Mahdi

A rather disappointed affair

Mahdi is an Iranian restaurant in Hammersmith serving traditional grilled Persian food, it was never on my agenda to try it but one of my friend had dinner there the other evening and he told me it is well worth a try. I wasn't sure what to eat for my Friday lunch so I headed down to Mahdi based on his suggestion, and gosh I will never take advice from him when its come to food again...

The décor itself is beautiful inside Mahdi, which really does give an authentic feel to it with the painting, carpets and lighting. There were 3 of us but the waiter choose to squeeze us on a table for 2, I totally get it if the restaurant was busy but it wasn't even half full! On to the food, we had some nan bread with yoghurt.The nan bread was decent at best but the yoghurt was very underwhelming, lack of fresh flavours from the lemon and garlic, I suspect it was pre done rather then freshly make on the day.

To the main courses, I ordered Chelov kebab barg makhsoos, grilled skewer of thin tender spring lamb fillet with skewer of mined meat, served with rice, tomato and salad. The lamb fillet was not tender at all, over cooked and tasted like rubber, the texture and taste reminded me form the basic ranges you get from supermarket, I was just shocked how bad it was and wonder how this place got a score of 20 from Zagat. The mined lamb skewer on the other hand was better, good seasoning from the saffron and onions, but in term of quality still far away from Fez Mangal and Lahore Kebab house. The rice itself was properly the best thing on the dish, good depth of flavours from the lemon juice and herbs, boiled at the right temperature with great texture.

What can I say? The food just doesn't justified the price tag it commanded, while the portion was massive, it just lack quality and I take quality over quantity any day. 


Food 3
Service 2
Ambience 6
Value 3

£13 per head

215-217 King St  London W6 9JT

www.mahdirestaurant.co/