Wifey and I have become quite partial to Persian food over the last year or so. We’re not sure if there genuinely is a proliferation of Persian restaurants of late, or if we’re just observing the “since I bought my new car I see them everywhere” effect, but we’re learning to tell the difference between good and - well - indifferent Persian food.
Behesht, unfortunately, falls into the latter category. We had passed it many times and Wifey in particular had one of those “feelings” about the place, so on Saturday we decided to try it for lunch.
On walking in we had high hopes. Split into five rooms and much, much bigger inside than you could ever guess from the street, the interior is a fantasy land of Middle Eastern décor and indoor water features.
We sat down and ordered from the very reasonably priced menu, which, by the way, somebody really should proof read. My okra main course included something called “green papers” while, alarmingly, several of the starters including my baba ganoush, had as their main ingredient either grilled or baked aborigine!
We were refused tap water. I think it’s an urban myth that it’s a legal requirement to offer it, but it’s the only restaurant I know of that doesn’t and that alone is enough to stop me from going back.
Something we really like about Persian restaurants is breaking a raw egg yolk into the rice. That too wasn’t available.
The service was, to put it politely, offhand. Our waiter had all the charm and some of the sleaze of a used car salesman and we were left feeling as if we’d turned up at an inconvenient time at the house of someone who then felt obliged to entertain us.
The portions though, are very generous especially given the price. So much so in fact that we decided to finish early and asked for the food to be wrapped up to take away. We were somewhat nonplussed when our waiter returned with three Tupperware boxes for us to pack the food into ourselves!
1082 - 1084 Harrow Road
London NW10 5NL
But don’t go there
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December 26th, 2008 at 8:14 pm
It is the worse experience i have ever seen in my life,first of all when i arrived found the guy on cashier screaming at the customers and speaking in a very rude way and seemed that he couldnot manage to get his duties done while we were 3 customers at that time then i tryed to pay for my order and then found him throughing the card machine infront of me while talking to some other customer on the phone which was really bad service and was even was speaking in a very bad and rude way then when checking the order at home found that it was not what we ordered and was some thing else which again was not of any convinience at all.
I will never go there again and will never recommed it to any of the people i like .
26/12/2008 at 06.10pm
December 30th, 2008 at 7:36 pm
I’ll second that Marco.
Actually reading my review back I notice that I didn’t mention the food, the appalling service being the overriding memory.
Well to describe the food as bland would have been to flatter it is all I have to say on that subject.
Far, far better and maybe 3/4 mile up the road is the newer but much more highly recommended Salaam.
May 7th, 2009 at 5:20 am
in fact that i decided to finish early and asked for the food to be wrapped up to take away.thank u for sharing.
June 20th, 2009 at 2:38 pm
This is an incredibly poor example of a persian restaurant in London; appauling service. I was shocked to see its owner and his son lead a pro- ahmadinejad demonstration in London recently (featured on the news) which I think says it all!!! I certainly don’t want to line the pockets of these Hezbollah people. If you want a nice experience at a persian restaurant in London with great friendly service, I reccommend Sufi on Askew Road, Acton.