Concept
Located on the corner of the Principle Hotel looking out to George Street and Charlotte Square and offers a contemporary menu of Eastern Mediterranean dining.
The restaurant interior is immediately intriguing, distressed woodwork and walls interplaying with period elements of the Georgian-era building infused with Levantine influences such as a vibrant colour scheme, rugs hanging on the walls and finished off with vintage travel posters. At first glance the restaurant looks small, but seats 100 covers through the Map Room, Salon and main restaurant.
And if you wondered what BABA means, Mr BABA is a fictitious character based on a vintage photograph found in a souk in Turkey which provides the backdrop to the bar and elements of this image recur within the restaurant and across BABA’s brand collateral.
The Menu
Anyone who knows me knows I love food with a bit of punch to it and BABA’s food offering has that in bucketloads. The menu is based around small plates loaded with finely balanced, rich and fresh flavour combinations, but importantly without the fire-breathing spices you would find in some Asian dishes so don’t be put off, this is all about the flavour.
The menu brings traditional Levantine recipes to life using delicious twists combined with fresh local ingredients. For those unfamliar with Levant cuisine, it’s Arabic food which covers the states of Jordan, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, Syria, and parts of southern Turkey near Adana, Gaziantep, and Antakya. Basic Levant dishes we are all familiar with include hummus and falafel, but there’s so much more that this cuisine.
Highlights on the menu include their Kebabs served alongside the team’s garlic tahini, harissa, zhug, and pittas, lamb shawarma, baharat beef kofta, chicken shawarma and butternut and whipped feta kebab. Need something closer to home they have even thrown in a few little twists like haggis and harissa kibbeh.
If you are a seafood fan you are well catered for with a selection of dishes from squid, merquez sausage and salmorejo to monkfish, chickpeas, tomato, saffron, parsley and feta.
And there is plenty for vegetarians too, their babaganoush is incredible as is the muhammara dip and onion squash salad.
Cocktails are also inspired by the eastern Mediterranean, from the Pistachio Julep (Maker’s Mark, brandy, chocolate spirit, pistachio, mint) to the Bloody Mariam (vodka, harissa, lemon, ras-el-hanout, sumac, tomato juice, za’atar-pickled vegetables, olives). All of Mr BABA’s cellar wines have been carefully selected from the eastern Mediterranean including Cyprus, Lebanon, Turkey and Greece.
We Ate
Our waiter suggested having a few of the smaller plates and a couple of the larger plates to share, like most mezze/tapas restaurant, dishes come out as an when they are prepared in the kitchen so it is all about sharing, so get that pitta break torn up and get dipping!
We asked the obvious question, what are the most popular items in the menu, and based our decisions off that, I am not too up on my Levantine food but was eager to explore!
He recommended from the Mezze section of the menu, the Babaganoush and Muhammara. The babaganoush was incredible, I actually prefer this to hummous because it is slightly lighter, it comes with pomegranate and mint on top. I had never had muhammara which is made from a base of red peppers that are blended with oil, and finished with walnuts, chilis and mint. I was told this was the most popular mezze on the menu and I can see why it was so moreish!
The dipping mezzes come with big plump warm pitta breads to tear up and dip.
And just out of curiosity we ordered a hand-dived scallop, which comes with chermoula, tzatziki and preserved lemon. This whole dining experience for me was about learning about new flavours and wow chermoula is incredible. It’s a marinade for fish, made from coriander, that is so so good, I even looked up the recipe to see how I could make it at home.
From the Grill section we went for the squid with merguez sausage and salmorejo and the onion squash, beetroot, halloumi, pickled lemon and nut dukka and orded a side of baked sweet potato, zhug and crème fraîche. All the dishes are so bright and colourful and the interplay of flavours and textures works so well together.
Once we finished this we were stuffed! They have desserts, but you know what I was so full up, I can normally eat for Britain, but I was pleasantly full. I did hear that the Olive Oil Sponge was really quite delicious!
Final Thoughts
My excitement of BABA that was brewing up lived up to expectations! Food is delicious and I mean really tasty, you do need to order a few dishes so it potentially doesn’t work out that cheap, but if you are looking for a restaurant in the city centre that is offering something quite unique in taste then give it a go. We highly recommend it and I will be back!
Address: 130 George St Edinburgh
Web: baba.restaurant
