On Saturday night my family and I visited 4 month old Lebanese 'Grill House and Juice Bar' Lona on Gloucester Road, in celebration of some good news I received recently. I've been aware of this restaurant for a couple of months now and I've heard good things, so I was really looking forward to giving it a taste myself.
We arrived for our booking at the predictably busy time of 8pm on a Saturday night, and were met with a bit of a wait despite having booked, as the customers before us were yet to leave our table. When this was over we were taken to the back of this very large restaurant, where we took our seats in a benched corner table for five.
The food menu was lengthy, with a variety of price ranges, and a great selection of starters. We were also given a large juice menu too, including some milkshakes, but we decided to save these for dessert.
The waiter also brought over two large round naan fre of charge (which was actually a lot thinner than naan), acting as a great mop for the left over hummous and taziki.
I can genuinely say that everything on that spread was delicious! From the homemade hummous, to the crispy yet soft falafel, and everything on there that I hadn't heard of, I was glad I tried!
The mixed mezza did actually come with vine leaves, which we had ordered additionally thinking it didn't, and this would have been nice to know. But the vine leaves were delicious, so they were quickly forgiven for failing to mention it when we ordered. I would advise you to not get carried away with the delicious starters though, (tempting as it is to) because if you have never been to Lona before, you won't know that the mains are pretty huge, making the inconsistently large price tags on the mains forgivable.
Below (left to right) are the Chicken Shawarma (£8.95) - I wish I'd given something for scale in these images so you could see how generous the portions are - the Mixed Grill ONE (£13.95); one with chips, and the other with Burgal, which is similar to couscous but nicer, in my opinion. And on the bottom row are the Shish Taouk (£12.95) and another Chicken Shawarma (£8.95). Our mains (which also arrived incredibly speedily) were also accompanied by two more large naan on the house for us to share, which honestly I didn't have any room for after my main course and starters.
Each dish comes with a choice of rice, chips, or burgal, and all come with a salad. The salad consisted of too much raw onion for my liking, but that's just me - my mum was very happy about this. It also includes a green chilli, lemon to drizzle over your meat, and a smattering of cucumber, lettuce and tomato.
My youngest sister, who can be a rather fussy eater, thoroughly enjoyed her Shish Taouk, despite a mix up with her order, and found the chicken to be just the right tenderness for her, and she adored the rice (she is very particular about rice). Even with her relatively small appetite, she couldn't resist scraping her plate clean.
Neither could I, no matter how full I felt, resist finishing every last grain of rice and shredding of chicken on my plate. We all thoroughly enjoyed our meal, our chatty waiters, the restaurant's bustling, busy atmosphere, and our juices for dessert!
Lona, besides being a Halal restaurant, is also an alcohol-free restaurant. You may think they'd lose business here, but actually they attract a crowd that may avoid restaurants where alcohol is served, and in fact their juices attract as much attention as cocktails would, with their curly straws and cocktail umbrellas poking out of slices of juicy fruit perched on the rims of glasses. Just seeing others with these juices was enough to make you want one, and you were not disappointed.
The extensive juice menu consists of one-flavour 'solo juices', 'two mixture', 'three mixture' and 'four mixture' juices, and a significantly smaller choice of milkshakes. The cost of even a solo juice may seem slightly too steep, but I'm sure other Instagram users would agree that they're picturesque and have enough novelty about them to mean you don't think twice about ordering one of the many choices, despite having no more room in your body to consume anything more...or so you think. Don't worry though, the waiters and waitresses are more than happy to give you boxes for your food so that you can take it home, and savour the flavours for another day - which is exactly what we did.
My dad even managed to gobble a few complimentary cubes of Turkish Delight down as we paid the bill at the counter, but the manager didn't seem to mind, and was full of conversation despite the tiring evening in business he must have had!
I've seen some reviews that label Lona as chaotic and loud, and I'd say to that that it certainly isn't the place if you're looking for a romantic meal with the love of your life. However, there were many groups there for special occassions, dressed up in dresses and suits, and people there just out for a casual saturday evening dinner too. It's a friendly place with a great atmosphere and is clearly growing rapidly in popularity - so don't worry, Lona is going nowhere anytime soon!
I'll definitely be back!