London’s Best Iranian Restaurant Brings Coal-Grilled Meats to the Arts District | Eater LA

"Coal-grilled kebabs and family-style mezze set the tone at this London-born Iranian restaurant’s first publicly accessible U.S. location on the garden floor of Soho Warehouse, a collaboration between Soho House and JKS Restaurants and founded by chef Kian Samyani in 2018, whose London outposts have earned widespread acclaim, including a Michelin Bib Gourmand. Meals are designed for sharing: start with taftoon, a wood-oven-baked seeded sourdough flatbread, or sangak, a seeded whole wheat flatbread, then mezze like zeytoon (olives with lemon and garlic), panir sabzi (Bulgarian white cheese topped with radish, fresh herbs, and sesame seeds), mast o khiar (strained yogurt with cucumber, mint, and green raisins), and creamy hummus made with black chickpeas and sunflower seed tahini. Kebabs are grilled over coals for deep smokiness and char—options include koobideh with minced lamb shoulder, chicken jujeh marinated in saffron, yogurt, lemon, and tomato, tikkeh masti with beef filet, garlic, onion, and yogurt, chenjeh with onion, saffron, and black pepper, and prawn meygoo—and every platter arrives with sangak. Sofreh and sides round things out, from shirazi salad with diced tomato or saffron-tinged rice to torshi haftebijar (pickled cauliflower and carrots) and shareable fried potatoes, plus two khoresht: gormeh sabzi with lamb, kidney beans, and dried lime, and ghaimeh bademjoon, an eggplant stew with yellow peas, dried lime, and tomato. Drinks lean into Iranian flavors via a full liquor program—think a saffron carajillo and the Grown Up Doogh—with wines spanning California, Lebanon, Armenia, Italy, and Greece, and zero-proof options like a tangy black lime sharbat and bright elderflower sekanjabin with cucumber and apple cider vinegar. The room blends Soho Warehouse’s mid-century style with the feeling of a Tehran garden—rich rugs, scalloped chandeliers, and candlelight flow onto a tree-shaded patio that reads like a secret garden, while gold-framed art evokes a family home, with a separate public entrance on the building’s front side. The name nods to the golden, crispy rice Samyani made in childhood, and hours run 5:30 p.m. to 11 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday." - Rebecca Roland