17 August 2023 , 13:00
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A mum claims she was served the 'the world's worst salad' when she visited an acclaimed Lebanese restaurant in one of London's most upmarket districts.
Dawn Williams said she laughed out loud when a bowl consisting of raw and unchopped veg including a whole tomato, cucumber and spring onion was brought to her table at Al Waha in Notting Hill. The serving featured half an iceberg lettuce and two ice cubes plonked on top as Dawn, 45, branded it an 'Ikea salad'.
She shared a picture of the bowl on social media where it soon went viral with more than 1,300 likes and shares as users described it as a 'deconstructed hipster salad'. But the restaurant manager has claimed the vegetarian dish was just a starter or crudites to 'get the palate going' and is not offered as a salad.
Mohammad Antabli said the same plate would be provided at 'all top (Lebanese) restaurants in Mayfair and Knightsbridge'. But Dawn said she remains unconvinced by the response, arguing crudites are usually served chopped rather than whole and come with a dip - which was nowhere to be seen.
Dawn, from Liverpool, said: "It was the worst salad in the world, absolutely. But it gave us 10 minutes of fun as it made us laugh out loud. I can't believe the reaction online though. It's gone global with all the shares. Everyone just thinks it's hilarious - they can't believe a place in Notting Hill is serving that.
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"We considered getting a doggy bag for the salad so that we could take it home and restock our fridge with the unchopped veg but my boyfriend refused to ask for one. Without a chopping board and vegetable knife, did they just expect us to eat the tomato like an apple?"
She called the bowl an 'Ikea salad' (kennedynewsandmedia.co.uk)Dawn had been in Notting Hill on Friday, March 23 to meet up with her 53-year-old lawyer boyfriend Tim who works in the capital. The couple had stumbled upon Al Waha while browsing for a Middle Eastern restaurant in Notting Hill. The venue is a favourite among culture vultures and foodies with a string of rave reviews from national newspapers and magazines on its websites.
The bowl was served alongside bread and olives as part of their 'table cover' at a cost of £1.50, though the restaurant pointed out many other venues charge full price for their unchopped veg. Dawn said: "I couldn't believe it. Both me and my partner started to laugh loudly as soon as the waiter put it down. What were we supposed to do with this? We called the waiter over, but I had already taken a photo of it and shared it on Facebook by this point as I thought it was so funny."
General manager and chef Mohammad Antabli explained that it was not a salad but a starter. Mohammad said: "A lot of people don't understand the way our food should be eaten. This is a crudite. It is a starter. We put it at the table with olives to get your palate going. We try this to people but people who don't understand the nature of our food always get it wrong unfortunately. We always put it at every table when they order, before their food arrives we put the crudite to get their palate going.
"The whole idea of the crudite is because we have a lot of different tastes and dishes so when you are eating these if you want to clean your palate [when you go] from one to another, you can eat some lettuce or a slice of tomato, to refresh your taste. But people don't understand the specification of this type of food at all and that's why they think it is a salad, when it is not.
"This is the way it is. We don't cut it up for them. They can eat a leaf of a lettuce, or cut the tomatoes between them, or the cucumber. You don't need to cut the spring onion, you don't cut a spring onion when you eat it at home, or a radish when you eat it at home."
The chef explained that this is how the restaurant have been serving their vegetables for the last 40 years and that they have not changed and are not about to.
Mohammad said: "Even back home, this is the way they do it - in Lebanon, in Syria, this is the way they present it, at the beginning of your food, especially if you order a drink, like a glass of wine, this is to get you going really. You eat a leaf of a lettuce, a radish or a little bit of spring onion or maybe a bite of carrot.
"We try to explain to people all the time and I don't know why they get offended. At many restaurants you have to order it and pay for it but here it comes with the cover charge with the bread and the olives. The whole tomatoes are often eaten by people who know how to eat it. When you present it, you have people who cut up the tomatoes between them, or the cucumber.
"If you go to the top Lebanese restaurants in the city, in London in Mayfair, and Knightsbridge, this is the way it's always been served. It's not any question about us. This is how the top restaurants do it. I'm quite amused really that people don't [understand this]. If I go to a restaurant and I don't know what to do with something I would always ask a waiter 'what am I supposed to do with this?'"
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