Why head to Crown Street for shawarma instead of the western suburbs where the best Middle Eastern food is? Because Nour is straight-up delicious and fun, largely thanks to chef Ibrahim Kasif cooking things his own way.

Take the frazzled stump of batata harra: potato is poached in oil, salted, pressed and fried, and wears a little hat of toum and fish sauce-spiked fermented chill. With a toasty exterior giving way to featherlight spud, it’s like the crunchy bottom of a paella cosied up with a hashbrown.

Regulars also flock to the sizeable pastel-hued dining room for rehearsed-but-warm service and dishes to roll your sleeves up for. Juicy dry-aged half-duck marinated in baharat spice, say, or pressed lamb neck lavished in sharp tomato sauce, yoghurt and burnt butter. And although the wood-fired coconut basbousa pudding is from a time before Kasif, a visit to Nour isn’t complete without it.

Good to know: If you only do one bottomless brunch a year, this is the place.

Good Food reviews are booked anonymously and paid independently. A restaurant can’t pay for a review or inclusion in the Good Food Guide.