Del'Aziz Canvey Street

Daniel O. ( 30s, Male, United Kingdom )

My fiancee found this place on this wonderful site and we decided to visit on a saturday evening. The establishment was busy and as we arrived early for our table and decided to sit outside and have a drink. There was a lovely ambiance with the exotic smells of the Shisha pipe drifitng on the evening air. The drinks list is phenominal-made up of beautiful long creations, numerous with a middle eastern twist aswell as traditional cocktail fare! We plumped for a pitcher of the Long Morrocan Mint- a delicious refreshing take on the Mojito in that it didnt have the copious amounts of grainy sugar!

We sat on a long sturdy wooden table inside, which actually was a struggle with my long legs- so if you're tall, sit at the square tables! There was live music was good and added to the ambiance. Our friends arrived and we all decided to choose off the very good value £20 three course dinner menu. The waitress was very knowledgabe and answered all our questions about the dishes, and very impressively, didnt need to note our order of 12 dishes! I had the cheese and mint Bourek to start, which was lovely and the Israeli couscous. The latter, was a little bland but my fiancee had the Mirza Ghassemi – warm aubergine with tomoatoe and egg – and it was delicious,so much so that we asked for more lovely bread to mop it up with! Our friends had the sardine chermoulah, Houmus, Baba Ghanush and Mergez sausage. They were all tasty!

The main corses arrived, and mine was delicious, I had the vegetarian option- the Ghemieh- aubergine, tomatoe and yellow split pea stew with saffron rice. The rice was flavoursome and cooked perfectly and the stew fresh and tastey.

For the desserts we were directed to the bakery part of the restaurant and we all chose something from the sweets on display. I had delicious middle eastern pastries. There were actually some interesting deserts on the set menu which I would have loved to choose from – but it was midnight, and we were told later on by the head waitress that the kitchen closed at 11.

Overall the food was lovely and very good value, the restaurant has worked hard on its ambiance and brand- with its bakery, deli counter and its great how they sell the beautiful plates and bowls they use. They seemed a little understaffed but our waitress knew all her food well and was polite and charasmatic. Our bill came to £146 with two bottles of wine, a picher of cocktail and a bottle of sprkling water.

This was a lovely meal, in a relaxing environment. The lady we had serving us was great but the other dealings with service staff didnt live up to her. It was great value place to visit and natter with friends and not be rushed. That said, go with a view to spending time and enjoying the vibe – dont go if you're in a rush.