The best Mediterranean restaurants in the UK

Morchella, Rosebery Avenue

Light, bright and roomy, this restaurant/wine bar is a new venture from the team behind Perilla. One of its USPs is the individual cutlery drawers in the tables, which house complete table settings – this creates uncluttered tables with more room for food. The menu is modern Mediterranean – salt cod comes in churro form rather than as fritters, on a plate of romesco sauce; panzanella is made with radicchio; and scallops are fluffy with cauliflower mushroom and dripping with buttery juices (you’ll need the pepper dulse focaccia for mopping them up). Spanakopita is reimagined as a neat, ultra-crisp, sausage roll like affair. And there are three desserts, one of which is the lush portokalopita made with crumbled filo pastry. morchelladining.co.uk

The Engine Rooms, London

There’s a hidden gem on the Great North Road and it’s called The Engine Rooms – a dining experience that combines classic cars with contemporary cooking. The entrance takes you into a showroom of vehicles of desire that would have any petrolhead drooling but it’s the food that takes the chequered flag: it is a revelation. The concept is the brainchild of Paul Michaels, owner of Hexagon, one of the best known classic car dealers in Europe. It marries marvellous motors with modern art and Med-inspired all-day dining overseen by head chef James Harrison, using seasonal, mostly British ingredients. Start with burrata – a creamy globe of unctuous cheese, with grilled plums, chicory, dukkha spice, plum and mint; or grey mullet ceviche with confit tomato dressing and cured egg yolk. Mains are so beautifully plated they could be sit alongside the art on the walls: robata grilled monkfish tail, meaty and magnificent (and nigh on impossible to cook at home) is glazed in miso and soy with samphire; giant king prawns are perfectly pink, charcoal smoky with roasted nori and yuzu cultured butter. Most dazzling of the desserts is the gin & tonic cheesecake: special enough, but made spectacular by minted Makrut lime sorbet. Delightful. theenginerooms.co.uk

Carmel, London

Josh Katz's second London restaurant is nestled beside other neighbourhood joints in a converted stable on cobbled Lonsdale Road. Low lighting and mismatched candlesticks cast a glow across the eclectic, cosy dining space; a brushed coral banquette clutches a corner, stools line a white tiled counter bar, and a large wooden table glides down the centre. There are plants aplenty; suspended from the ceiling, in pots behind the bar and hanging over the pass of the open kitchen where Josh and his team work the tabun oven and grills to create sophisticated eastern Mediterranean dishes.

Scoop up thick, tahini-rich hummus alongside pillowy, chewy sourdough flatbreads topped with the likes of spiced lamb with Aleppo chilli and sumac yogurt, and wild mushroom with crème fraîche, s'chug and manouri cheese. Grilled harissa prawns are slathered in garlic and 'nduja with a cooling courgette tzatziki, melting turmeric-roasted cauliflower is jewelled with pomegranate and walnuts, and charred, slow-grilled Urfa chilli chicken sits on a wedge of sourdough soaked in molasses-rich juices and caramelised onions. A statement wine rack showcases low-intervention bottles from Jerez, Sicily and beyond. Or the negroni bianchi has a luminous hue from the zesty gentian liqueur, while the sazaraki is spiked with arak for an eastern twist. carmelrestaurant.co.uk

French – Paysanne, Deganwy, Wales

‘It’s not a French-themed restaurant,’ says owner, Cai Ross. ‘There’s no accordion music, no ‘bon appetit!’ stencilled on the walls, no bicycles hanging from the ceiling.’ Instead, Paysanne is a kitsch-free attempt to capture the essence of a French, family-run restaurant, albeit on the North Wales coast. Located in the village of Deganwy, Paysanne was opened in 1988 by Cai’s parents, Bob and Barbara. They live in the Languedoc now where they act as the restaurant’s research team, tweeting Cai pictures of food and inveigling recipes out of chefs. ‘For which they don’t charge,’ Cai says.

Since 2003, with head chef David Hughes, Cai has modernised the dishes and brightened the dining room with a gallery of French modern art, but, at Paysanne, change is gradual. For instance, an attempt to drop duck à l’orange (Gressingham duck with a kumquat sauce) was abandoned amid local resistance. ‘I got stopped in Tesco by genuinely angry people,’ Cai says.

Paysanne sticks to a trusty formula of sharp service, interesting wines and classic French peasant cooking, using prime British ingredients. The menu features several Mediterranean classics such as a bouillabaisse-style fish soup and hake on roasted tomatoes and pistou, while among Paysanne’s wines, Cai loves the Domaine la Colombette’s unusually southerly pinot noir. Starters from £5, mains from £15. paysannedeganwy.co.uk

Greek – 40 23 Mediterranean Food, Birmingham

When Chris Manolas first came to Britain, he was bemused that the staples of Greek food, were – kebabs aside – only served in pricey restaurants. ‘We’ve nothing against them,’ he says, ‘but felt it would be more honest to present this food as it’s sold in Greece.’ So with his friends Kostas and Stathis Papadopoulos, Chris last year launched 40 23, a cute space where they serve grilled meat wraps, salad platters and oven-baked specials. The trio come from Thessaloniki (40° 23° are map co-ordinates for the area), where the food is influenced by Turkey and the Black Sea region.

Skewered souvlaki pork and soutzoukakia meatballs are classic Thessaloniki specialities. Although, 40 23’s specials also feature more well-known Greek dishes such as the lasagne-like pastitsio, and various meat dishes slow-cooked in tomato or olive oil, and lemon sauces which are passed down through generations: ‘We have a rich culture of homemade dishes – the recipes come from grandmothers, not books.’ 40 23’s grilled meat sandwiches, served with tzatziki and slices of fried potato, are available everywhere in Greece and are unbeatable fast food. Dishes £3-£5. 4023.co.uk

Italian – Stuzzi, Harrogate

The trio behind Harrogate’s hottest new venue, Tom Pearson, Nicholas Harvey and James Phillips, have real pedigree. Not only did they first meet at the legendary Salvo’s Salumeria in Leeds, but before launching Stuzzi (pronounced stut-zee, it means ‘small bites’), they embarked on an epic Italian road trip. ‘We travelled around in my knackered Toyota people carrier for 18 weeks visiting suppliers, eating, absorbing as much as we could. To be taken seriously, we needed to spend time there, and Italians are so passionate about food that they want to pass that knowledge on,’ says Tom.

During repeated research visits, the Stuzzi team have done it all: from making meatballs in an iconic Venetian bacaro to meeting ’nduja producers in the tiny Calabrian town of Spilinga. All those recipes and suppliers now feed into this daytime deli-café and bakery which, at night, morphs into a buzzy small-plates restaurant. Locals lap up Neapolitan-style zeppole doughnuts at breakfast; rustic pasta dishes and deli boards at lunch; and later, a daily-changing menu that might feature those fabled meatballs (spiked with a pistachio mortadella) or a plate of negroni-cured salmon served with a squid-ink version of the Sardinian flatbread pane carasau. ‘We cook in small batches,’ says Tom, ‘which enables us to stay fresh and interesting.’ Stuzzi has also opened a terrace – perfect for that early evening spritz (£4.95). Plates £3 - £7. @stuzziharrogate

Spanish – Lunya, Liverpool

‘I thought I’d died and gone to heaven,’ says Peter Kinsella of his first meal in Barcelona, 15 years ago. ‘It was just a local place that did what Spanish food is all about: stunning ingredients presented simply.’ He was in Catalonia for work, but that meal signalled the beginning of the end for Peter’s old professional life. A keen cook who had always dreamed of owning his own place, that night set Peter on a path where, for 12 years, he spent all his spare time in Spain eating, researching and finding the producers who now supply over one thousand products to his city-centre deli, bar and tapas restaurant. It is an obsessive business. Peter’s kitchen, led by chef Dave Upson, even changes its potatoes, seasonally, for its patatas bravas.

But, Lunya (which will open another branch in Manchester later this year), is no slavish tribute to Spain. ‘We’re Catalan-inspired but we reflect our surroundings,’ says Peter of Lunya’s two floors of warehouse space. ‘There are no pictures of bullfighters, our staff don’t wear flamenco dresses. The hams hanging up are for sale, they’re not decoration. It’s a working environment.’ Lunya also puts its own modern stamp on even the most traditional Catalan dishes, such as baby squid stuffed with black pudding or the noodle paella, fideuá. ‘You will find duck with pear on any traditional Catalan menu. It dates to Roman times. But our pan-fried duck served over pears poached in white wine and vanilla, with a raspberry sauce, is our little take on it.’ Tapas from £4.25. lunya.co.uk

Israeli – Edna’s Kitchen Bristol

From her kiosk in Castle Park, Edna Yeffet is fighting a one-woman battle against junk food. Growing up near Tel Aviv, Edna took the availability of ‘healthy fast food’ for granted: ‘There’s a lot of shawarma, but falafel is king of the Israeli street. It’s everywhere and you always get a big choice of salads to fill your pitta. It’s almost a national dish.’ The absence of anything similar here (at a reasonable price), led her, in 2013, to start feeding people from this quirky city-centre spot, which, in summer, includes outdoor seating.

Bristolians now make a bee line to Edna’s for ineffably light, herb-packed falafel stuffed into pittas and wraps from local Middle Eastern bakery, Abu Noor, alongside zingy salads and pickles. Connoisseurs also go hard on Edna’s schoog, a remarkable hot, fruity green chilli relish that riffs on an old Yemenite recipe. Elsewhere, the menu dips (pardon the pun) into classics such as baba ganoush, as well as Israeli favourites such as sabich (pronounced sab-ik), a roasted aubergine sandwich with hummus, tahini, chopped egg and amba, the mango and fenugreek seed chutney also popular in Indian cooking. ‘It’s all home produced, we make everything,’ says Edna, and you can taste that freshness in every bite. Meals from £4.25. ednas-kitchen.com

Photographs: Andrew Fudge, Jamie Stevens, Giles Smith

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