June 16, 2001

Shish, London NW2

There's an encouraging lack of wrapping at Shish, a glasswalled sore thumb in redbrick Willesden, a suburb which is far from being a gastronomic also-ran. This is where the first Cantonese restaurant in London was established in the Sixties and there are to this day estimable south Indian and Japanese outfits. Shish would be a welcome addition to any area.

A long serpentine bar winds its way beneath exposed ventilation ducts and between exposed concrete piloti. There are also a few separate tables. In one part of the exposed kitchen there are covetable Spanish Zumex juicers, in a second a middle-eastern bread oven, in a third a salad preparation area, in a fourth a char grill. There is music here but it's OK, microtonic wailing from Morocco, perhaps. The distrait, harassed staff have the knack of avoiding one's eye but are otherwise congenial enough. And the cooking is mostly first rate. Indeed a kofta kebab of well-herbed, well-spiced minced lamb recalled the benchmark kofta that I ate in the Jewish quarter of Fez 31 years ago. A similar lamb mix provides the filling for a splendid dumpling.

What is its provenance? I have encountered lesser versions of it in Afghani and Nepalese restaurants (where it is called momo) but Shish's repertoire is middle eastern with a nod to north African and one or two oddities such as a skewer of chicken marinated in soy, much better than it sounds incidentally. There are numerous delicious and virtuous salads -french beans with sesame oil, sesame seeds and garlic; aubergine mashed with chilli and lime; roasted peppers with feta; courgettes in a thin yoghurt sauce; pousse and watercress with olive oil and lemon. Halva ice-cream was remarkable. Indeed this is an altogether remarkable outfit, which has rescued one of the most widely traduced dishes by doing it scrupulously with top-class ingredients.

For the more usual standard of kebab turn right out of Shish and there's an adjacent hole in the wall. Or turn left out of Shish and there's an adjacent hole in the wall.