AYA is not in the best part of town to tell the truth. It's down by South Wimbledon tube, with one or three derelict shops as close neighbours and a closed down and boarded up boozer accross the road. Neither is it decked out to look particularly posh, the front windows go floor to ceiling and the unit could have been anything from a printers to a hairdressers before they took it over. That said, when we went on a rainy and flippin freezing Thursday it was banged out so they must be doing something right.
It's BYO. They don't sell ANY alcohol whatsoever so if you fancy a tipple and aren't prepared, you're staring down the gunbarrel at the Tesco's which is tacked onto the side of the garage accross the road. I bought some wine and beer there, and my answer to the "how did we do?" which was emblazoned accross the bottom of the receipt is "pretty shit really". The shops horrible and depressing. Anyway enough about Tesco's, but buy your booze from somewhere else before you come.
Inside the restaurant, all the staff and chefs look like extras from a James Bond movie. You know the opening sequence of pretty much every film where he's being chased by a random bad guy through the bazaars of Marakesh. Those guys who look at him as if to say "Hey!!! WTF!!!" when he knocks their fruit and veg display over with his Harley? they all work at AYA. They're pleasant enough here though, although my guess is if you went in there giving it Charlie big spud some gadgie from behind the char-griller would produce a machete like an elephants trunk and chop your fingers off (if he was in a good mood). Our waiter was a suavey looking bloke in a suit who looks like he probably shaves about once every hour and half, he was extremely pleasant and knowledgeable too.
The menu has all the old middle eastern favourites (as if I know any), and we basically steamed in and started ordering willy nilly. We got some houmous ( I bet everyone who goes here does), some babaganoush (which coincidently is my favourite word in the world), some cottage cheesy stuff which I couldn't quite get my head around, some falafal and some Lebonese sausages. All of it was pretty good, but the babaganoush was absolutely sensational. It was so good, that if they'd told me at that point that they'd sold out of everything except it, I would have just ordered a bucket full. You also get this flat bread stuff for dipping, but I wolfed ours in about a minute which was a big mistake as it turned out. Despite me asking said waiter twice for some more bread it never arrived, although he was very agreeable and nice about it each time I asked him. The way he said "no problem sir!" and then didn't bring any, reminds me a bit of my barbers if you ever try and change haircuts. When he says "what are we having today sir?" you might as well tell him you fancy a Sigue Sigue Sputnik pink mohican for all the effect it'll have. You're still going to get a "two and four" anyway, and it appeared that we weren't getting anymore bread at AYA too. Never mind though, all the starters were fab. BTW, apparently not ordering these little mince meat pastry things (God knows what they're called) was a bit of a schoolboy error, next time.
For main I had a mixed grill. It had on it some lamb and chicken shish, and some minced lamb shish, and some other stuff which escapes me now. You get chips or rice, and I had chips (which were them big beefeetery type things). All the meat was superb, really really great. Quick aside here, if you're a vegetarian order plenty of houmous and babaganoush, savour it cos there's bugger all else to speak of. The chips would be better in my opinion if they were 3/8" fries or something similar, and also when I asked them for some hot chilli sauce they didn't have any which was a bit odd. I can't surely be the first person to ask for it. They did however have this other mild chilli which was mildly good. I cannot for the life of remember what my dining companions had for main, but they did say it was good if that helps.
The bill (including a tip for Omar Sharriff) came to £58 obviously without booze. Considering I went in there hungry and could barely walk on the way out, I have to say it was brilliant value. To be totally honest, it was worth it just for the babaganoush, and any quibbles I had about bread and chilli sauce are only minor. Next time I'm back (which will be very soon, I really enjoyed it) I'll not just BYO my beer, I'll bring me own bread and chilli sauce as well.
AYA is a smashing local restaurant, go. On the evidence of our visit don't take a chance either, book.
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