RESTAURANT REVIEW | Medjool

Name: Confidentials
Address: 18 - 22 Lloyd Street, Manchester, Greater Manchester, M2 5WA, GB
Telephone: 0161 832 2880

Deanna Thomas 10 May 2016

I SUSPECT it’s a real advantage for a suburban bistro serving Middle Eastern cuisine to be reviewed on a warm, sunny day.

This is just the relaxed sort of food to eat on rare, balmy afternoons while watching the world go by. Plus it’s no co-incidence that these all-day grazing dishes work perfectly alongside a cool beer, a chilled glass of white wine or refreshing rose lemonade.

This neighbourhood restaurant/cafe even had the forethought to considerately park itself near to Sefton Park for an ambient, post-feed perambulation.

Having lived in Cairo for ten years, owner Caroline offers an array of dishes using recipes she discovered there. She has adorned the brightly coloured walls with her collection of bazaar trinkets, such as mirrors and Turkish slippers, which highlight the geographical theme without overdoing it.

Her dishes haven’t just been inspired by Egypt, they span the whole Middle East including Morroco, Turkey and Persia. In fact, she’s imbued the menu with the whole historically, all-welcoming Liverpudlian mercantile ethos by alluding to pinchos and tapas and including ingredients such as chorizo. Even the eponymous Medjool dates are stuffed with Parma ham and English Stilton cheese; Tomayto, tomarto, tapas, mezze – whatever, just bring it all.

There are as many ways to spell houmus, hummus, hoummus, as there are recipes for it, but the hommous at Medjool (£3.95) is a worthy dish of velvety mashed chickpeas mixed with plenty of garlic, lightened up with lemon juice and brought back down with earthy tahini. Theirs is a mile away from the modified and over-processed slick available in supermarkets. We also ordered Babaganoug (£4.50) which is similar to hommous but uses smoked aubergine in place of chickpeas. Medjool’s is light, with only a gentle smoky undercurrent which doesn’t leave a dominant aftertaste (which interferes with drink). Both come with shards of soft pitta bread and were hungrily dispatched.

Much as we’d love to have gone through all the hot and cold mezze/tapas, we were only able to choose a couple more. When I’ve had Borak before, they’ve usually been single-mouthful polite affairs, the size of an average pinkie finger. Not here. Medjool’s Spiced Chicken Borak (£4.95) comprise of two bold pastry rolls you could have satisfyingly enclosed a fist around if they weren’t still fryer-hot. The chicken filling was enrobed in a delicious sauce full of aromatically comforting spices.

Bandari prawns (£5.95) came in a little copper pan and had been sautéed in garlic, herbs and spices. The Persian style tomato based sauce veered more towards the Far side of the East with more than a touch of an Indian influence. This was turning into a meal with a world tour thrown in, but still fusion rather than confusion.

Bandari prawns and chicken borek

I suggest the hot and cold mezze are so much in demand that not many people get past them to the main courses. The kitchen seemed a little surprised by our extended lunchtime order so left us with an ever so slightly-too-long wait which we’d have filled with wine if we hadn’t brought the car (and two kids under the age of ten).

My seven-year-old boy’s eyes nearly popped out of his head when his Grilled King Prawns and Chorizo skewers (£11.95) arrived. He was made up not only to have been given two of his favourite ingredients, but also that they’d substituted rice on the side for chips, plus the fact that they came on two long metal prongs he could poke his sister with once he’d eaten.

Halloumi and Turkish Sausage

She was happy enough with her mini kebab of (oddly deep fried, rather than grilled) Halloumi and Turkish Sausage (£5.50) and I was impressed to overhear them negotiate the swapping of components like mergers and acquisition professionals.

Greed must have blinded me to detail when I ordered my Medjool Mixed Grill (£12.95) as I assumed it would be the usual over-facing carnivore’s wet dream, but this version allowed for comparatively civilised tasters of marinated chicken, lamb kofta and Turkish sausage threaded onto skewers (en garde, boy.)

Medjool Lamb Chump (£12.95) although lovingly marinated in spices, was the fatty, chewy side of untrimmed and the deep fried new potatoes had been too deeply deep fried. A bit of characteristic care and attention would easily bring this dish back up to the level it should be.

We were too stuffed for desserts (and the kids had spotted an ice-cream van outside Sefton Park on the way in) but the homemade sweetmeats in the refrigerated counter looked perfect for nibbling with a pot of one of their dozen teas or maybe a strong Turkish coffee.

If both parties like garlic, Medjool would be a great local place to come for a date (see what I did there?) The atmosphere is relaxed, friendly and bright without being contrived. Like magpies they have cherry-picked a range of the most delicious sharing dishes from across a couple of continents, bringing them back to Lark Lane.

It’s impossible not to like this place.

NB: All scored Confidential reviews are paid for by the company, never the restaurant or a PR outfit. Critics dine unannounced and their opinions are completely independent of any commercial relationships.