Akub

From the archive: We visited Akub in January 2023

Just off the main road near Notting Hill Gate station is this cosy multi-floor restaurant serving Palestinian food. Opened last year, and the menu contains mostly sharing dishes.

We started off our drinks with two Palestinian beers, a White, and an IPA, which fitted very well with our selection of mezzes/starters/whatever you want to call it. Before the starters showed up, we ordered a bowl of salted lupin beans, called Turmous, which were very tasty. Similar to a mix of almonds and perhaps Edamame? At least, the way you eat them was like the Japanese bean snack, as it involved removing the skin in your mouth — if you were so inclined. I was; my partner wasn't.

The starters that we ordered included three balls of a goats cheese (Labaneh) covered in three different kinds of spices. Sumak, and two others that I can’t remember right now. Besides that, we got a grilled Nabulsi cheese, which was covered in some oil and seeds, and was slightly squishy like fried halloumi can be, a little salty like feta, but overall a better texture than I think that over-fried halloumi could be. Our third starter were spiced squash dumplings, Shish Barak with Beetroot, which was also delicious.

Our "main" to share was the short rib Fatteh, which was slow cooked beef with spices, with garlic yoghurt, crispy (like really crispy) onions, with some fried focaccia squares to add some more texture.

Even after that, we were still not 100% satisfied, and had a rich chocolate cremeux and pistachio ice cream to finish. It was all so tasty that we forgot to take any photos!

The service was attentive, and our waitress explained approximately how many things we should order from the menu, and she was spot on.