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ordering Cathedral Green, stands a trio of Grade-II listed buildings called the Three Gables, and housed in one of these whitewash historical structures is the independently owned Arabian restaurant called Al Farid. However, don’t let the cool, calm exterior fool you… serving Moroccan and Lebanese cuisine from midday until late, as soon as you enter you are transported to the Middle East. Warm lighting exudes from the many shapes and angles of lanterns on the ceiling, reflecting off the incredible imposing yet ornate silver and glass furniture. The ground floor and second floor offer low coffee tables with sofa and bench seating, while the first floor restaurant boasts elaborate dining tables and tall thronelike chairs making you feel like Arabian royalty. Every inch of the walls is adorned in colour, from the draped fabrics, shiny accessories, fairy lights, warm paint hues or art work. Even before you have put a morsel near your mouth, you will have had a feast for the eyes. While we diverted our gaze towards the large and varied menu of starters, meze dishes, mains, tagines and set menu options, Richard, who has been managing the restaurant for three years, explained how best to enjoy the offering between our two hungry tums. To awaken our taste buds and whet our appetite, we sipped on their recommendation of the homemade rose water lemonade and some incredibly moreish hummus with grilled flatbreads. My dining partner and I somehow agreed amicably on four meze dishes to share, out of the many options, along with one tagine. As we caressed our fingers round the last morsels of hummus (don’t judge, we ran out of flatbread…). we moved on to our meze dishes of Persian chargrilled chicken shish (chargrilled lemon and saffron marinated chicken skewers), aubergine moussaka (layers of grilled aubergine, sweet potato, tomato and Maghrabian cheese served with tomato sauce), Moroccan fishcakes (not a potato in sight) and beetroot salad topped with tzatziki (cool and fresh). With a full restaurant and nice buzz on our mid-week evening visit, we nattered and noshed our way through our meze selection. Then it was tagine time, and as per their recommendation of fall-off-the-bone meat, we had
AL FARID
A tagine’s throw from the historic Exeter Cathedral, Lauren Heath finds herself in another world, delving into Lebanese and Moroccan meze amidst a mosaic of interiors
30 I EXETER LIVING I www.mediaclash.co.uk