Little Persia

Proper Persian food ! Best meal I’ve had is ages! Even served real Persian tea!
Great service and cozy environment!

I love Persian food, but this place did not live up to my expectations. I guess I’m spoiled with the Persian restaurants on my side of the world. I had chicken soup, which was good. I also had chicken jujeh kabob, which was ok but missing something. I’m not sure what, but there was not enough lemon or sumac to fix it.

One of my favorite places! Food is amazing (beware portions are large) … Shisha area is fun and inviting The staff are super attentive and friendly! A must do!

My cousin and I were looking for a nice place with outdoor seating and tea or coffee. Since we were having trouble finding other quiet places with outdoor seating in this area, we opted for Little Persia and its traditional feel. We split a big pot of mint tea and enjoyed the pretty teapot and cups, as well as the relaxed atmosphere of the outdoor seating. I was expecting a fresh mint tea to rival others I’d had, and although this tea started off ok the tea in the bottom of the pot steeped much too much and ended up being terribly bitter and undrinkable. Although I was a bit disappointed by it, the place has good ambiance and nice toilets, and it worked fine as a place to relax for an hour despite the somewhat unconfortable outdoor seating. The food looked pretty good, too, although we didn’t try any.

Restaurant that caters to its country folks and visitors is usually on the right track. Little Persia is such! We cam in with a group of 7, two kids. Place is comfortable but could do with some more art/​curtains/​color.
Drink selection is not great but manageable.
Service for us was outstanding, waiter very much on the ball and willing to make suggestions.
Food was very good, especially the lamb kebab.
I would highly recommend, and the price was right.

I went to Little Persia after working all morning long in the Starbucks located on the corner right in front of Little Persia. The place was empty at 2pm and they had apparently a slow lunch.
Atmosphere ⁵⁄₅: The atmosphere is really middle eastern type and you have access to hooks as well downstairs or outside. Inside, the place has lantern and huge oriental style booth to seat down. The place has higher than average atmosphere compared to other Persian restaurant.
Food ⁴⁄₅: Food was good actually and the Koubideh was juicy and well done. The rice was good as well. I ordered as an appetizer a Kashke-​Bademjan on the side which was a good appetizer. Overall, food isn’t a deal barker and you enjoy the food.
Service ²⁄₅: I don’t know if it’s an habit in UK because we don’t tip the waitress since I haven’t gone to a lot of different restaurants in 3 days but service is lower than average. The waiter was a little bit tired of his job or wasn’t that much motivated. I think that’s a major mistakes for an establishment to act with your customer like that because you feel like you’re disturbing them when you’re actually spending money in their restaurants.
Overall, the rate should be closer to a ⁴⁄₅ but I am going to give a ³⁄₅ because the waiter wasn’t that motivated and brought my appetizer and meal at the same time?! Last but not least, when you order an appetizer, you should get at least a basket of bread. So –1 for this!

It has never been this hard to summarize my dinning experiences in regards of any restaurants anywhere as it is in the case of Little Persia. This place is a tough one to figure out as I truly believe it suffers from a Borderline Personality Disorder.
Walking on Queensway Little Persia is easy to miss as it seems to be tucked in behind a colorless party tent. However beyond this tent lies a nicely and pretty authentic, but somewhat modern, colorful decorated dinning room. Dinning inside will grant you an authentic Persian ambiance while dinning outside grants you the pleasure of Shisha, the water pipe. It is a laid back restaurant with a relaxed atmosphere that is heavily noticeable in how the staff behaves and operates. You might catch them buying herbs not used in cooking of a boy on bicycle in the garage Port/​Arch next to the restaurant or you might catch them styling/​correcting their hair while waiting on costumers or even find yourself being hit on while your shisha is being prepared. You might be sited upon asking for the wine list just to be told 5 minutes later when asking of the wine list whereabouts that they in fact serve non.
Your order might be different from what is described or even shown in pictures on the menu or on the web site. For instance two skewers might become one mixed skewer of meat or you might get a skewer that has no resemblance to what you thought you ordered. A picture is said to say more than words but on the web site some dishes are titled incorrectly or shown as being served with fries whereas menu clearly says mains are served with salad or rice or bread. You might upon asking for doggy bag be helped or asked to help yourself in regards of loading the left overs. You might find yourself in need of repeating an order/​request as you are served by different waiters. Furthermore asking for assistance from the staff might get issues solved or not depending on their mood or language comprehension. An Iranian friend of mine wasn’t even sure they fully understood him!
Don’t get me wrong the food as such is good, the charcoal grilled kebabs are tender, juicy and marinated as they should be all according to the Persian way of BBQ, but they never do justice for the phrases many associate with Persian BBQ «Fall of the bone» or «melt in mouth» tender. The steamed Basmati rice often lacks the al denti it should have and the usage of saffron is very moderate. I do get it, saffron is not cheap but at the prices asked I think one deserves a hint of saffron taste and not only the color. The menu in itself is not entirely authentic as prawn, hummous or tabbuleh are not typical for the Persian kitchen nor is the stew ghormeh sabzi a vegetarian dish! Mixed O’derves, smoked aubergine mash or salad Olivieh served without Nan also add to the feeling of a restaurant with minor identity issues.
The biggest problem with Little Persia is much like the problem one might experience with the soup/​salad of the day. You are just not sure nor can ever be in advance what you will be getting and how good or fresh it is that day compared to the next. Little Persia has just too much of mood disturbances to be a serious contender among Persian kitchens in London.

A very poor dining experience for me and a couple of friends. We ordered mixed starter (priced at 13.50) which turned out to be a trough of various dips. Asked for bread to be included, and waiter rudely refused. Brought our mains out when we were still eating the starter, so we asked them to hold on. A few minutes later they when we were still busy with the starter, they brought them again saying, «your mains are ready», and setting them down. We couldn’t finsh, so asked for doggy bags. They brought a couple of tins to the table and let us load ‘em up, which was quite amusing. We asked to have the service charge removed. The comeback was that they asked us to put it all on one card. The food wasn’t bad as such, and it seems like a good place to have shisha outside, but none of us will be going back in a hurry.

Great for heated pots of mint tea and shisha.
You can sit outside under the heated gazebo late at night and soak up the bustling atmosphere of Queensway, with delicious pots of tea and the sweet smell of flavoured shisha smoke.
The waiters are attentive, checking that the charcoal on people’s shishas is alight, cleaning and carefully arranging fresh glowing embers on top.
As mentioned in the previous review, the furniture fits the bill with its polished brass tray tables and low seats. A really good place to relax.
Definitely tempted to return and try the food (and I’ll update this review when I do).
They do add 12.5% service charge to your bill.

im abit confused as to what this restaurant is called, Little Persia? Bedouin’s?or simply Persian Restaurant! well firstly, i dig the whole bedouin tent idea in the front of the restaurant because this where we can smoke shisha. that was a nice touch and anyways in the Middle East, most shisha places are outdoors so it makes sense! secondly i liked the whole furniture and the tables, it look genuinely middle eastern. the staff were lovely and the heaters were really warm. the food was exceptional too! this is a good place just to chill with friends or want to have a little bit of shisha! try the mint tea too, its nice ;)