The sun is out and Tim Christian is in shorts – getting on his bike and heading to the far flung reaches of Lytham to sample some Lebanese Street food that doesn’t disappoint.
It was one of those spring days where the weather reaches the heady heights of double digits. The sun comes out, the death of winter is announced and all the bizarre shedding of inhibitions of the British populace in warmish weather takes place: men without shirts, families piling onto the beach and (in my case) trips out the bike. In shorts.
Looking for excuses as I always am, I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to knock another name off my list of eating establishments to sample, but where to go? Nothing overly heavy, something that suited the weather, nowhere I needed to sit in, and obviously easily within cycling distance. Checking through the list, the answer was obvious โ this would be the day I would visit Lebanese street-food eatery, Elvin’s of Lytham.
Elvin’s is one of those places that is recommended by its own obvious success despite its less than ideal position. Located down a narrow arcade running off Lytham’s main shopping street, this is a place you’d probably miss if you didn’t know it was there. Nevertheless it was bustling, with a 15 minute wait on orders and people constantly coming and going to collect their food.
Boasting an eye-catching main menu as well as a fascinatingly varied breakfast menu (which I was too late for, alas), I would have been in serious danger of choice paralysis, wanting to try everything available and settling on nothing, had I not been convinced (bullied) by my friend to try the Power Buddha Bowl, a salad bowl containing a rainbow of shawarma chicken, butterbeans, mixed salad, mango and pomegranate salsa, red cabbage and lentil slaw and a yoghurt dip. I also opted for the additional Lebanese chicken โ might as well go all out. Perfect for a hot (ok, warm) sunny day’s lunch on the green to fuel an afternoon’s gadding aboot on the bicycle.
You can smell Elvinโs well before you see it, that absolutely luscious scent of garlic and spices fills the narrow arcade and entices you in, and you understand why this place has such a reputation. I challenge anyone to walk past without wondering what could possibly smell so good and having a quick nosy. Elvin’s itself is a small takeaway, tucked away as it is, but attractively simple in its decoration, with some minimal seating available inside and out, but it was too nice to be eating indoors anyway, so when my order was ready I precariously balanced it in the hastily converted hanging basket of my bike helmet and cycled down to the ubiquitous Lytham windmill (looking slightly less than iconic today, with its sails removed) and got stuck in.
I reckon the Pakistani eggs are a strong contender. That or the bhaji burger. Or the butterbean stew. Or theโฆ well, you get the idea.
Although the journey had knocked it about a bit, the Buddha Bowl was still an eruption of colour and freshness and smelt incredible. The shawarma chicken was tender and with just the right amount of sauce, whilst the Lebanese chicken was cooked in a drier fashion, but no less delicious. The combination of the two with the salad, slaw and yoghurt dip (which had been turned into more of a salad dressing by the tender attentions of my bike helmet) combined into a delicious lunch โ light and refreshing with the salad, savoury from the chicken, but still satisfying and filling from the lentils and broad beans.
The balance works perfectly and I nommed the whole bastard thing in a short time, enjoying every bite right down to the saucy conclusion of salad and chicken chunks in the various sauces and juices at the bottom of the tub โ the salad equivalent of the super-salty and delicious scraps at the end of a bag of dry roasted peanuts. The only part I had an issue with (and this was very much a me problem) was the pomegranate seeds which, as a veteran of a shameful number of broken teeth, added a little too much surprise crunch for my personal preference. Otherwise a near-perfect meal, especially for a moderately pleasant day on Lytham green.
Elvinโs doesnโt just do salads, the range is a varied and delicious sounding selection of dishes, from burgers and steak and chips, to flatbreads, lamb, chicken or vegan shawarma, or slow-cooked chicken and butterbeans. The menu also covers breakfast and boasts delights such as Pakistani, Spanish or traditional scrambled eggs, pancakes, some infamously millennial home-wrecking avocado options, and more traditional breakfast boxes including vegetarian and vegan versions.
Like I said, choice paralysis.
I always like to think about what I would choose for a follow-up visit, but in this case I genuinely canโt decide and will probably be umming and ahhing right up until Iโm at the counter ordering. But, having acquired a taste for spicy scrambled eggs at uni in Bradford (a surprisingly satisfying takeaway option after a night out โ RIP Shezanโs), I reckon the Pakistani eggs are a strong contender. That or the bhaji burger. Or the butterbean stew. Or theโฆ well, you get the idea. Whatever that super-special X factor is (not *that* one) โ skill of layering flavours and textures that makes really consistently great food, this place has it and then some.
Anyway, salad-y deliciousness consigned to its doom, I set off on my bike, satisfied and energised for a bike ride that accidentally went on for much longer than I had planned because I went the wrong way and was too stubborn to just turn around. But thatโs a different story. In short, if youโre looking for somewhere to eat in Lytham that isnโt too pricey (for Lytham, that is), has a wide and exciting selection with fresh ingredients and a solid range of vegetarian and vegan options, Elvinโs has you covered.
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