Tagine & Grill launched as a permanent residency at The Sun & 13 Cantons in Soho this June, from Yassir Chair, the Moroccan-born founder behind the fast-growing Afuego Burger
Pub grub has become predictable. Whether it’s a tired cheese and onion pie, fish and chips that have spent a little too long under the heat lamp, or yet another burger stacked so high it requires a structural engineer, Britain’s pubs have settled into a comfortable routine. Safe? Yes. Exciting? Not always.
Gastropubs promised to reinvent the local, but somewhere between triple-cooked chips, sticky toffee pudding and sirloin steak with dauphinoise potatoes, they all seemed to start serving the same menu.
But Moroccan-born chef Yassir Chair has decided to up the ante. His menu isn’t about replacing pub classics. It’s about giving them a passport. North African spices, charcoal grilling and zingy dips sit comfortably alongside the familiarity of a proper local. It feels as though Chair looked at the state of British pub food and thought, “I can do better.”
Think slow-cooked tagines instead of steak pie, smoky grilled meats rather than another predictable Sunday roast, and enough preserved lemon, harissa and fresh herbs to remind you that pub food doesn’t have to be beige.
Tagine & Grill sits inside The Sun & 13 Cantons, slap bang in the middle of Soho. It feels like a proper pub, with proper locals and a proper atmosphere, just without the sticky carpets and the permanently furious landlord. It’s the sort of place where you can happily nurse a pint, but you’d be doing yourself a disservice if you didn’t order the food.
Structurally, it probably makes no sense to begin a food review by talking about how I left the pub, but it’s worth mentioning now. Two words: meat sweats. Bliss, right up until you realise your sweat smells faintly of grilled lamb. Bliss nonetheless.
My meat-sweat memoir began with the mighty merguez sausages, flame-grilled to perfection. At first glance, it’s just two sausages on a plate. Nothing flashy. But by God, these were juicy little beauties, their smoky flavour building into a lingering warmth that crept up on you in the best possible way. They’ve earned a place in my ever-expanding cerebral sausage smorgasbord.
The prawn cigars were up next. Think spring rolls, only somehow crispier and meatier than any cigar I’ve ever bitten into (for legal reasons, I should point out I don’t recommend eating actual cigars unless you fancy every meal tasting like an ashtray). Perfectly complemented with the talatouri dip, basically a sweeter tzatziki, and much easier to pronounce after a perfectly poured pint. Or two.
I know the idea of a specials board isn’t revolutionary, it’s usually where chefs use leftover ingredients or test-drive new ideas; sometimes it’s fun and exciting, other times it’s less special and more bored. But here at Tagine & Grill, they have a tagine of the week.
Music to my ears, especially when the week I visited it was slow-cooked lamb. I was baaing at the sight of it. It was served in its own mini tagine, and when the top was lifted the aroma hit me immediately. I felt like a Looney Tunes character lifted through the air and led by my nose. It was beautiful: sweet, tangy and so meltingly tender, with just enough bread to mop up every last drop. (Meat sweats starting to creep in…)
Tagine? Ticked off. Now for the & Grill part of the operation. If the tagine was all warm, comforting hugs, then the chargrilled kofta was its louder, more rebellious sibling. Smoky, juicy, and unapologetically meaty, it came sprawled across grilled flatbread with pickled red cabbage, coriander, chilli sauce, and a lemon and mint yoghurt that quietly kept the whole dish in check. The sort of dish you look down at halfway through and realise there’s barely any left. (Meat sweats were now in full swing, confirmed by a knowing smile from the waitress as she cleared the plates.)
Tagine & Grill proves that pub food doesn’t need reinventing; it just needs someone willing to look beyond Britain’s borders. Yassir Chair has taken everything we love about the local and seasoned it with North African soul, smoke and spice. I came for a pint and a bite to eat. I left smelling faintly of grilled lamb, nursing a serious case of the meat sweats and already wondering what next week’s tagine might be.
Tagine & Grill, The Sun & 13 Cantons, 21 Great Pulteney St, London W1F 9NG.