Mezze is a conversation starter
The hardest part of an engagement party is the first forty minutes, when two families who have not met are standing in a room being polite. A mezze table solves that mechanically: people stand around food, reach for the same dishes, and the conversation starts itself.
That is the actual argument for this menu at this event. Hummus, muhammara, falafel, salads and warm bread ask nothing of the guests except that they gather, which is the entire point of the evening.
Then the room sits and the register changes — mixed grill, kofta, shawarma, tajine and couscous.
- Mezze, hummus, muhammara, falafel, halal charcuterie, warm bread
- Greek and Israeli salads, steamed vegetable salad
- Mixed grill, kofta kebab, beef and chicken shawarma, tajine
- Premium kunafa, mixed Mediterranean desserts, mint lemonade
When the two families eat differently
Engagement parties are where dietary differences between two families first have to be handled in public, and handling them badly is remembered.
A Mediterranean table is mostly vegetables, pulses and bread with meat alongside, and everything on our menus is zabiha-sourced with no pork and no alcohol. In practice that means one table serves both sides without anybody being given a separate plate — which at this particular event carries more weight than the food does.
It scales up to the wedding
If the wedding is the same cuisine, the engagement party is a genuine rehearsal: the same recipes, the same sourcing, the same dishes at a smaller headcount.
We keep the record and will tell you at the wedding stage what worked and what we would change, rather than starting the conversation again from a menu PDF.
