Tip: Yalla Yalla Foodbar
Since the beginning of September, you can visit Yalla Yalla in Den Bosch: a Middle Eastern food bar where you can have drinks, snack and eat unbelievably well. And believe us: you’ll want to. Start your evening here with a bottle of Moroccan Cabernet Sauvignon and a table full of mezze, then sit back and wait to see what Iraqi-Dutch owner Jinan Saleh and her chef brigade from Syria and Iran have in store for you.
Crunchy falafel
Those mezze, then. No fuss, but a platter full of Levantine street foods and snacks that aren’t immediately easy to identify, but are improbably delicious. Think classics such as flatbread, hummus, baba ganoush and super-crunchy falafel, but also fried balls filled with halloumi or celeriac: a kind of Middle Eastern take on the Dutch bitterbal. Friends at Culinair Cafetaria, are you reading along?
An abundance of goodness
The next course once again comes with wine and an overflowing table. I could do my best to give you a tasty description, although a simple list will leave you at least as hungry and restless. Take my word for it:
Fattoush (Lebanese bread salad), chicken thighs with fennel and clementines from the oven, aubergine with feta, za’atar and white bean purée, salmon marinated in ras el hanout with pea purée, roasted cauliflower with tahini and lemon vinaigrette, shakshuka (eggs in a spicy tomato sauce from the oven) and Lebanese rice with lentils and rose petals. We round off this abundance of goodness with a cup of green tea, a cinnamon sorbet with carrot cream and grated orange zest—and our trousers at the eating trough.
What does it cost?
Of course, you won’t get away with a tenner after such a feast. We paid around 80 euros for two people. A real steal, if you ask us. Even if you’re on a small budget, you can still go a long way here. All main courses and desserts cost between 6 and 9 euros; with 2 to 3 dishes, you’ll have eaten well. Takeaway will also be an option from the beginning of October, so yalla yalla! You can already find the takeaway menu here.
Yalla Yalla Foodbar
Postelstraat 4
5211 EA Den Bosch
Image: Yalla Yalla Foodbar
