Menuwatch – Arabica Bar & Kitchen

After 14 years as one of the most popular traders in London's Borough Market, James Walters has moved his Levantine-inspired food into bricks and mortar. Tom Vaughan reports

Arabic culture is rich with stories of epic journeys, and James Walters' fits right in. Inspired to visit London's Borough Market while travelling, he struck up a friendship with a trader named Jad specialising in Middle Eastern food, set up a market stall with him, continued solo upon Jad's retirement, built a loyal clientele and has now, finally, made the step into bricks and mortar.

It's no Sinbad the Sailor, but it's certainly a lot for the self-taught chef to have crammed into 14 years. "The goal has always been to expose Middle Eastern dishes to a wider demographic, sourcing fantastic ingredients with provenance, and cooking them in a way that would appeal to people outside London's traditional ethnic areas," says Walters.

Walters' wide travels form the basis of the extensive menu. Witness the Istanbul-style mussel roll (£6). "It's an adapted street food dish," explains Walters. "In Turkey they coat the mussels in flour, deep-fry them and serve them in a cheap white roll with a bread sauce flavoured with walnuts. We've just pimped it."

In the Arabica kitchen, the tempura Shetland mussels are served in a brioche roll with julienned lettuce and a tarator made with garlic, sourdough breadcrumbs, sherry vinegar and walnuts.

While some dishes are scrubbed-up classics, others take a more creative approach to authenticity. "People get our chicken and pistachio taouk and say, 'That's not a taouk, a taouk should have this or that', but if you look it up, 'taouk' just means skewer." Made from freshly slaughtered Label Anglais chickens - although the kitchen is shortly switching to Fosse Meadows ones - the birds are marinated in a mix of cardamom, honey, green chilli and yogurt for anything between 48 and 72 hours, then grilled on the charcoal barbecue and finished with ground pistachio nuts and orange zest (£9).

The weekly arrival of 150 whole chickens means plenty of gizzards, which gives Walters the opportunity to be creative. The result is devilled chicken necks, which are going on the menu soon.

"We're going to marinate them for 12-24 hours in garlic, fresh oregano, fresh thyme, lemon, paprika, harissa and olive oil, then cook them on the charcoal barbecue with some oak wood chips to get some smokiness and serve them with a preserved lemon salsa and garlic sauce.

They'll have a real kick to them. They'll be like chicken spare ribs," he says. Among the desserts, cooked-to-order knafeh (£6.50) has become something of a signature. A warm Levantine cheese pastry, it is made with layered angel hair pastry, akawi cheese and unsalted butter, warmed in the oven and finished with orange zest, pistachios and honey. There's also an Arabica affogato (£4.50) - featuring tahini ice-cream and Turkish coffee - and another classic Levantine dessert of mouhalabieh (£4.50), a milk pudding made with mastica, a resin from the pistachio tree.

Front of house is overseen by rising star restaurateur Olubunmi (Bunmi) Okolosi, an active hospitality ambassador within organisations such as PACE (the Professional Association for Catering Education), People 1st and City & Guilds, and whose CV includes periods as general manager and business partner at the Lockhart, general manager at Peruvian restaurant Lima, maÁ®tre d' at Dinner by Heston Blumenthal and house manager at Sir Terence Conran's Boundary hotel. It's certainly been a long journey for Walters and, with the restaurant currently doing an astonishing 1,300 covers a week, it now has a truly epic feel.

From the menu

• Hummus with Herwick lamb fillet and toasted pine nuts £6.50
• Fattoush £5
• Sautéed chicken liver with pomegranate molasses £6.50
• Semolina crumbed Cornish squid with fennel and sumac £9.50
• Lamb meshwi with walnut harissa, parsley, onion and sumac salad £10
• Beef and bone marrow kofta with roasted tomato, red onion and Turkish chilli £9.50
• Rainbow chard and goats curd fatayeh - pastry with sautéed chard, roasted red onion, goats' curd, sumac and pine kernels £5.50
• Walnut baklawa with Chios mastica ice-cream £3
• Chocolate pot with Anatolian clementine, olive oil and Urfa chilli salt £5.50
• Strawberry, rosewater or lemon sorbet £3

Arabica Bar & Kitchen, 3 Rochester House, Borough Market, London SE1 9AF
www.arabicabarandkitchen.com