Yes that sounds as bad written down as it does in my head. I mean this is in the sense that I can be very particular about what and where I eat; I turn my nose up at the idea of fast food, take aways and 'restaurants' that laminate their menus and include pictures on them. So the idea of spending my Friday night in a restaurant which also sells its food on Just Eat and is located next to a KFC and the Byker Wall may perhaps seem a little strange.
But i'd actually been wanting to try Albaik for ages, after regularly walking past it to the Free Trade or Tyne i've peered curiously in at the windows and wondered what Lebanese food was like. Amusingly I'd been on the phone to O2 before we went out, when I told her I was going for a Lebanese she replied that she thought that was a type of triangle. I wasn't really sure how to reply to that.
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Albaik, 98 Byker Bank |
I've never seen a restaurant so rammed full of people, massive tables so close together you could barely move, and you could definitely see a bit too much of the 45 year old woman in a leather dress at the next table. She would have been enough to put you off your food, if the food hadn't been so bloody good.
It was good and it had laminated menus. My snobby little mind almost imploded with the concept.
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Menu, Albaik Newcastle |
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Lahem Meshwi, £7.50 |
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Moussaka, £7.00 |
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Fattoush Salad, £3.00 |
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Strips of Lamb & Chicken, Chips Onion Salad, £7.50 |
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Falafel, £3.50 |
This was one of those nights where I leave somewhere feeling very uncomfortably full, I just crammed my mouth with all the deliciousness in front of me then realised I got full half an hour earlier.
We got all the things above, sides, bread (which was 50p a basket for massive freshly cooked flatbreads!) and chips and it came to £10 head with change. I couldn't believe how little we paid for so much good food. O and its BYOB making it the perfect meal for any broke students out there.
The service had been polite but the food did take along time to come with some dishes arriving slightly after - i'd snobbishly put this down to it not really being a 'proper restaurant' where they bother with service. But no, to apologise for our delays and forgotten orders they gave us a huge free dessert to share, something kind of like a panna cotta, with mango sauce and coconut shavings.
The service had been polite but the food did take along time to come with some dishes arriving slightly after - i'd snobbishly put this down to it not really being a 'proper restaurant' where they bother with service. But no, to apologise for our delays and forgotten orders they gave us a huge free dessert to share, something kind of like a panna cotta, with mango sauce and coconut shavings.
So yes, try Albaik out, its cheap & cheery and you'll be so full you won't be able to move. Which is why although it was a fun meal out, I think I may have just discovered the best thing to order in.