Local eats: Café Arabica

Only in London would a restaurant within an office building become so fashionable and busy that the owners have to make it a private members' club. This happened recently at Under The Westway in Westbourne Studios. An urbane mix of artists, designers, media, film and music business types all rent space at the Studios, including Damon Albarn's Gorillaz. Other people find proximity to their workspace so thrilling that they pile in from all corners of London to eat in what is essentially a staff canteen. It's not the first time this has happened. In the early Nineties, the Canal Brasserie at Canalot Studios was party central. Canalot's boho workers came alive at night, and the smell of weed lingered in the air as the nocturnal creatives felt their juices stir. The brasserie there had a guest list. People would leave their boring offices, go home and get changed, and come and party at someone else's less boring office. Weird.

The next office caff to pull a crowd is going to be Café Arabica, the restaurant attached to Bus Space Studios in W10. Last time I came here it was a rolls and latte sort of joint, and I interviewed an avant-garde Japanese band whose press people are based in Bus Space. It's changed somewhat. The interior is very Afro-Arab dictator on a tight budget, a cut-price version of Colonel Gaddafi's bedouin tent by Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen. The walls are covered in hessian and Middle Eastern loom work. There are some magnificent junk shop Seventies squishy armchairs. The candle holders are crammed with souk spices like hibiscus and cardamom. This is proper trendy irony.

The owners and chefs, James and Jad, made their names with a stall at Borough's fine food market. Their heavily spiced interpretation of traditional Arabic food is, in my experience, unique. We chose from the 30-plus mezze menu. There is a short mains menu too, but the mezze were so interesting we didn't even bother to turn the page. Jad brings Jordanian, Syrian and Lebanese heritage to the plate. His mother was a nomad, which is interesting in itself. The Damascene falafel is his grandmother's recipe --dense with cumin, it is a meaty, moist example of a classic.

There are well-known traditional dishes like fatoush, tabbouleh and haloumi, but all have unanticipated elements. The fatoush, a salad with pitta croutons, is very finely chopped and so zinging and packed with zata (wild thyme, roasted sesame, oregano and sharp sumach) you can feel the texture of the spices on your tongue. Haloumi comes grilled with slices of watermelon, while the village-style tabbouleh has far more cracked wheat than we expect in the west, so that it is more of a carb than a green dish. There are less usual traditional dishes, such as the shankleash salad: air-dried cheese chopped finely with tomatoes, red onion and mint. The curd cheese had a compelling strong flavour, and they told me they hope to make their own. It's that sort of place --very organic, very excitable about where they source their ingredients. Great stuff.

Saudi prawns from the warm Red Sea were sweet and tender, and came with a sesame sauce of the chef's creation. James and Jad have a confidence around fresh produce and eastern spices which means their own creations fit comfortably alongside ancient dishes. They call it Arabic fusion. Simsim sardines were as easy to eat as KFC - the flesh of the large, mild fish fell off the bones encased in a thick crunchy shell of sesame seeds. The sardines came with a bland dipping sauce which went untouched. It was the only impotent thing about the entire meal. Everything had a seductive punch. My brother and my mate the Dirty Blond are always bitching companions for a review, but they were both delighted. There is nowhere else you can eat food like this, and at such silly prices. Monkey nuts coated in cumin, chilli and black pepper and roasted to a thick smoky bitterness were meant to be eaten, shell and all. We did a few for fun, but it was hard-going.

It was an interesting, tasty and enjoyable meal. I recommend their cheap, smooth and fragrant Lebanese red or one of the Belgian or British beers. If you like Middle Eastern flavours, I urge you to pop in.

Café Arabica
4 Conlan Street, W10 5AR