Review: Villa Mamas
Review: Villa Mamas
By Angela Zaher
Image credit: Bea Moreno
Villa Mamas opened on Elystan Street in 2017, the first international outpost for Chef Roaya Saleh who launched her growing brand initially on her home turf in Bahrain. Abu Dhabi (UAE) was next in 2020 and then Riyadh (Saudi Arabia) in 2022. I am late to the party coming to try it out 9 years later- but we did have Covid in the interim so I am only about 6 years late.
Roaya is a Khaleeji chef (the Khaleej encompasses the 6 main countries of the Gulf) and her menu at Villa Mamas in London reflects her heritage and beyond as it’s an extensive list of mouth-watering dishes from around the Gulf, Persia and West Asia (Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Palestine). What makes them even more covetable is the fact that you scan a QR code, the menu pops up on your phone and you can then click on the name of each dish to see a picture of it. I am old school with a preference for a paper menu but here, the pictures won me over. It was comforting to know what to expect. Happily, when the dishes arrived they were very closely matched to the pictures. This is the first time in a long while that I’ve felt that techy aspects (dare I call them gimmicks) of a restaurant served to elevate the dining experience.
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Being Lebanese, I will always order a baba ghanoush (a dip made with the charred flesh of the aubergine) when I see it on a menu as it’s a standard bearer. If they can make a good one, it’s likely that everything else will be good. Baba ghanoush is only a dip but it’s a labour of love. I felt the love here. Hummus with cubes of lamb and pine nuts was also lovely, as well as chef’s salad which was essentially a fattouch (a fresh, vibrant salad with crispy pitta croutons, radishes, tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce leaves and pomegranate seeds) but with cubes of feta, a welcome addition. I liked the way it was described as chef’s salad as opposed to fattouch with feta- Chef Roaya wants to put her own spin on dishes and this is a respectful way to do so. We also ordered a basket of freshly made khubus, baked in a tandoor oven so more like a naan than the Arabic two ply thin khubz. For our mains we went sabzi all the way (Persian herb stew), a qurma (slow cooked lamb) sabzi and a halibut sabzi- beautifully presented and punchy with spice and flavour.
The portions are generous, which is as one might expect for the price point so dessert really wasn’t necessary. But, just because it wasn’t needed, doesn’t mean it wasn’t wanted. It was an um ali for us- an Egyptian bread and butter pudding made with croissants steeped in cream and covered with pistachios.
Villa Mamas felt like a wonderful discovery even though it has been around for a while and has obviously withstood the test of time. I can imagine it being packed during the summer months when visitors from the Gulf sweep into London and can dine on the tables out on the pavement but it shouldn’t be overlooked the rest of the year. In fact, during our visit, it was clear that it has won the heart of quite a few locals who were fascinated by this cuisine (lots of good questions overheard which were comprehensively answered by the servers). I think khaleeji cuisine tends towards the sidelines in London but Villa Mamas is doing a great job of nudging it towards the main stage.
Angela Zaher is a freelance writer and regular contributor on restaurants and cookery, find her on Instagram @angela_zaher.
