Last Updated on September 17, 2025
Enjoy an invitation to feed your senses!
4.0 out of 5.0 starsTake a short walk from the tourist draws of South Kensington into the heart of residential Chelsea and you’ll find Villa Mamas, a neighbourhood restaurant with an international reputation for food designed to feed the senses.
Turning from a career in finance, founder chef, Roaya Saleh, established Villa Mamas to champion the flavours of her home, Bahrain, and the traditional foods of the Persian Gulf region. She takes her inspiration from her mother’s cooking, and with branches in Bahrain, Abu Dhabi, Riyadh and London, she provides a reminder of home for Gulf tourists and a taste of heaven for local diners.
The menu encompasses flavours and favourite dishes from across the Middle East, including a delicious qurma sabzi, a much-loved Iranian herb stew (and the first Iranian dish prepared in space by an astronaut!), chicken machbous (biriani in style and the national dish of Bahrain) and um ali, Egyptian bread and butter pudding. For those of us unfamiliar with the dishes offered on the menu, the listed ingredients cannot conjure the complexity of flavours or the joy that some of these dishes will inspire.
As well as offering wines, the drinks menu offers, as one would expect from a Middle Eastern restaurant, a delightful selection of juices and mocktails (which can be served as cocktails). A traditional long Lemon Mint is always refreshing, and the Royal Saffron Spritz mocktail anticipated the beauty of the dishes to follow.
The restaurant team are friendly and efficient, dispatching delivery riders laden with food parcels (a sure sign of popularity these days) whilst taking time to recommend dishes and run through ingredients. Warak enab (stuffed vine leaves cooked in a lemon broth) is a best seller, as is the eggplant explosion (one to go back for). We opted for perfectly grilled halloumi with a sauce of Turkish chilli and pomegranate molasses; a lamb kofta served with feta and an intense cherry molasses atop mashed potato, and a delicious fattoush salad featuring the sweetest, darkest pomegranate fruits I’ve ever tasted.
The main courses were all beautifully seasoned and presented. The roasted “Cauliflower Garden”, surrounded by a rich tahini sauce, roasted almond flakes and pomegranate jewels, melted in the mouth. The deliciously marinated and grilled chicken tenders were equally adorned as they sat on a sea of the creamiest hummus, sprinkled with sumac and topped with a crown of crisp potato strings.
The most popular dish at Villa Mamas, we were told, is the lamb shank, served with vermicelli rice and pine nuts, and we saw a fair few seabass sayadieh being taken for home delivery. Traditionally a fisherman’s meal, the dish is seasoned with the four “c”s: cumin, cinnamon, cardamom and coriander. Another reason to make a return visit!
A third reason would be the um ali, a signature dish, a type of bread-and-butter pudding (without eggs), encompassing light puff pastry, a silky cream-custard laced with rose petal, and grated pistachios and is quite simply the food of the gods. The saffron ice-cream served with wispy candyfloss, rose syrup, and more pistachio comes a close second.
In Villa Mamas Chelsea, Roaya Saleh has certainly achieved her objective of championing the food of her region. There is nothing themed about the venue, and the decoration is relatively sparse in simple, earthy tones. The vibrancy comes from the ingredients, colours and flavour of the food served, which together evoke the warmth and beauty of their provenance.
Jenny was a guest of Villa Mamas at 25-27 Elystan Street, Chelsea, London, SW3 3NT.
The restaurant is open Monday – Saturday 12:00 pm – 23:00; Sunday 12:00 – 22:00
The restaurant can be contacted by email enquiries@villamamas.com or phone 020 30340777
Reservations can be made directly by clicking here
Looking for more restaurants in Chelsea? We also recommend the Fuji Grill at Beaverbrook Town House
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