Adams Cafe

Great cafe in London W12 by day, Mediterranean restaurant serving speciality dishes from Tunisia and Morocco by night.

Adams Cafe

http://adamscafe.co.uk

Adams Café | Askew Business Network

During the day, Adams Café cooks and serves traditional English breakfasts, specially marinated flame-grills, daily changing lunchtime specials, delicious (huge) salads, omelettes, soups, baguettes and paninis all made to order with a cappuccino, cold beer or glass of wine.

Our English café is magically transformed into a romantic, candlelit, Mediterranean restaurant, famous for its fragrant tajines, hearty couscous dishes, fresh fish and seafood, and some rather special Moroccan and Tunisian beers and wines.

When we lived in Paris, we would try all sorts of restaurants from typical French bistros, to Michelin star establishments, to our favourite local Algerian couscous café.

Our daytime café, which totally transforms into an atmospheric restaurant in the evening, is a unique concept which we achieve in a theatrical way by using different lighting systems in the day and the evening.

Adams Café is a long-established family-run restaurant with personal service from a husband and wife front-of-house team which is also pretty unique in London.

Adams Café - London Restaurant Reviews | Hardens

Abdel and Frances are the husband/wife team who have been running the award-winning Adams Café since 1989 (the year their son, Adam, was born – hence the name of their restaurant).

Having met in Paris and spent several years in France and Tunisia, they saw a gap in the London restaurant scene for North African cuisine.

Adams Café which magically transforms from an English-style breakfast café by day to an atmospheric Mediterranean restaurant by night has become a local institution.

Their Mega Breakfasts as well as their hearty couscous dishes, aromatic tajines and giant flame-grill prawns are legendary.

‘Fantastic value for money’ combined with healthy, home-cooked dishes bursting with flavour and relaxed, friendly service from the owners are what you will find at Adams Café on Askew Road.

Leon, 35 Great Marlborough Street, London, W1 | The Independent

I was lured in one day by the promise of healthy fast-food – as opposed to so many of its Soho neighbours, which offer either healthy food (no meat, no dairy, no fun) or fast-food (of which nothing need be said) – and soon I was scurrying back to work each day to eat slap-up "big dishes" of tangy Moroccan meatballs with brown rice and crunchy slaw, or sweet-potato falafel with punchy aioli straight out of the sticker-adorned brown-card box.

That and the fact that despite its reputation for turning out quick, tasty, healthy takeaways for breakfast and lunch, Leon has a little-known evening service, where you eat off a plate, rather than out of the brown boxes.

It's nothing like the big fast-food chains, thank the lord – but if you want a posh pit-stop pre- or post-theatre/ cinema in London, Leon is just the place.

n Scores: 1-9 stay home and cook, 10-11 needs help, 12 ok, 13 pleasant enough, 14 good, 15 very good, 16 capable of greatness, 17 special, can't wait to go back, 18 highly honourable, 19 unique and memorable, 20 as good as it gets Leon 35 Great Marlborough Street, London W1, tel: 020 7487 5280 Breakfast, lunch and dinner daily.

£40 for dinner for two with wine A regular greasy spoon by day, at night this family-run Shepherd's Bush favourite serves delicious tagines and couscous and other authentic Tunisian dishes with great charm Quirky premises make this an atmospheric destination at any time of day – from top-quality breakfasts, via tea through to sweet suppers with a romantic vibe This friendly and relaxed city-centre dining-room above an excellent deli serves hearty comfort food; it's a smallish place with a great atmosphere (including for romance)

A Bit of Tunisia in West London at Adams Cafe | Tamarind and Thyme

Run by a husband and wife team (he is Tunisian, she is English and affectionately known as ‘the boss’ by the former), the little cafe has been there for 15 years.

The menu states that you can replace a main course with two starters; we discussed starting with a brik and then following with two further briks.

Two large, fresh, grilled sardines with blistered skins arrived with the chermoula sauce in a little filo pastry cup.

To follow, I wanted couscous and ordered the Couscous à l’Agneau – with lamb on the bone cooked in the sauce.

I received a large bowlful of couscous, a tureen full of lamb and vegetables in a tomato based broth, and a plate to put together my meal.

Adam's Cafe restaurant review 2010 February London | Tunisian ...

The wine list is a bit of a joke: choices such as “St Emilion £14” reads like something from a restaurant in Somerset from the 1970s.

Apparently they are about to revamp the wine list, which would be welcome, though pesky details like the growers seem to be a step too far based on the bemused look on the face of the manager when I suggested it.

I began with a pair of sardines, which sadly were cooked too long and so were rather dried out, served with a pleasant chermoula sauce, a Moroccan sauce made from coriander, garlic, lemon and olive oil; this was actually quite good, the lemon giving a welcome freshness.

The meat was certainly tender, dropping off the bone, and the lemon added welcome acidity, though the overall effect was something of a mush (11/20).

We tried Crepe Barbere, Moroccan style pancake with honey sauce, which was, to be honest, just bad.

Adams Cafe | Restaurants in Shepherd's Bush, London

Head here after 7pm, though, and mottled lampshades scatter pretty patterns of light across a candlelit room that’s decorated in muted blues and greens, with ornate ceramic tiling.

The menu is helpfully split into prices for one, two or three courses; you can mix and match as you like and it’s great value.

Briks, doigts de fatma and cigares – all crisp little pastries, surprisingly light and delicately spiced, with meat, seafood or vegetarian fillings – are highlights among the starters.

Main courses include tagines and couscous, as well as a variety of grilled meats and fish.

The chefs hail from Morocco and Tunisia, and the subtlety of the aromatic dishes shows their homelands’ cuisines in their best light.