Review of BabaBoom – south London’s answer to modern kebabs

I very rarely venture down south, unless there was a good reason to do so. Food is normally one of them. Ha!

My friend gave me a list 5 restaurants to try with her and I chose BabaBoom because they 1. make kebabs on an open fire, and 2. have really cool name. I wasn’t sure if this was enough to mean their kebabs would be any good, so I was really banking on their food being great to make the journey down to Battersea worth it.

I was impressed before I’d even entered the restaurant:

Then I was served with mint and cucumber infused water (didn’t need my juice afterall):

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Things got even better when my food came.

Sweet Potato Hummus £5.25 – this was much more refreshing than the traditional chickpea hummus, particularly with the raw crunchy vegetables. The hummus was super smooth, but the sprinkling of crispy fried onions added some extra texture. The chargrilled flatbread was also really tasty. Really couldn’t get enough of this and was tempted to order a second plate!

Broadbean Falafel £5.50 – another tasty starter! There were whole boardbeans inside and so the overall texture was much coarser than your average falafel. But it was all balanced out with BabaBoom’s homemade labneh and green harissa.

Rotisserie 24 hour marinated mutton shoulder £12.00 with added Grilled Mastelo cheese £2.00 – for something that’s been marinated for 24 hours, I was a little disappointed with this. Nonetheless, it was still tasty with all the usual Middle-Eastern flavours. It was my first time having grilled Mastelo cheese, which is a Greek cheese produced in Chios Island - very similar to halloumi cheese.

Saffron & orange chicken shish £10.25 with added Lamb merguez sausage £2.00 – this would be suitable for someone who’d prefer a sweeter main. The chicken was really tender and the smokiness from the open fire really enhanced the flavours. We’d opted to have this one without the flatbread in an attempt to carbless, but found it was sprinkled with some herby crispy flatbread pieces – still yummy though and helped balance out all the textures.  As for the lamb sausages, they were so tasty that I didn’t remember to take a picture until AFTER I’d eaten them all. But I’d dscreibe them as miniature chorizo sausages, but with the Middle Eastern flavours like cumin.

Coal fired cauliflower with pomegranate, tahini & crispy onions £5.00 – this was our least favourite dish of the night. Some parts of the cauliflower tasted too burnt, and there was way too much tahini. So unfortunately the taste of the cauliflower was lost, and with a price tag of £5.00 I couldn’t stop thinking about how many caulifowers I could’ve bought from the supermarket.

 

 

 

 

Salted Date Caramel Sundae Pistachio & natural yoghurt ice cream + homemade honeycomb £4.50 – even thought my friend and I were stuffed, we couldn’t leave without trying out one of the desserts. The combination of pistachio and yogurt ice cream was really soothing, especially after everything else we’d eaten. The salted date caramel was nice, but I think there was too much for the amount of ice cream we’d been served.

 

 

 

 

 

So would I treck down south again for BabaBoom? Well BabaBoom have now opened a branch in Islington which means I don’t need to travel so far next time. But if they hadn’t, then yea for sure I would!

Website: http://www.bababoom.london/home

Address: BabaBoom Battersea, 30 Battersea Rise, SW11 1EE

Phone: 07809903181

Email: hello@bababoom.london

Opening Hours: Monday 6:00pm - 10:00pm, Tuesday to Friday 11:45am - 11:30Ppm Saturday & Sunday 10:30am - 10:00pm