Despite Agora and Oma both being Greek restaurants, and one being upstairs from the other on the edge of Borough Market, they're both quite different.
Whilst Oma is light and airy, Agora is dark, moody and intense.
Whilst Oma riffs on its high-end Greek cuisine, Agora more closely follows tradition with its rustic Greek cooking.
Whilst Oma is owned by David Carter (the restaurant supremo behind Manteca and SmokeStak), Agora is also owned by David Carter.
And whilst Oma is great value for a Michelin-starred restaurant in Central London, Agora is ridiculous value for a London restaurant with a Michelin Bib Gourmand.
Okay, I guess they’re not really that different, but you catch my drift.
Billed as souvlaki bar, Agora’s menu is divided into spreads, skewers + grill, salata, braises, wood-oven flatbreads, and wood-burning rotisserie.
On a dreary Tuesday lunchtime during the middle of a tube strike, Agora’s industrial dining space still filled up swiftly when they opened at midday. It’s a good indicator that it’s still one of London’s hottest tables even after being open for a couple of years. Most of Agora is given over to walk-ins, and we perched at one of their many counters that surround the bars, windows and kitchen.
As we'd been boozing a lot lately, we stuck to the soft drinks - a fresh and fragrant rhubarb lemonade (£3.50) and an even better sinus tickling ginger soda (£4).
Hummus and crisps (£5) is a picky bit classic and here a silky version of the dip was topped with crunched up paprika spiked crisps. It was a lovely idea and meant the whole thing could be gobbled up with a spoon rather than needing hands.
Oma's take on tirokafteri (£5) saw tangy feta mixed with sweet roasted peppers and the gentle fieriness of pickled chilli. It was another excellent dip.
Freshly baked breads were ideal dipping implements - an airy and slightly elastic Wildfarmed flatbread (£3.50) was the pick of the two.
A sesame seed dotted koulouri pita (£3.50) was in more familiar soft bread roll territory.
Onto the skewers, and a pair of pork souvlaki (£5 each) were beautifully crisped around the edges with blushing pink interiors and well dusted with oregano.
Even better were a pair of gorgeously juicy and crisp-skinned slow cooked chicken thighs (£6 each), scattered with herbs and squeezed with lemon.
The Greek summer holiday vibes kept coming with a salata (£10.50) made with nutty and crisp carob rusks and a big dollop of thick and creamy galomizthra cheese.
Finally soft and tender chickpeas (£9) bobbed in a light vegetable broth which was zhushed up with the addition of verdant green zhoug.
All in, our bill came to £75 with ample food for two, a drink each, and 12.5% service. I’d say this is good value anywhere, let alone the middle of London. We had a delicious lunch of summery Greek flame cooking at Agora. I already had a lot of love for Oma and its more casual sibling downstairs is another big winner of a restaurant.
The Details:
Address - Agora, 4 Bedale Street, Borough Market, London SE1 9AL
