Paddington Lunch Box

Tag: Fish

  • Queen Of Sheba

    Queen Of Sheba

    Oh don’t you love heatwaves. And don’t you love how the tube train timetable just melts in a heatwave.

    Delays on the train on the way to work.

    Delays on the tube on the way to work.

    Severe delays on the tube on the way back from work.

    Delays on the train on the way back from work.

    Alas I’m closer to being fired than FIRE.

    Queen of Sheba is a Yemeni restaurant near Paddington station. I wasn’t actually going to go here, but the place I intended to visit was closed (heatwave?) so Queen of Sheba it was.

    They have 106 things on their menu.

    Why?

    And then they bring you lentil soup which I didn’t want on a lunch break, especially not on a lunch break in a heatwave.

    It was very thin for a soup, felt like plenty of turmeric and pepper.

    I ended up ordering the Fish Makhabaza, priced at £20.00.

    It came on a bed of un-eaten salad, as I’d also ordered a side salad.

    In places it was eye-poppingly spicy, though mostly it was fine. It took a while to work out how best to debone, and I was forever picking out bones from what I was about to eat. Otherwise it was pleasant enough.

    The salad was zingy; cucumber, lettuce, tomatoes mostly – some crunchy green pepper too. I think a liberal sprinkling of sumac on top – the tomato was too cold and had come out of a fridge, also were pretty basic tomatoes.

    Lots of food but kind of underwhelming – I neither finished my soup or salad, and there was probably some fish wasted.

    Score of 6 out of 10.

  • Souvlaki Greek Eatery @ Market Halls

    Souvlaki Greek Eatery @ Market Halls

    Well I was back from my holiday and expecting to hate every minute of my day, yet the commute was smooth and the day was alright.

    Except for burnt fish.

    We went to Market Halls for lunch, it’s kind of safe for a group, and there weren’t that many traders that I haven’t tried yet.

    Souvlaki Greek Eatery was one of the few – offering souvlaki, trays, skewers and other fairly random dishes like spicy chicken pasta.

    I’d ordered the fish tray at £16.75 – which had a scattering of vegetables on it such as red onion, tomatoes and a small piece of jarred pepper. They all tasted as they should do, without any excitement.

    The fries were pretty basic and kind of crappy, probably from Brakes or somewhere – a bit of a dry yack to them. But the spice on them did cheer them up somewhat.

    Then the piece de resistance – I certainly resisted eating it. Burnt fish. Supposedly a whole seabass fillet – perhaps I should just have eaten the fish and left the skin, but the skin was fairly cremated and it just tasted of burnt.

    This all came on a rather dry and flaky flatbread.

    The mustard yoghurt was quite nice, but I wouldn’t let it skew your decision towards ordering from here I’m afraid.

    Rating of 4.00 out of 10. One of the worst things I’ve had on my lunch.

    Also curious about the guy on the desk near me that spent 10 minutes thoroughly cleaning his desk, then left the wipes, etc on another desk.

    Oh and the train home was painfully delayed, you’ll be relieved to know.