Woman About Town

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Viv Ellis enjoys Hanwell's latest bar: Carthage

Television producer Viv Ellis enjoys sampling the pubs and restaurants of her local patch.

Here she reviews a newly opened Mediterranean style bar on the Uxbridge Road:

There is no shortage of pubs in Hanwell but if you want something a bit smarter, with no karaoke or big screen sports then that has been more difficult to find.

So there has been a fair bit of excitement and curiosity about Carthage – a bar serving Tapas and Mezze that’s just opened on Uxbridge Road.

It looks really nice - the décor’s simple (I now have serious lightshade envy though, they are gorgeous!) the furniture’s comfy and the staff and atmosphere friendly. They were playing nice music – at a level that didn’t prohibit talking.

The conversion’s allowed for a smart smoking area at the front – though by the end of the night there were more people there than inside.

For food, the current menu is just a temporary one. A mixture of Mezze (Middle East) and Spanish Tapas all freshly made on the premises.

We were both really hungry so tucked into some delicious hummus, baba gannoush (aubergine mixed with garlic, lemon and tahini) with pitta bread.
The owner, Fethi, is Tunisian so we tried brik – a Tunisian speciality – various fillings deep fried in pastry- we had the prawns. A similar dish is fatayer which we had meat filled. The only thing that didn’t go down well were the prawns on the tapas half of the menu – which we both felt were a tad too oily.

The menu also offers various grills; chicken or lamb brochette. kofte (minced lamb kebab) or - what we plumped for -merguez gorgeous spicy sausages. The bill for all the food – with wine and beer was £26. Not bad at all.

Viv Ellis

Have you been out and about anywhere interesting? Please send me your reviews

October 21, 2011