The Story of Termeh: Persia's Cloth of Kings

Walk through the grand bazaars of Yazd or Isfahan and you’ll find, behind glass, lengths of fabric so intricate they take months to weave: termeh. For centuries this cloth of silk and wool — patterned with the paisley boteh motif that Persia gave the world — was the fabric of coronations, dowries and royal gifts.

In Iranian homes, termeh is not everyday cloth. It is brought out when guests matter: laid across the table for Nowruz, spread beneath the sofreh at weddings, wrapped around gifts meant to honour the person receiving them. It is, in fabric form, the Persian idea of hospitality — that a guest’s arrival transforms an ordinary evening into an occasion.

That is exactly the feeling we wanted to build on Edgware Road. When we set out to open a Persian restaurant in London, we didn’t want to recreate a Tehran chelo-kababi or a hotel dining room. We wanted the feeling of arriving at an Iranian home where the termeh has been laid out for you.

It shapes everything we do. The saffron rice steamed until every grain stands apart. The kebabs pressed by hand each morning and grilled over real charcoal. The stews — our ghormeh sabzi and fesenjan — started hours before the first guest arrives, because some flavours simply cannot be hurried.

The dining room carries the same thought: deep racing green like the cloth’s classic ground, gold like its metallic thread, chandeliers overhead and the boteh motif tucked into the details. Two floors — a bright main hall on the ground floor and a calmer, more intimate room upstairs — so the space can match the occasion you bring to it.

So when you visit us at 137 Edgware Road, know that the name over the door is a promise. The termeh is laid out. You are the guest that matters.