Toum, London W1: ‘The rotisserie is very much not rotating. Has there been a power cut?’ – restaurant review | Grace Dent on restaurants
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I will never forget the vegetarian aubergine schnitzel option – it had the texture of a bloated sanitary towel.
Toum, a modern Lebanese rotisserie with French culinary influences and chic cocktail-bar vibes, has recently appeared just off Regent Street, near Hamleys toy store. I often use Hamleys as a landmark for non-Londoners, because they might not find directions such as “It’s on Maddox Street, close to the Kingly Street food drag” all that useful, but may very well have experienced, or at least heard of, Hamleys’ daily “Friends Parade” with Professor Bubbles. If so, Toum is all of five minutes’ walk away, and serves cold tomatillo martinis and, more importantly, posh rotisserie chicken from a grill behind the chefs’ heads that’s in full view as you approach the front door. So very inviting.
Or at least it is on social media. Toum is the pared-back sibling of Aline up the road, it’s open seven days a week and has a beautiful vinyl listening bar called Encore in the basement. While Aline offers a lengthy celebration of traditional Lebanese comfort food – two dozen meze, and sea bass and lamb chops from the grill – Toum keeps things simple, especially at lunchtime, when it’s even simpler still. There’s that humble roast chicken – described by breathless bloggers as “impossibly juicy” – served with toum (garlic sauce), although chimichurri and Café de Paris butter are on offer, too. There’s also a steak option and a vegetarian aubergine schnitzel, as well as a light waft of meze – well, hummus, pickles and that’s about it. Then again, in surroundings as elegant as these, with staff dressed so nicely and that rotating grill filled with succulent, Lebanese-spiced chicken by the front door, who would need anything more?.
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