Restaurants

Comptoir Libanais

Lebanese café chain

Marylebone: 65 Wigmore Street, W1U 1PZ

Mahdi

With an output in plastic doggie bags potentially warranting an offset of its carbon footprint, Mahdi is crowned king when it comes to unnecessarily large portions of...

Hammersmith: 217 King Street, W6 9JT

Alounak

Perhaps it’s a case of good nights and bad nights – nothing has changed on the surface, after all. Alounak’s front room remains a temple to the kind of token...

Olympia: 10 Russell Gardens, W14 8EZ

Faanoos

London’s numerous Iranian restaurants seem divided between those attempting to evoke the opulence of ancient Persia and those content to emulate the warm familiarity...

Barnes: 481 Upper Richmond Road West, SW14 7PU

Lazeez

Family-owned Lebanese

Acton: 253 Acton High St, W3 9BY

Mohsen

Mohsen may be bracketed by a pair of moribund boozers and opposite a Homebase, but the temptation here is to wind your watch forward three hours and start working on...

Olympia: 152 Warwick Road, W14 8PS

Pilpel

Houmous and falafel bar in Spitalfields

Shoreditch: 36 Brushfield Street, E1 6EU

Ranoush Juice

Ranoush, part of the Maroush empire, has been squeezing juices and churning out shawarmas for decades. Behind the busy counter where the juice-squeezers and...

Edgware Road: 43 Edgware Road, W2 2JE

Sufi

You know you’re dealing with an authentic Iranian restaurant when you find the provincial bean and noodle soup, ash-e reshteh, on the menu: even more so when it’s...

Shepherd's Bush: 70 Askew Road, W12 9BJ

Yalla Yalla

Lebanese café in Soho

Soho: 1 Green's Court, W1F 0HA

Abu Zaad

A landmark on the Shepherd’s Bush strip known as ‘Little Syria’, Abu Zaad is one of London’s few Levantine restaurants not to pose as Lebanese. It is usually...

Shepherd's Bush: 29 Uxbridge Road, W12 8LH

Al Hamra

Chintzy ruched viennese blinds, carpets and low ceilings may seem an unlikely look for a Lebanese restaurant, but the slightly kitsch homeliness of the space is...

Mayfair: 31-33 Shepherd Market, W1J 7PT

Al Sultan

Al Sultan just keeps going and going. In Mayfair there are still customers willing to pay top dollar for bright lighting, pastelly decor and a look of dated luxury –...

Mayfair: 51-52 Hertford Street, W1J 7ST

Ali Baba

On a quiet sidestreet, Ali Baba functions largely as a takeaway with a restaurant at the back. It seems a desultory spot, but its unique selling point is Egyptian...

Marylebone: 32 Ivor Place, NW1 6DA

Alounak Kebab

Bayswater: 44 Westbourne Grove, W2 5SH

Fairuz

Middle Eastern country kitchen – bare bricks, swags of dried chillies and aubergine skins, a threateningly large vase beside one table – may not make it into an...

Marylebone: 3 Blandford Street, W1U 3DA

Fakhreldine

Follow the night-lights and American Beauty-style red-rose wall up the stairs to this glamorously sleek bar and restaurant, which belies its long-standing prime...

Mayfair: 85 Piccadilly, W1J 7NB

Fresco

Health and vitality are the names of the game at Fresco, a juice-bar-cum-Lebanese takeaway and caff. Fruit fills the front window; photos of fruit line the...

Westbourne Grove: 25 Westbourne Grove, W2 4UA

Fresco

Marylebone: 31 Paddington Street, W1U 4HD

Fresco

Fitzrovia: 34-36 Margaret Street, W1G 0JE

Fresco

Bayswater: Second floor, Whiteleys Shopping Centre, W2 4YN

Fresco

Paddington: 93 Praed Street, W2 1NT

Hafez

Smaller and less glamorous than many of its competitors, Hafez is still popular with Iranian expats who relish its immunity to the slings and arrows of passing time....

Bayswater: 5 Hereford Road, W2 4AB

Hiba

A Lebanese outpost in previously uncharted Borough High Street, Hiba has stylish, retro furnishings of olive-green and brown. The look may not be classic Lebanese, but...

Borough: Maya House, 134-138 Borough High Street, SE1 1LB

Kenza

The mysterious East begins at Kenza’s front door. Diners make their way down a series of lamp-lit corridors, before emerging into an orientalist’s opium dream of...

City: 10 Devonshire Square, EC2M 4YP

Le Mignon

It was Saturday lunchtime and Camden market was heaving, yet a few streets away Le Mignon was empty and the lone waiter was ordering himself a Subway sandwich. Things...

Camden: 98 Arlington Road, NW1 7HD

Levant

Down a lamp-lit and petal-strewn staircase, through a heavy wooden door and into a louche basement bar with low seats, Levant pans out into a Marrakech-ish mishmash of...

Marylebone: Jason Court, 76 Wigmore Street, W1U 2SJ

Mahdi

Swiss Cottage: 2 Chantfield Gardens, NW6 3BS

Maroush Gardens

One of several incarnations of Maroush around London, this branch is just a few doors from the company flagship, which has dedicated itself to nightly entertainment,...

Edgware Road: 1-3 Connaught Street, W2 2DH