Saturday, August 23, 2025

An Extraordinary Persian Meal in London

I was very fortunate to find  Beluga, a Persian restaurant in Notting Hill. My experience there was a perfect combination of food, atmosphere, and service. The decor inside is upscale elegant.


I am only familiar with a few Persian dishes. One of them is Fesenjan, which I really, really love. It is a mild stew with walnuts and pomegranate juice. It can be made with duck, lamb, chicken, or other meats. It is generally served with Persian rice. 

Beluga serves a unique and wonderful Persian rice, Polo ba Tahdig, that is topped with crispy potatoes & saffron further topped with pistachios & barberries. It is incredible.


In this photo, a bit of the stew is to the left of the rice.

To get these dishes at home, I would have to drive to a restaurant about 120 miles away - out of the question.

I accompanied these dishes with a slightly sweet Armenian pomegranate wine. It was a great match.



My server, Arezoo, was wonderful. She showed me how to eat the Fesenjan.

The total, with coffee came to £45 ($60.75).

Beluga has many other dishes that I would love to try and that I've never seen before. It's worth looking at their menu just to get a sense for Persian food

https://www.beluganottinghill.co.uk/menu/

I have tried making the Fesenjan and rice. The results were decent, but did not begin to compare to the Beluga versions.

No comments:

Post a Comment