First on the list is a little Greek/North African place in Covent Garden called Carthage. After watching the Woman in Black, a group of us were absolutely starving and after walking along for a bit, spotted this little restaurant. As most places were busy with it being a Saturday night, we were overjoyed (well, our stomachs were!) to hear that they indeed had a table although we weren't expecting to be led into what was effectively a rather cramped cellar!
The waiters were of mixed quality; some didn't speak any English, which, whilst great if you were Greek, wasn't if you weren't. One waiter did speak English (hurrah) and after a struggle to get the menus and a drink, we had ordered some food and were waiting expectantly.
The girls who were with me had also been to Crete with me earlier in the year and so we got bitten by the Greek food bug whilst there. Moussaka, Kleftiko, Gyros, stuffed vine leaves... We were practically drooling in preparation for what might come! The hummus was middling at best and the odd tasting sausage chilli sauce was... Well, odd. However, we were starving by this point – it had taken a long time to arrive – and therefore were dipping our breads in the dips left, right and centre.
We were rather miffed to order more bread and then have it delivered to the next table. We had to actually ask them to take it off the bill; they'd put it on ours at the end despite our complaints! The main courses came quite quickly – whilst we were still eating the starters if I recall correctly – and they got one order wrong and so the plates were delivered at random times and we couldn't all truly eat together.
I had a very yummy dish which was basically diced pitta bread, tender grilled lamb and chicken with a tomato & garlic sauce on top. I'm not sure how they came up with it but it was utterly delicious and the portions were huge! I started to regret having that starter as soon as I tucked in...
My friends fared differently. Two girls had moussaka which was really quite tasteless and, as there was so much of it, really hard to stomach. Our other friend had calamari which apparently tasted delicious; she finished the lot and said that it was really fresh and had lots of flavour.
All in all, it isn't somewhere I'm dying to go back to. The food was okay but with other restaurants around Covent Garden, I can think of plenty of places to go to before I have to think of Carthage. I think if they have more multi-lingual staff, a better understanding of their own menu (are they Greek? Are they North African?) then they'll fare a lot better and have more repeat business.
Damage: ? About £20/person for a shared starter, main & an alcoholic drink.
Vitals
Carthage
9A King Street, Covent Garden, London, WC2E 8HN
Tel: 020 7240 5178
Nearest tube: Covent Garden
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