warmly spiced whole sea bream cooked on the bone (Gazan Bream, £19) and world-class roast chicken. Crisp and almost sweet skin, rubbed with sumac, conceals perfectly cooked chicken, dusted with toasted flakes of almond (£15). This house special (called Musakhan – and which is also available on ingredient box site, Gousto, after winning a tough competition) is served on a homemade flatbread with sumac-roasted onions, and dusted with gorgeously toasty flakes of almond. It’s a proper showstopper.
Small plates are a thing too, and pretty much everything works in harmony as a spread to share. We try the fattoush (crispy, toasted flatbreads, with lashings of lemon, herbs, chopped tomato, onion and cucumber, £4) and the house hummus with more sumac-kissed onions (£5.50).
When it comes to dessert, a traditional Palestinian hard ‘ice cream’ (£5) peppered with rose petals and whole pistachios is as good as it sounds. And you can tell the home-made baklava (£5) is the real deal. Ali explains it’s “always crisp if it’s Palestinian”, as opposed to, say, the syrup-soaked Turkish and Greek varieties. As an alcohol free joint, drinks include 0% beers, soft drinks and teas and coffees served in a genuinely warm-feeling space which uses brown and wheat tones to impressive effect.
Baity has won the hearts of chefs and punters alike with more than 10,000 reviews on Gousto and taste-making fans such as Creameries chef, Mary-Ellen McTague. We can’t wait to return – and ahead of our next visit we’re trying to find an occasion worthy of the £249 Whole Jericho Lamb which serves 25 (available for home delivery). Let us know if you fancy it.
- Words:
- Ruth Allan
- Published on:
- Tue 19 Oct 2021
