Hiba Express

A bright, colourful restaurant on High Holborn, specialising in traditional Lebanese and Palestinian dishes. 

Dishes range from hot and cold mezze, grills and shawarma wraps to Palestinian salads, sambousek, various fatayer, marinated cutlets of lamb and mousakaat batinjan - a dish of fried aubergines baked with tomato, onion, chickpeas, green chilli and red peppers. Sweet, rich baklava proves popular.

Hiba doesn't serve alcohol but there's certainly plenty of choice when it comes to drinks, from recognisable cans of fizzy stuff to fresh juices, milkshakes and smoothies with London monikers - Maida Vale is strawberry, mango and banana; Chelsea, blueberry and orange. You can also create you own - it's 'Shoreditch', fittingly.

A takeaway option does brisk business at lunchtimes, with local workers grabbing their foil-wrapped bits and bobs to go. There's a delivery facility too, available to quite a few local postcodes.