Ya Hela Restaurant,

437 Kingsbury Road, London NW9 9DT

"First visit to this Iraqi restaurant with friends. Very hospitable and welcoming staff, nice ambiance, busy with waiting queue for a short period. The food was great. We ordered lentil soup, grilled sea bass, kofta (minced meat), rice with lamb shank & shawarma. They offered plenty of starters and side dishes including humus, labneh, fries & kebbe. We enjoyed our meal and if there was one thing to criticise, that would be the shawarma which was tasty but dry unfortunately."

"I've never tried Iraqi food before but Ya Hela has introduced me to how wonderful it is. I say wonderful because it was a true meat feast! Their most popular item, the lamb kofte kebab had a lovely outer crust yet absolutely broke apart when trying to pick it up. I finally found something more sensitive than vegans. This alone was great however they have speciality lamb dishes with 3x more meat. Now we talking. Lamb shank - Pure, served with rice, no sauces or spices as such. Just tender, beautiful meat falling off the bone and you'd never complain for wanting more even though it's hella simple. Lamb neck - now this I could relate to a desi dish because it was another massive chunk of lamb but sat on top of a bed of broken up naan which has soaked up spices. Wow, this was almost like when I have Nihari, naan soaked up except this meat is on another level! Arabic Shwarma was pretty good though just needed more sauce inside but they have sauces provided anyway so that was fine. The chicken wings were a little dry for my liking. Service and atmosphere were fantastic, it was pretty busy and loved seeing massive pieces of lamb being eaten up. Very much liked this spot guys, try those lamb dishes and kebabs and you will not be disappointed! Taste: 9, Quality: 9, Value: 9"

"Amazing food we had ordered, kebabs, falafel, and wings all fresh pipping hot and delicious , hummus had very rich texture. The server was very kind , the complementary lentil soup is amazing on cold winter day.Sure will be visiting again"