A late appointment in Soho a few weeks ago led me to Maoz for a bite to eat. Despite having walked past on numerous occasions I've never been in. There's always somewhere I would have preferred to eat like ... well, Chinatown. Think of all those yummy crisp skin roasted ducks, wobbly soft braised pork belly, crunchy sautéed greens coated in minced garlic ... This time I wanted cheap and fast and NOT McDonald's so Maoz it was.
The Maoz Sandwich combo meal is priced pretty decently (around the 5 or 6 quid mark or thereabouts) and it consisted of a falafel sandwich with houmous and grilled aubergine, a side of Belgian fries and a drink. There's also a free reign of the salad bar. To be honest I'm not sure what they mean by a free salad bar ... would I be whacked on the hand if I went back for more? I wasn't about to find out so I made just that one sweep at the bar. It's not so much fun since they cunningly stuff the pita pretty full in the first place. But no worries ... Woolworth's (in the days of old) pick and mix taught me valuable lessons on how to get as much sweeties into a tiny little bag and not having to upgrade to a bigger bag. But under the eagle egg of the girl behind the counter and the guy next to me at the salad bar who kept getting in my way, I didn't pile on as much as I would have liked. I managed a few pickles, red cabbage, lots of fried cauliflower and a great big splat of garlic sauce. Verdict? All the top bits were yum but the bread was dry and just got in the way of the serious eating. On a scale of 5 it was probably a 2.5-3.
I'd been looking forward to the Belgian fries (yup, that's what it's called on the menu) but they were seriously disappointing. I've always salivated when I saw photos of the fries from Maoz - crunchy golden nuggets of deliciousness. They were instead the exact opposite of how I imagined them to be. A solid fry with a limp-ish exterior. Also, drinks wise don't bother with the fresh lemonade with mint. It unfortunately sounds and looks better than it tastes. I'm a big fan of ice and Maoz doesn't do ice or chilled either it seems. The lemonade was lukewarm and incredibly sour.
Maoz is actually pretty decent. The food's not bad for the price and the next time I stop by I'm definitely going for the salad box. I've worked out that the salad container is sturdier (better) for the purpose of fried cauliflower and garlic sauce overload. And minus the whimsy bit of pita. Happy days!
Maoz
43 Old Compton St, London W1D 6HG
2 comments:
Wow the Sandwich looks really delicious! Was it any good?
To be honest it had it's good and bad points. The good - the falafel itself was pretty nice, fried cauliflower is always yummy and garlic sauce almost always saves the day. The bad - there was too much bread (just a personal preference...why all the carb when I can have more of the good stuff?:)and .... whilst the pita was of a good size there just wasn't enough room for all the salad I was hoping to stuff into my sandwich but that's just me being greedy.
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