OMA [London, Borough Market]

[medgirl]

I was excited to try this modern Greek restaurant, which was given a glowing review by Grace Dent. I booked a table and was reminded that I would be charged a £50 penalty if I was a no show or cancelled with less than 24 hours’ notice. From what I saw, I’m not sure they need to apply those measures as Borough Market is always heaving and there was a queue of walk-ins waiting for a table the whole time I was there.

The menu - sorry, not a clear photo .

I had an apricot sharpener to start, they have 2 sizes, I had the small, which was really really small, probably about 2 tablespoons worth of drink.

Then babaghanoush with a side of laffa (a flatbread). The babaghanoush had a tahini dressing and was garnished with Jerusalem artichoke crisps. The laffa was freshly baked and brushed with butter - divine.

Lamb belly on hummus - melt in your mouth lamb.

Seabass crudo. I didn’t try this as I’m not a fan of raw fish but my husband loved it.

Deconstructed spanakopita with malawach flatbread. This was like the best molten spanakopita filling with a side of the flakiest paratha.

Black fig salad with goats’ cheese and chopped hazelnuts. This was amazing - so simple but so good. Perfectly ripe fig.

‘Mains’ were lamb with green sauce and just and octopus with red chilli and fava bean puree. These mains were pretty small portions. The octopus was one small tentacle with minimal red chilli. Everything was quite rich so I felt quite full but my big eater husband felt he could have happily eaten a larger portion.

Dessert: after all that rich food we were looking for something light and refreshing. Peach with melon sorbet and finely shredded mint was just the ticket. We shared one portion. Again, a small portion for £8 - about half a peach worth of diced peach and one small scoop of sorbet. And the peach was not perfectly ripe - some hard pieces in there which is a miss in my opinion when they are charging premium prices.

Bill was as expected for a swanky place in Borough Market - pricey and inclusive of 12.5% service. The service was very good - the server was knowledgeable and ensured our small plates came out in a reasonably paced procession rather than all at once. The place got very loud as the evening went on. Open kitchen in the middle of the restaurant adding to the lively atmosphere.

[medgirl]

[Harters (John Hartley - a culinary patriot eating & cooking in Northwest England)]

Nice review. Thanks. I’m most disappointed for you with the dessert. If you can’t get ripe in August , when can you?

Greek food is something that seems to generally bypass this part of the world. But a place has sort of reopened and we hope to try soon. I say “sort of” as they used to have a Cypriot place but that closed a few years back. The reopening now has a more generic Greek menu. Maybe a good thing. Maybe not.

[GretchenS]

That all sounds delicious and you chose both lamb dishes that called to me from the menu - they looked as good as they sounded!

[calam1ty (Jan)]

Remember the days London was full of Greek food? (That and Italian.) Anyway, I’m not a fan of the cuisine and here in Toronto there’s a ton of it (all Greek salads and souvkaki -ugh). Your menu sounds great, though. The price actually sounds really good considering you had all those dishes in into-itself Borough Market. The lamb in Toronto is really disappointing and you had me drooling for lamb in Britain. There’s aubergine (zalouk, actually - I alternate on making two aubergine dishes - zalouk or ganoush) in my fridge and I’ve now earmarked it for lunch.

[medgirl]

Yes. Normally Greek cuisine wouldn’t be very high of my list of eating out plans. But this place sounded very interesting and surpassed our expectations.