As you might have seen in my previous post, we got an offer from Wriggle for mezzas at Mezza Luna that was just too good to pass up so, in the heart of a Monday night we found ourselves deep in the City Road for a Mediterranean meal.
First thing to note is that, unlike many restaurants along this stretch of City Road, Mezza Luna serves alcohol. Not just that, but they also do a very fine Lebanese red wine (smooth and smokey) AND a couple of ales from Cardiff’s own Crafty Devil brewery. I went for a Mikey Rayer pale ale – always a treat.
The Wriggle deal we got was for a selection of mezzas – six in all, for two people. If you’ve not tried them before then mezzas are small tasting plates, similar to the ubiquitous Spanish tapas but in my experience not nearly so commercially dumbed down.
The mezza selection was pretty broad: hot, cold, seafood, pastry and salad, so it was a difficult choice to pick six dishes from a quite bewildering selection – a tough job but someone has to do it right?
As it was we went for the Muttabal – a delicious smoked aubergine puree rich with flavors of tahini and lemon. This one dish was worth the price of entry alone in my opinion
Next came F’ul Medames and F’ul Moukala, the former earthy fava beans in a tomato, lemon and olive-oil dressing
the latter smooth broad beans with coriander, onion, lemon and olive oil
Both bean dishes were a delight, light, flavorful, not overpowering in any way – excellent stuff.
To this we added the best falafels I’ve yet tried, crisp shell, fluffy tasty centers with a creamy yogurt dip
Then we finished the mezza course with kafta balls and kibbeh.
The kafta balls were lovely balls of minced lamb cooked in a tomato sauce which has more than a hint of Heinz Tomato Soup about it – never a bad thing.
The Kibbeh were harder to describe, a bulgar wheat shell stuffed with mince lamb served with a yogurt sauce. They look a bit like a scotch egg, taste a bit like a mini-pasty and are very very good indeed
To cap it off these dishes were served with a complimentary basket of freshly baked breads and flat breads
We topped it all off with a super filo-pastry, almond, sultana and rose dessert with double cream and a couple of cracking black coffees
As I said earlier, we went out for a meal on Monday night because of an excellent offer from Wriggle that meant the chance to try Mezza Luna was too good to miss. Based on the food we had, we’ll be back very soon and we’ll be taking a big appetite with us.
Excellent food, lovely friendly service. We’ll be back soon – very highly recommended.
Eat see hear Cardiff 