Leon’s, 73-76 The Strand, WC2R 0DE, London

I’ve been wanting to do a post on Leon’s for a while now, just not got round to doing so because I usually have Leon’s at work, when I don’t have my camera with me. One weekend, when we couldn’t decide what we wanted to have (rare occasion, this) and when we just felt like having something light (another rare one), we decided that it was gonna be Leon’s.

Having nearly ran to the counter in the excitement, I turned to the bf and told him that I’d be doing the ordering, as he simply ‘wouldn’t know what’s good’. That is the type of food democracy we have sometimes. If you check out their menu, you’d know what I mean. Everything looks good, but you have to stick with the best, and I’ve tried lots of the items on the menu.

The setting of the place is half fifties-style, half recycled items-style. The music they had on while we were there were jazzy, which fit the Saturday afternoon mood.

See what I mean about the recycled items style? Paint buckets used as chairs. Cheap (or free) yet stylish at the same time. You just wouldn’t want to sit on them.

Hummus £2.35 (eat-in), comes with a portion of flatbread

Look at the smug chickpeas on top, the ones who escaped the blender. Leon’s hummus is very creamy, very nice, but slightly expensive. For portions which aren’t comparable to other restaurants (the ones I go to anyway), their food is priced higher than most other places, but their selling point is the whole organic thing, so people who go there don’t mind paying extra for that.

I’m not an organic food snob, so I’d have Leon’s and McDonald’s in the same meal if I could.

Flatbread £1.50 on its own, but this came with the hummus

Something which makes me fascinated with this flatbread is how it folds itself very cleverly like a piece of cloth. Food which resemble clothing intrigue me, like, you could hold this one up, fold it, tuck it in your pocket and have it for dinner later.

Grilled chicken superfood salad £6.35

I don’t know what it is about this salad which makes me crave it for days after having it. Perhaps it’s the broccoli which has a very pleasant taste, slightly iron-y if you know what I mean, considering how broccoli is iron-rich (what this says about my nutritional balance, I don’t know).

The vegetables in this salad are cooked perfectly, perhaps a little too al dante for some people’s liking, but I like my vegetables crunchy. There are some alfalfa sprouts and funny little transparent type legumes (at a guess) in there, and the aioli combines the chicken and vegetables into the Super Salad that it is.

Moroccan meatballs £5.85

Leon’s meatballs are very nice, though, not particularly generous in terms of portion sizes. Cooked in their tomato sauce, the meatballs are served with brown rice and coleslaw.

You’ll notice that their food is served in these brown paper containers, and they do this whether you’re eating in or taking it away. Something about the environment, I guess.

A closer look at the brown rice.

Leon’s lemon and ginger crunch £2.10

To finish off the organic and healthier than usual meal, we had this huge slice of cake. Slightly lemony, slightly crunchy, and very sugary, it finished off the meal nicely.

What I like about Leon’s is the fact that no matter how much you have to eat from there, you can always tell yourself that it was good stuff, so even after 3 salads and 2 meatballs, the calorie count is still at zero.

(That was a joke, in case anyone is rushing to Leon’s to try their calorie-free food).

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