The Levant is a term applied to the countries at the eastern end of the Mediterranean - usually Syria, Lebanon, Israel and Palestine. The menu here interprets its remit more widely: Turkish and Persian influences are also in evidence, though no one who has travelled in the former Ottoman Empire would recognise much of the food, which has been strained through a kind of pan-ethnic sieve into a characterless mush.
On paper, much of it sounds delicious. The lamb shashlik purports to be made of "slow-cooked marinated lamb leg", but the cubes that arrived on skewers were dense, dry and virtually flavourless. A feta and melon salad, which filled a small lettuce leaf, presumably cost $15 because melons are not in season. It consisted of about 10 marble-sized balls of cantaloupe and watermelon (the latter soaked in pomegranate juice) offhandedly sprinkled with a (very good) goat feta, a large crumb for each of our quartet.
Grilled halloumi with a caponata no Sicilian would recognise was nice enough. It would be churlish of me to add there were three bits of cheese for four of us, because almost no place in town offers to adjust serving sizes in these situations, so I won't.
Are we there yet? A dish of pickled octopus was dominated by discs of tepid potato and the baklava we foolishly finished with was soggy. But I highly recommend menu item number one: crumbed aubergine, deep-fried like chips. It would be an exaggeration to say they are worth the trip. If you are dining at Levant, you should not miss them.
Verdict: Overpriced and characterless bar food
Share plates $13-$23.50; Salads $9.50-$15.50; flatbreads $22.50-$25.50; desserts $15.50.
