IMAD'S SYRIAN KITCHEN

HAVING LOST HIS RESTAURANT EMPIRE TO THE WAR IN SYRIA, IMAD ALARNAB HAS BEGUN REBUILDING IT IN THE UK, WITH PLENTY OF FLAIR AND FLAVOUR

The story of Imad’s Syrian Kitchen, which opened in London’s Soho in May, first begins six years and 2,000 miles away. Imad Alarnab was a successful chef in Damascus, with three restaurants and several cafes to his name. Then the war came — and in six short days, each one was destroyed. So it was that Alarnab found himself making the perilous passage across Europe before being granted asylum in the UK. He arrived with £12 — just enough for the bus fare to Doncaster, where his sister lived. After a stint working as a car salesman, he returned to his first love: cooking. He started supper clubs, falafel bars and pop-up restaurants until the time came that he was able to crowdfund £50,000 to open his own place.

When I visit, Alarnab glides from table to table in the white-walled dining room, dispensing smiles, enquiring as to whether his guests enjoyed this dish or that and extolling the virtues of an aubergine here, a baklava there. His avuncular jolliness, combined with sure knowledge and passion for the food he cooks, is infectious. The waiting staff are superb; they have a fine teacher in Alarnab.

The menu is divided between eight vegetarian dishes and five more substantial lamb and chicken dishes. We order most of them; there are several standouts and not one bum note. The hummus is rich, deep and garlicky, with a crown of whole chickpeas. We make short work of it with the airy flatbreads, which emit puffs of hot steam as we tear into them.