When the legendary Middle East expert Julie Flint recommends a Lebanese restaurant in London, you know to go...
123 Queenstown Road, London SW8 (020 7622 0555). Meal for two, including drinks and service: £70
Back in the late 1980s, when I joined this newspaper the first time round, the offices were on Queenstown Road in Battersea, a short distance from what I understood to be one of Londons great restaurants. LArlequin had a frontage the colour of expensive olives, and two Michelin stars, when barely anywhere had even heard of one. I passed it on the bus to and from work every day and always turned to stare, as if it was a stranger I had the hots for. I suppose it was. I was desperate to know what went on in there. I was certain that over its threshold lay a certain kind of adulthood that I had yet to access.
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