Del’Aziz & Zahra Bar in Clapham looks like an inviting place to eat lunch but never has the expression, ‘looks can be deceiving been,’ been so true. It’s Tuesday lunchtime, the restaurant isn’t particularly busy but the waiter, who we would come to know as Alex, shows his distaste towards the possibility of serving new customers by sighing heavily when I ask for a table for three.

He gestures towards a half full table and tells us to sit, so we do, despite a free table next to it. It’s cramped but cosy, table sharing is common in London, especially in areas like Clapham which have the kind of character that you’d expect to find in a Quentin Tarantino movie.

The food itself enticed us in, cakes lined the window and I had high hopes but it was all down hill from there. As we sat we were informed that the menus hadn’t been printed and once they were, the choices were limited. A small salad priced at £3 should have been written as a side and the red chutney, Parma ham and rocket sandwich sounded promising but in reality was incredibly dry. Priced highly at £8, I felt robbed.

Coupled with the wait, what let Del’Aziz down more than anything was the service, the waiter was incredibly rude when we questioned the size of the salad, seemed to not know what was going on and didn’t follow typical customer ideology. We were wrong and that’s all there was to it. Del’Aziz definitely lives up to the quirks of Clapham when it comes to the aesthetics, but falls when it comes to the food and the service. On my journey to find a working loo, I discovered that there is a separate bar area, fine dining restaurant and a space for live acts too. It definitely has promise and I would come back, but not for lunch.