Ashtar Restaurant, Osborne Road, Southsea
Southsea attracts many ethnic restaurateurs wishing to promote their country's type of cooking.
Recent months have seen the opening of Portsmouth's first and very welcome Ethiopian restaurant on Osborne Road, a new Indian one and a Lebanese eatery by the name of Ashtar also cheek by jowl on Restaurant Row.
Lebanon's cuisine is, of course, not a new departure for the area. The food is similar in many aspects to the many parts of the Middle East which can be found in several excellent restaurants locally, with Ashtar's menu partly treading a well-worn path.
Don't expect bells and whistles in this minimal restaurant, as the dcor is more in keeping with the kind of place you'd find down many a side street in Beirut, Tyre in the south of the country or Baalbek in the Beqaa Valley where the owners come from.
Marble flooring is a given – and a status – in the Middle East alongside large, hospitable tables. Mosaic tables greet you on entry to the small seating area outside, with a bar and an open kitchen beyond some bamboo curtains which separate the main restaurant from a further space.
The music, 100 per cent Arabic on the night I visited, added to the atmosphere.
Despite many French influences infiltrating Lebanon during France's occupation during the 20th century, none is evident on the menu.
Kebbah, fried minced lamb with burghul wheat, onions and spices – Lebanon's proud national dish part of the hot mezzas dishes.
The owners have gone for some traditional dishes, but also many ones unknown to us, authenticity part of their DNA.
Of course, you'll find stalwarts such as hoummus (chick pea puree found in every supermarket); tabbouleh (salad of parsley, tomatoes, bulghar wheat and olive oil); falafel (deep-fried chick pea and broad bean balls) and halloumi. But there are a myriad dishes to discover outside these well-known ones.
Sujuck (grilled Lebanese spicy sausage); sawda (chicken livers with lemon and vegetables); foul moudamas (boiled broad beans with lemon juice, olive oil and garlic); moujardarah (rice with lentils and onions); kallag (Lebanese bread with haloumi cheese) and makdous (pickled aubergine with pepper, garlic, nuts and olive oil) form part of the cold and hot mezzas, main courses a mix of mixed grills including lamb shawarama (marinated lamb with salad and bread), kofta (grilled minced lamb with pitta bread) or Ashtar chicken (baby chicken with garlic sauce and salad).
'Let me look after you!' declared the chef-owner, making the menu metaphorically disappear as he came to take my order.
Reader, this is the best way in many parts of the world, the kitchen often operating on a shoestring rather than a larder-full of ingredients ready to pull out of the hat to cook on demand, this new restaurant with its limited produce on a Monday night no exception.
So I did.
Having worked in the West Bank and Beirut I discovered it pays to trust.
I was instantly transported to the area – despite Rowland's Pharmacy and the sari shop opposite my table – by the superb baba ganoush (grilled pureed aubergines with garlic, sesame oil and lemon juice); the freshest of tangy fresh tabbouleh and stuffed vine leaves.
The best kofta, with a sprinkling of sumac, a spice mix, I've come across followed, the only downside the dull pitta bread which lacked substance and warmth.
Outside, the mosaic tables were being taken by hookah smokers, the water-filled pipes with apple or raisin and mint mix a draw for Middle Eastern expats.
Who needs smart surroundings and stiff service when meeting true hospitality and genuine food? I don't.
Throw away the textbooks, college hospitality students – and restaurant managers – to see how it should and can be done, Ashtar giving many clues along the way.
My bill came to just under 13 for a memorable meal served with home-made generosity and care.
Restaurant Row, you are on the up. Watch your back those restaurateurs who just don't get the art of hospitality. These guys will see you packing your bags.
Ashtar Restaurant, 31 Osborne Road, Southsea PO5 3LR. (023) 9273 6705.
Open: Midday-2am every day.
Food: ****
Service: ****
Atmosphere: ****
Disabled access: Fine, with loads of space for wheelchairs.
How to get there: Osborne Road is off Clarence Parade, the restaurant at the Queen's Hotel end of the street on the opposite side. Parking on-street.
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Sunday 12 February 2012
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