The best Middle Eastern restaurants in London

Any restaurant specialising in veggie Middle Eastern small plates has to be bang on-trend, and this dinky Spitalfields joint delivers the goods in an easy-to-love rustic-chic space with unplastered walls, stylish woodwork, tiles and designer lighting. Be sure to order plenty of charred laffa flatbread to go with top picks such as aubergine slices piled with coriander-spiked zhoug paste. With its sunny, enthusiastic staff, Bubala is exactly the kind of place to convert an ardent meat-eater. There's also a branch in Soho. 

Chef Fadi Kattan’s Palestinian restaurant on a residential backstreet in Notting Hill is a delight, with an inverted butterfly roof and a wall draped with arabesque William Morris pomegranates. Try perfectly plump aubergines, their bellies slit and filled with floral, lightly pickled carrots and glistening green beads of coriander, as well as shish barak – parcels of delicately spiced pumpkin, and musakhan, the chicken, sumac and sweet-onion jewel of Palestinian cuisine. 

The West End’s most unlikely hot-ticket rendezvous is a rambunctious amalgam of pulse-quickening music, free-flowing drink and vibrant food with a modern Israeli slant – so sell your soul for a seat at the high-energy no-booking bar. Our favourite dish? Shakshukit – spicy minced meat served in a swirl of tahini and yoghurt with laffa bread. The Palomar has a lovely sibling too, The Barbary.  

Secreted in a basement room at the back of modish kebab joint Maison Bab in Covent Garden, this ten-seater space promises speakeasy-style dining and a tasting menu from a run of acclaimed guest chefs. Pamir Zeydan is currently in the driving seat, offering the Med-inspired likes of dover sole kebab served on an ironed hispi cabbage taco with roasted red pepper purée as well as spit-roast kebab of aged Dalesbred mutton with puffed pita, charred heritage tomato ragù, smoked Turkish yoghurt, charred Carlston pepper, shallot and sumac salad. With its low lights, soulful music and chatty staff Kebab Queen is huge fun and refreshingly off-piste.  

A boho-chic, no-bookings Persian hangout from the people behind Bao and Hoppers, live-wire Berenjak's grill dispenses skewers of spicy minced goat shoulder and juicy charred poussin, while the menu also finds room for coal-cooked aubergines and bowls of lamb shoulder, bone marrow and kidney beans. Staff are eager to please, and the bill won’t kill.

If you love Palomar, you’ll also be smitten by its sibling The Barbary, a fizzing eatery filled with smoky aromas, music and laughter. Be prepared to wait for a stool at the horseshoe-shaped bar where punters gorge on Israeli-born dishes and ideas gleaned from Africa’s Barbary Coast – don’t miss the slow-braised, robata-grilled octopus (London’s finest tentacles). 

Noise, smoke, clubby vibes, strong cocktails and belting Turkish barbecue are the attractions at this hip grill house underneath Haggerston’s railway arches. Berber’s long wooden tables and bench seats are built for socialising, and the menu offers everything from off-the-wall nibbles to bonanza sharing feasts – the brilliant cauliflower shawarma is a must-order. Also try the Berber & Q Shawarma Bar in Clerkenwell.

Kapara is the latest venture from ex-Ottolenghi chef Eran Tibi, who is also the brains behind Southwark’s Bala Baya, another Tel Aviv-inspired restaurant with a comparable clubby vibe. The vibe is lively, to say the least, and the menu is just as flirty (dishes have naughty names like ‘cheeky bums’ and ‘sticky treat’). Go for a mix of small and big plates: the crispy pita chips with a deliciously zingy cod roe and lemon dip and melt-in-your-mouth smoky aubergine heart laden with pine nut jam and clementine marmalade.

Cosy vibes, faultless service and terrific food seal the deal at this modish self-styled purveyor of Beirut street food. Lunchtimes are mega-busy as crowds pile in for its takeaway wraps. Otherwise, sit at one of the long tables and graze from the all-day line-up of mezze and charcoal grills – with some refreshing mint tea on the side. There’s an offshoot in Soho.  

Haya serves up little plates of Israeli-inspired sunshine in a chic restaurant that offers the perfect spot for a very classy lunch. Highlights include a thick, creamy tzatziki, moreish crab cakes or roasted halves of aubergine from the display, showered with almond flakes.

Like a pomegranate-coloured jewel glittering among the local chains, this hip kebab joint serves the real Middle Eastern deal from a cleverly designed, bespoke charcoal grill. Ingredients are lovingly prepped, portions are generous, and fillings are off-piste (beef brisket with chilli and smoked cheese kofta, say). Don’t forget to order some dangerously addictive dukkah whitebait too. There’s a branch in Stratford's Westfield, too.

It's on the same road as the high-stepping River Café, but this bijou neighbourhood restaurant couldn’t be more different. It's fabulously kitsch, kooky, colourful and stuffed to the gunnels with the owner’s personally collected paraphernalia. Don’t be fooled by the restaurant’s French name, the food’s authentically Lebanese, straightforward and generous – with the main man always on duty at the stoves. The short pared-back menu offers shish kebabs or Lebanese ‘traditional chicken’, although most people opt for one of the mixed meze feasts with warm pitta bread. Immense fun. 

Brilliantly designed by co-owner Tom Dixon, Coal Office follows the house style with a thrilling menu that highlights the revved-up flavours of modern Jerusalem: the josperised aubergine and Machneyuda’s polenta with asparagus, mushroom ragoût and parmesan are must-orders.

We had gourmet burgers, gourmet hot dogs and gourmet fried chicken. Then this place made it the kebab’s turn. Le Bab’s owners took the Middle Eastern blueprint, splashed on some Asian influences and gave their posh offerings a modish Scandinavian look (they’re served open on house-made flatbread, like mutated smørrebrød). Fillings change seasonally, with preserved and fermented ingredients adding to the Nordic vibe. Also try sibling Maison Bab in Covent Garden.

Even if you’ve never heard of Yotam Ottolenghi, you can’t pass the flagship branch of his café-deli empire without stopping to admire the sight. Fronting the long all-white dining room is a huge window display, while each dish is a masterclass of eclectic flavours drawn from the Middle East, the Med and beyond. There are branches in Belgravia, Spitalfields and Notting Hill. Fancy the Ottolenghi experience in a proper restaurant? Try Nopi or Rovi.

This Levantine restaurant is run by a husband-and-wife duo who celebrate flavours from across the Middle East, from Cyprus to Palestine. Expect a seriously warm welcome, and a colourful of array of small plates that burst with flavour and sunshine. 

Come hungry and expect a crowd at Gökyüzü – a sprawling Green Lanes institution and a gobsmacking go-to venue for prodigious portions of excellent Turkish cooking. More is more here: exhibit A being the charcoal-grilled minced chicken beyti (we counted 15 pieces!), wrapped in cheese-filled lavash bread, drizzled with butter and served with bulgur wheat, yoghurt and salad. There are branches in Walthamstow, Finchley, Kentish Town and Chingford.

Anything connected to Yotam Ottolenghi gets our vote, and this warmer, buzzier offshoot of Soho’s Nopi is no exception. True to form, Rovi’s small-plates menu is an absolute blast with its eclectic mishmash of Middle Eastern and Mediterranean food. There’s some ravishing veggie stuff here, but our bobby dazzler is a dish of skewered squid and lardo with red pepper and aioli.

You can’t help but smile when you walk into this long-serving family-run Turkish favourite: the atmosphere is infectiously homely, and the interior is a riot of ethnic knick-knacks, ceramic tiles and coloured glass decorations. The focus is on oven-cooked meats and fish supported by dainty salads and refined small plates – although the mixed grill is excellent too. Just add some perfectly acceptable Turkish booze.

Yotam Ottolenghi struck culinary gold with his game-changing Ottolenghi cafés, but Nopi promises a slightly more formal, grown-up take on things – while sharing the look and ethos of the casual mini-chain. As you might expect, the cooking is an inventive fusion of Middle Eastern cuisine with bold forays into the Mediterranean and Asia. Nopi isn’t the greatest bargain in town but it is handy for Oxford Circus and there’s a lovely private room downstairs.

An ever-popular Pimlico mainstay since 2002, this opulent Ottoman grill is a polished, atmospheric spot with intricate carved screens, patterned lamps, flower-topped tables and old-school mintan (jackets) mounted on the walls. Expect to pay a little more for your nosh, but in return you’ll get creative meze plates, full-flavoured classics (the Albanian-style calf’s liver is a must-order), superlative kebabs and a few resolutely un-Ottoman offerings.

Handsome and fashionably modern, new-wave Arabica was originally a stall selling imported Middle Eastern provisions, but now peddles a huge menu of native and international hits – think za’atar spiced flatbreads, mezze, pide, lahmacun (Armenian pizza), creative shish kebabs etc. There's also a branch in King’s Cross.

Set in a Southwark railway arch, Bala Baya is a bakery, a fast-paced pitta kiosk at lunchtime and a buzzy restaurant in the evenings. Come here for astonishing little Middle Eastern-inspired dishes such as tea-smoked, yoghurt-injected ‘aubergine tea’. We warned you!

East London’s most famous ocakbasi has been around for ever, but this Turkish kebab king still lures in passers-by with its enticing smells. Meat is the main event here, so hold out for the succulent cubes of grilled lamb in the peerless cop sis, or the garlicky lusciousness of the minced chicken beyti served with an oversized salad and warm leavened bread. BYOB, naturally. 

The London outpost of Istanbul’s celebrated Yeni Lokanta, this Soho spot is a deliciously atmospheric delight for fans of contemporary Turkish cuisine. The restaurant’s logo suggests a flower-shaped cluster of aubergines, and the purple-skinned delicacy appears in various guises – notably the signature manti dumpling. Otherwise, it’s top-drawer stuff all the way,mfrom succulent fish cooked in raki to crisp-edged kadayifi (Turkish bread pudding) fritters spiked with candied orange zest. Not cheap, but worth it.

Following the huge success of its pokey original branch by Tooting Bec tube station, Meza’s second coming is now the go-to for Lebanese mezze and grilled meats in the Tooting Broadway area. The same standards apply (welcoming service, low prices), but there’s more space. It does very decent kebabs, but we prefer the little grazing dishes for variety and zing.