Located in a villa, with a home-kitchen upstairs where everything you see on the menu is prepared, it is a lounge, tearoom and quiet French-themed oasis where Jeddah’s “ladies who lunch” will surely retire to take afternoon tea.

The menu is a gleeful global gustatory gallimaufry of exquisite finger-foods, encompassing Far Eastern and Middle Eastern delicacies, French pastries and from last week, proper English scones complete with cream and strawberry jam, for high tea.

Everything you see on the bill of fare is prepared fresh every day on the premises, using only the finest quality ingredients and nothing at all is fried. Layla Nassief, proprietor, chef, deviser of recipes and gracefully capable mother of six children makes that an unbreakable rule of the house.

Just two years ago, Nassief began her career as professional pastry chef literally from her home kitchen table. Possessed by a passion for pastry and inspired by her mother’s legendary skills, the encouragement of friends who had sampled her cooking and a clutch of traditional recipes handed down to her, she put together a foundation range of delicacies.

“We started with mini finger-sized shawarmas made to order and it all grew from there,” she said. “We decided to use only the best ingredients and to be very healthy but gourmet quality in our approach. No matter how delicious a recipe might be, I decided that if it were fried, I would not include it.”

She added that the pastries were not at the commercial end market of the price range, but that the quality of both ingredients and preparation produce a quality of taste far removed from commercial products.

Initially located in a small kiosk in a nearby shopping mall as their distribution point for orders, the enterprise rapidly built up momentum as Layla’s reputation grew and as she added small savories, pastries and cakes to the range.

The logistics of preparation and delivery stretched the fledgling business and soon Nasseif decided that it made sense to put the growing operation under one roof. Two years after starting, they made a definitive move. “We took a small villa and decided to make it a tearoom rather than a shop,” she said.

There, visitors can sit in a delightfully faux-French “fin de siècle” atmosphere in the small premises with a secluded garden and patio and order anything from the range. Having settled on their favorites, no easy task, they can order on the spot or phone in for later collection.

Everything, and I can personally vouch for this, is produced in a busy, immaculate kitchen, closely supervised by Nasseif or one of her daughters, on the premises.

Although Layla’s does have larger cakes available to order, it is, and surely will be, the range of finger foods that define her developing brand. The sheer variety and quality, served on fine china and silver and accompanied by a selection of teas and coffees is enough to keep the most fastidious gourmet intrigued and busy for hours.

While it is impossible to say which is the best dish, I tend to be a savory rather than sweet fan. The satay pastries are tangy and rich, the mini lamb tarts a delight and the stuffed puffed pastry cases are positively scrumptious.

However, I have to concede a weakness for the subtly flavored orange and carrot cakes, the chocolate balls and the scones and …… STOP!

Although the majority of Layla’s business is pre-ordered for takeaway, the very best thing really is to visit the tearoom, sit down, read the menu, enjoy the show and eat the cast!