London Restaurant Review: Carmel, Queen’s Park

I’m going to send you on a bit of a detour from the normal London tourist areas for today’s London restaurant review and throw you into one of the most charming neighbourhoods in the big city. Today we’re headed to Queen’s Park, a beautiful residential neighbourhood that packs a powerful punch when it comes to the restaurant scene. Neighbours would probably prefer I kept this as a local secret, but I’m shouting about a beautiful new restaurant in the area, that’s just a hop, skip and a jump from me in West London. This is Carmel, located on the picturesque street of Lonsdale Road, in the North West part of the city.

The menu at Carmel is eastern Mediterranean inspired, think Middle Eastern flatbreads and lots of sharing plates. Mezze is the name of the game here at lunch, but whatever you order, I can guarantee that every forkful will be flavourful. For our meal we requested a lot of “small plates.” The flatbreads really won the game here for me. The rich spiced toppings enclosed by pillowy soft and perfectly baked bread make this the ultimate comfort food. Truly, I want a man delivering this every morning after a big night out! Other highlights included the Mussels Escabeche, Iberiko Tomato Salad and the Slow-Grilled Urfa Chilli Chicken, which must be mentioned as being one of the most moist chicken breasts I have ever cut into in my life!

The staff at Carmel were delightful, their recommendations incredibly helpful as well as spot on and the atmosphere was perfect for a ladies lunch. It helped that the sun was out the day we dined, so we were eating al fresco in London in January. That doesn’t happen very often but it made this a ladies lunch to remember!

Definitely check out Carmel for your next London culinary adventure.