Simurgh

Simurgh
17 Garrick Street
London
WC2E 9BL
www.simurgh.co.uk
Date visited: Sunday 28^th August 2001
Attendees: Myself and The cyclist
Price of meal: £27 each for 3 courses and juice

After an active museum day I was actually feeling like eating a tagine but the closet we could find around the Covent Garden area (and I know there are lots very close) was Simurgh, which is a Persian and as I wasn’t entirely sure what Persian cuisine was like and thought it must be fairly similar to tagine sort of food so went for it (and because I have not tried this restaurant before but it looked quite popular each time I walked pass).

We went in and it was a small and moderately cramped restaurant and not put together with comfort in mind – wooden seating all very close together.  Anyway we got a table fairly quickly as we were eating a relatively early dinner. The interior has Persian things slapped about and to be honest I don’t think much effort went into it. We were given menus and it took a while to get the waiter’s attention to place our order.

Starter:
Myself: Aubergine Bourani (grilled aubergine in yoghurt and garlic sauce) with a coconut juice
The Cyclist: Chicken livers with a coconut juice
Both: Lavash (thin Persian bread)

The unimpressive Aubergine Bourani

The over cooked chicken livers

The bread pretending it is fresh because it was warm!

The menu seemed quite interesting and I excitedly ordered the aubergine thinking it would be similar to an Egyptian grilled aubergine dish I had before but what I got was a yoghurty garlicky mush. I wasn’t very impressed. There wasn’t much flavour to it at all and I couldn’t notice aubergine apart from the fact it had that slimy mushed aubergine texture. The Cyclist’s chicken livers were well over cooked and came in a non-descript gravy like sauce. The bread, whilst warm I was pretty sure was not fresh. Starters did not impress and I had little hope for the rest of the meal. The coconut juice was nice but it came from a carton which would have been better value if I had gone and got it from the supermarket – not much else to be said.

I would tell you what I and the Cyclist spoke about but I can’t remember exact topics, I am pretty sure it was about food (he is a big food fan to though more into cooking that eating out).

So our plates were cleared and our mains brought out.

Main course:
Myself: Persian Maygoo stew (prawns in herb and tamarind stew) with salad and 3 different kinds of rice
The Cyclist: Duck granate (duck legs in pomegranate flavoured stew) with salad and 3 different kinds of rice

The over cooked Persian Maygoo stew

The sweet Duck granate

The mains generally tasted very nice and the Cyclist was very pleased with his duck, which was falling off the bone tender. It would have been a little too sweet for me if I was to have the whole dish but having a taste it was very nice. I preferred my prawns which were fairly generous through there were not that big. The stew was tomato based, the rice was well cooked but nothing special and the salad was ok, not that fresh but not bad either. The rice and the salad was the same with my dish as it was with the Cyclist. The mains were certainly better than the starters but still not that great – there were obviously great vats of the stuff in the kitchen where the chefs just needed to dole everything out as requested. This probably explains why the duck was so tender and my prawns were over cooked but the sauce had lots of good deep flavours.

Our dishes were cleared away and I decided I wanted to try some of the interesting sounding dessert and the Cyclist decided to join me. It took a while to get the waiter’s attention to order and generally this was the same problem throughout the evening – the service is not very attentive.

Dessert:
Myself: Saffron, pistachio and pomegranate ice cream (sorry forgot to take a photo but you know what 3 scoops of ice cream looks like)
The Cyclist:  Baklava with vanilla ice cream

The expensive baklava

So the desserts came and I should have known better and taken example from the first two courses – not to have high expectations. The ice cream was nice but I could have brought in big tubs from most Asian food shops for the same price as my three scoops. Nothing special but nice to try something different I guess – the saffron I quite liked and I don’t think I actually got any pomegranate but a scoop of vanilla instead. The baklava was as you get anywhere (in fact I have had better for half the price from a shop) and for your money you only got four pieces. Not really worth it and the vanilla ice cream was economy so not really worth it.

The toilets are downstairs, they are cramped and not great. Doesn’t seem like anyone checks them. I was not impressed.

Summary: I wouldn’t return to Simurgh, there is nothing special about it and if they are really doing Persian cuisine there is nothing special about that either and you’d be better off going to any other Middle Eastern restaurant. The service is inattentive and mechanical and the entire restaurant gives the impression that they only want to make money – there is no passion for the food (they don’t even try to hide the fact it all comes out of packets and the fact they produce everything in vats), care over the interior or joy in the atmosphere from the staff. I would not be surprised if this place closed down really. Actually I’m more surprised it is still open with the location it has and the competition in the area.