Syrian restaurant Bab Tooma in Bradford warrants a return

HALAL STATUS Fully Halal

After coming across this wonderful Syrian restaurant, I knew I had to visit Bab Tooma in Bradford.

A beautiful old- vs. new-style place, with an interior of unique cultural touches and vibes throughout that truly makes you feel at that moment that you’re in the country.

With a variety of dishes to choose from, we thought we’d mix and match a little.

We ordered one dish from the grills and one rice dish, alongside the traditional Arab starters, because who can go without them?

Bab Tooma Syrian Bradford Middle Eastern Restaurant

Baba Ghanouj (right) – Grilled aubergine finely chopped with tahini, tomatoes, green peppers, garlic & olive oil dressing, £3.75

Starting off with Baba Ghanouj and Fatoush, you can’t go wrong! The Baba Ganoush was good, but didn’t have much of an aubergine flavour, which wasn’t quite what we were expecting.

With it being the main key ingredient to this starter, it tasted rather like a vegetable style dip instead, which was a little disappointing.

Fattoush Salad – Tomato, cucumber, mint, olives & onion, topped with fried bread, olive oil & pomegranate dressing, £3.25

However the Fattoush Salad was much better! Fresh juicy salad, with crispy fried pieces of bread and pomegranates. An all time fave!

Shish Taouk – One chargrilled skewer of marinated chicken cubes, £9.50

For the mains we went for Shish Taouk; tender succulent pieces of chicken grilled with tomatoes and onions, served with rice or chips. A great grilled option.

We also opted for one of the Chef’s Special mains, the Karn-Yarek – a traditional Syrian dish, made from aubergines, mince meat, tomatoes and a handful of Arabian goodness.

Karn-Yarek – Deep fried whole small aubergines stuffed with minced lamb, onions & green peppers served in tomato sauce with parsley, £8.50

We’ve got to say, this dish was definitely a winner. We loved the touch of almonds in it.

For those that love aubergines, this dish is perfection, being neither heavy nor overpowering, but full of flavour and a lovely alternative to your standard Mediterranean dishes. We’d definitely order this again!