The World’s Best Lebanese Food

A centuries-old olive tree anchors the courtyard at the center of this sprawling Lebanese restaurant and bar complex, three converted villas deep, in Gemmayzeh. The chef spent years at Noma before bringing fermentation and quiet boundary-pushing back to Beirut, and the menu lands somewhere between Levantine tradition and places tradition has never been. Ranked fifth on MENA's 50 Best Restaurants, it carries that weight without seeming to try.

1. The 50 #5 · MENA's 50 Best Restaurants

Braised collards dusted with peanut dukkah tells you everything about where Calliope is coming from: a modern Levantine restaurant in Chattanooga where the chef, who grew up in Amman as the son of a cook, has quietly made Southern ingredients his own. Falafel arrives under preserved mango tahini, lamb andouille crosses over muhammara, and the room feels more cosmopolitan than the address might suggest. The New York Times put it on their Restaurant List in 2025.

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3. James Beard Awards 2026 · Semifinalist · Best Chef: Southeast · Khaled AlBanna

Kubri is a women-run Lebanese spot on the Marais edge, built for sharing small plates and ordering far too many of them. Cocktails lean on sumac, rosewater, and arak, and the dips come with bread because that's the whole point of a dip. Vegetarians eat especially well here. The playlist is pop hits, turned up as the night goes on, so bring a group that doesn't need to discuss anything over dinner.

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The Lebanese restaurant in the 15th and 15th neighborhood keeps one of the largest Mediterranean wine and beer lists in the country, with bottles pulled from Lebanon, Morocco, and Greece. It's the kind of casual spot where a meal properly starts with dips and works toward a braised lamb shank. The chef earned a James Beard nomination in 2024, which feels about right for a room that takes traditional Lebanese cooking this seriously.

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Chandeliers, deep pink textiles, live Arabic music, and a lunch spread of around 30 small dishes that arrives until the table can't hold any more. Em Sherif is a Lebanese restaurant built around the idea of opulent home cooking, the kind where seasonal produce does the talking and the set menu removes any decision fatigue entirely. It ranks 13th on MENA's 50 Best Restaurants list, which tracks for a room this committed to the cause.

1. The 50 #13 · MENA's 50 Best Restaurants

Sour cream and onion dip served with Ritz crackers in retro ceramic bowls is a confident opening move for a Lebanese comfort food restaurant. Set inside an AlSerkal Avenue warehouse, Middle Child has two floors of dining and an open kitchen visible through the glass front, so the energy hits before you're even through the door. It holds a spot on MENA's 50 Best Restaurants as One to Watch, which tracks for a place that makes unpretentious food feel considered.

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Perched above Bloor Street's shopping strip, Amal is a Lebanese restaurant where the room leans sleek and the mood tips toward a night out even at lunch. The halal menu runs through mezze, skewers, and grilled mains in a modern register, and weekends bring belly dancers or a DJ to remind you this isn't a quiet neighbourhood spot. The kanafeh makes a strong case for dessert.

1. AAA Three Diamonds
2. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
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1. The New York Times 2025 · 2 stars · Restaurant Review
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1. Australian Good Food Guide 13/20 · One Chef Hat

Complimentary housemade pita arrives warm at this Lebanese restaurant in Mason, and it sets the tone for everything that follows. The mezza menus run long enough that most tables over-order on appetizers before the kebabs and shawarma ever arrive, which is its own kind of problem to have. The owner has been known to stop at every table with pairing advice, then greet returning guests by name. Come without a hard stop time.

1. AAA Three Diamonds
2. Cincinnati Magazine #9 · Best Restaurants

The name means "heart" in Arabic, in the fuller, more emotional sense of the word, and the gastrobar in L'Eixample seems to take that seriously. The kitchen pairs Catalan produce with Lebanese touches, and the menu is built for sharing, which suits the unhurried, Slow Food ethos. A short à la carte and two set menus keep the choices manageable without feeling like homework.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
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1. Le Fooding Le Fooding Guide

1. Le Fooding Le Fooding Guide

1. Le Fooding Le Fooding Guide

1. Le Fooding Le Fooding Guide

1. Le Fooding Le Fooding Guide

1. Le Fooding Le Fooding Guide

A Lebanese restaurant in Fishtown that opens as a bakery and shop before expanding into a full dining room and a generous rear garden. The menu runs from man'oushe and mezze at lunch to grilled whole poussin and kibbeh at dinner, with a tasting spread if the menu feels ambitious. The pita comes warm from the oven, which sounds minor until it arrives and suddenly isn't. A Michelin selected spot.

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2. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
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The tacos here are pinned with toothpicks and dropped straight into the fryer, which tells you most of what you need to know. This snug taco shop on Ballard Ave serves deep-fried tacos built around Lebanese-spiced beef or herby cauliflower, a family recipe from the chef's grandmother. Soups round out the short menu. Pale pink walls and floral oilcloths set the scene. Esquire named it one of America's best new restaurants in 2025.

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Lines form outside before the doors open, which tells you something about this Middle Eastern restaurant in Park Slope. The menu is a deep dive into mezze and grilled meats, with house-made pita arriving hot enough to make the hummus and labneh situation feel urgent. The name means "together" in Arabic, and the room earns it: the energy runs warm and loud, the way a good dinner should.

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2. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
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The circular booths are the seats to fight for at this Lebanese-Armenian restaurant in the Galleria Mall, where the menu sprawls generously across both traditions and the portions are sized for a table that means business. It earned a Michelin Bib Gourmand for the kind of food that makes one visit feel like homework, the menu is that long. Good bread, grilled meats, and fresh salads anchored in eastern Mediterranean instincts.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
2. The 50 The 50 Discovery

The sfiha here comes open, closed, and folded, which is either a philosophical statement or just a very thorough menu. Either way, this Lebanese restaurant has been an old-school institution in São Paulo for generations, run by the same family that founded it. The Michelin Bib Gourmand recognizes it, the neighborhood already knew. Atayef pancakes stuffed with nuts and finished with lemon syrup close things out properly.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

A Lebanese restaurant in Wilmersdorf where the menu runs well past hummus and flatbread into carefully spiced grilled meats, fried pastries, and dishes sized for a table of friends. The cooking leans on freshness and balance rather than heavy sauces. Lebanese wines and live piano in the evenings keep the mood easy. It holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand, so the kitchen is doing something right without the prices that would make you think twice.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

Portions sized for sharing are the clearest signal at this bright Lebanese café, part of a family-run group that has spread across the Middle East and landed in Riyadh with the same unhurried generosity. The menu runs long and covers all the classics, priced in a way that makes ordering too much feel reasonable rather than reckless. The riz bi halib is the dessert to plan ahead for. It holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

The arcade tables outside belong to the café across the way until evening, when this tiny Lebanese spot claims them back and spreads a family-style feast across the borrowed furniture. It holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand, and the food earns the fuss: homemade pide, hummus that's properly creamy, and chicken thighs that drip. The sharing format and the keen prices make the whole thing feel less like a meal out and more like someone's mother is feeding you.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

The mezze spread lands on the table fast and keeps coming, which is the whole point at this Lebanese restaurant on Boulevard du Souverain. Hummus, grilled meats, herb-heavy vegetables, and enough food for a proper shared feast, all at prices low enough to earn a Michelin Bib Gourmand. The room runs warm and loud in the way these meals tend to, and nobody leaves having under-ordered.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

Checkerboard floors, hanging plants, and a sun-lit terrace giving onto leafy views make this Lebanese all-day café feel considerably more serene than a mall in Giza has any right to. The kitchen leans into family-style cooking: stuffed grape leaves, spiced sausages with pomegranate molasses, warm chickpeas, the kind of food that assumes you're staying a while. Part of the wider Em Sherif family, it earned a 50 Discovery nod from The 50.

1. The 50 The 50 Discovery

White tablecloths, a single rose in a vase, and suited waiters bearing trays of hot and cold meze: Al Halabi is an old-school Lebanese restaurant that has been around forever and knows it. The no-frills room in Antelias, just north of Beirut, undersells a kitchen that turns out classic mezze with quiet precision. Go with a group and order broadly, especially the flatbreads.

1. The 50 The 50 Discovery

1. The 50 The 50 Discovery

1. The 50 The 50 Discovery

1. The 50 The 50 Discovery

The all-day kitchen at this Lebanese café runs on family recipes pulled into something sharper, mezze plates arriving steadily from mid-morning onward. Em Sherif has built a following across the Middle East on that formula, and the Doha outpost fits the pattern: stuffed grape leaves, warm chickpeas, sausages with pomegranate molasses, all against décor that photographs well without trying too hard.

1. The 50 The 50 Discovery

Chequerboard floors, pale wood, and hanging plants frame the Lebanese mezze café that has drawn a devoted following from Doha to Dubai and now Amman. The menu runs on family recipes, the kind passed down rather than invented: stuffed grape leaves, warm chickpeas, garlicky fried potatoes tucked into pitta, sausages glossed with pomegranate molasses. It earned a 50 Discovery from The 50. Come hungry and unhurried.

1. The 50 The 50 Discovery

1. The 50 The 50 Discovery

Freshly baked pita lands on the table almost before you've settled in, which is either a warning or a promise at this upmarket Lebanese restaurant in the Flatiron. The name means "tell me" in colloquial Arabic, and the format backs that up: sharing plates built around hot and cold meze, hummus in several moods, baba ghanoush, fattoush, falafel. Mains like seared lamb chops reward anyone who holds back.

1. The 50 The 50 Discovery

1. The 50 The 50 Discovery

Four rooms of Levantine tiles, Moorish mirrors, and wallpapers by Idarica Gazzoni fill a 19th-century palace in Achrafieh, and the al fresco terrace has striped parasols and a fountain if you'd rather eat outside. Liza is a Lebanese restaurant that came home after making its name in Paris, and the setting does a lot of the talking before the food arrives. A Discovery by The 50.

1. The 50 The 50 Discovery

1. The 50 The 50 Discovery

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

Stone walls, an arched ceiling, and a lower level with its own fireplace make this Lebanese restaurant feel more like a Beirut cellar than a Fulton Market address. The chef draws on family recipes for his mezze and tasting menu, moving through charred pita and parsley hummus before landing on stylized takes on traditional stews and fish dishes. The bar pours cocktails built around arak and tahini for a shorter, looser visit.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

Lebanese mezze and sharing plates on the ground floor of the Hôtel de Paris, with a panoramic terrace that makes Monte Carlo feel like it was designed as a backdrop. The kitchen runs on the logic that traditional Lebanese cooking and serious French technique are not in conflict, and the chef's résumé, which includes stints with Mathieu Pacaud and at Geranium in Copenhagen, suggests she's tested that theory. Dress accordingly.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

The covered terrace looks out over Lusail's skyline, which is reason enough to book ahead. Em Sherif is a Lebanese restaurant that has spread across the region, and the Doha outpost leans into the full experience: plush interiors, generous spreads, and a menu built entirely around sharing. Puffy bread, muttabbal, stewed fassoulia, the works. Come with a group or prepare to order too much, which, honestly, is the point.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

Azulejo tiles hand-painted in the Portuguese tradition line the walls of this Lebanese seafood restaurant inside the Rosewood on Al Maryah Island, which feels like an odd combination until you're sitting with water views in every direction and a mezze spread arriving from all sides. Stop at the seafood counter on the way in, because that's where the evening's direction gets decided. The menu is built for sharing, with the kind of vibrant, balanced dishes that make ordering feel like a group project.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

A Sakura tree anchors the middle of the dining room, which tells you this Lebanese restaurant in The Galleria mall is going for something a little more theatrical than your average shawarma stop. The space leans into colour hard, with floral chairs and pink-flower vines throughout. Dishes are built for sharing and come in generous portions. Save space for the kunafa, which earns its own sentence here.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

Fishing rods double as pendant lights here, which tells you everything about the commitment to the bit. This Lebanese seafood restaurant on Palm Jumeirah's waterfront is owned by working fishermen, so the catch on your plate arrived recently and not via a middleman with a refrigerated truck. Fish murals, nautical stripes, and a patio that looks straight out at the Arabian Gulf complete the picture.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
2. The 50 The 50 Discovery

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

The baba ganoush here has a smokiness that makes you wonder if other versions were ever trying. This is a Lebanese restaurant tucked near the Palais des Expositions, the kind of place that rewards coming in a group so the table fills with mezze and the sharing menu makes sense. The tabbouleh is bright and herb-heavy, the pistachio and almond pastries arrive with mint tea, and the whole thing moves at a civilized pace.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

The Pearl waterfront sets the scene, but inside Loris it's all Lebanon, from the plush décor to the sharing plates that anchor the menu. It's a Lebanese restaurant in the traditional mold: hummus, kebabs, and the kind of food that tastes like someone's grandmother is back there somewhere. The aish el saraya is the dessert to finish on. Step outside after and the harbor walkway does the rest.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

A domed stone oven anchors the center of this sprawling Lebanese restaurant inside the Shangri-La Jeddah, and the terrace with its Red Sea views tends to settle the question of where you're sitting. The menu runs from classic Lebanese to dishes with a more contemporary edge, with the kebabs doing most of the heavy lifting. Bespoke mocktails round things out in a city where that matters.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

Warm lighting and a menu that runs from breakfast through late evening signal the ambition here: a Lebanese restaurant built for staying a while. The kitchen leans on the classics, generous portions of dips, grilled kebabs, and milk pudding, with a few wider regional nods. The team pushes sharing, which is sensible given the scale of the plates. A Michelin Selected spot that draws a loyal local crowd.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

A vegetarian Lebanese restaurant in the 2nd where the chef's niece, trained by her grandmother in Beirut-style home cooking, runs the kitchen. The menu reads like a greatest-hits of what Lebanon does with vegetables: shawarma built around celery and mushrooms, lentil balls simmered in tomato sauce, a cauliflower take on baba ganoush they've named mama ganoush. Prices are gentle, the room is spare and calm, and booking ahead saves the trip.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

Inside the Cresta Palace Hotel, this is where the chef's Levantine heritage meets Engadin produce: think baharat-spiced lamb or deep-fried local trout with sumac nage, sitting alongside mezze and a tabbouleh that comes with a grandmother's name attached. The room is chic but relaxed, the kind that forgives you for ordering one of everything, which the sharing menu quietly encourages anyway. The wine list travels as far as the cooking does.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

The mahalabia with honey is the kind of dessert that makes you think someone's grandmother is running the kitchen, and in spirit, someone is. This is a cosy Lebanese-leaning restaurant built around the owner's memories of home, with a menu that wanders into Turkish territory along the way. Sambousek, grilled kebabs, fresh salads, and dips make up the bulk of it. When the weather cooperates, the terrace is the obvious move.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. AAA Approved

1. AAA Approved

1. AAA Approved

String lights stretch across a patio hung with art made from repurposed tools, which sets the tone for Spread Kitchen, a Lebanese-inspired restaurant on the Sonoma Highway where lemons show up in nearly everything. The chef's citrus fixation runs from the whipped feta and beet dip through the fried cauliflower to the tahini drizzled over the za'atar fries. The San Francisco Chronicle put it in their Bay Area Top 100.

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1. AAA Approved

This is a big, family-friendly Lebanese restaurant in Dearborn, and it's apparently where half of Detroit sends you the moment you land at the airport. The pita comes out of an oven shipped over from Lebanon, which is more dedication than most of us give our commutes. Come for the hummus, the shawarma wraps with a sharp hit of toum, or a slow-roasted lamb on almond rice built for a table of relatives. Order the Lemon Crush.

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Halal butcher shop by day, charcoal grill operation by the afternoon, Dearborn Meat Market has been doing both long enough that the regulars don't bother with the menu. The move is a tray of kabobs or kafta, roasted over charcoal in the back, with hummus and pita alongside. It's a narrow, welcoming room in the heart of Dearborn's Lebanese corridor, and few places in the area do lamb this well.

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The charcoal smoke rolling out toward Granville Station has been redirecting commuters for decades. This is a Lebanese charcoal chicken shop, the original location of a Sydney institution, and the garlic sauce has generated enough devotion to spawn interstate outposts and genuinely long queues. Chicken, chips, and that sauce are the move, though the hot chips roll has its own following. Simple, cash-friendly, and absolutely not somewhere you walk past without stopping.

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A whitewashed room with arched doorways inside Abidjan's Marcory neighborhood, known locally as Little Beirut, where Lebanese-Ivorian cooking has been part of the fabric for generations. The meze spreads are the entry point, hummus, tabbouleh, baba ganoush, fatayer, before the table moves on to grilled skewers and slow-cooked lamb stew. A whole méchoui lamb can be arranged with two days' notice, which is the kind of logistics that make a meal feel like an occasion.

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The red and green sign is easy to miss from San Pablo Ave, but regulars know to look. This Lebanese diner has a U-shaped counter and an endearing no-fuss quality that suits heavily spiced shawarma and kafta, served on combo plates with rice, garlic sauce, tzatziki, and brothy lentil soup. The baba ghanoush is flame-roasted and worth the detour. Picnic tables out front if you prefer sky to ceiling.

1. San Francisco Chronicle Best Middle Eastern restaurants in the Bay Area

The awarma and egg pizza here tells a small family history: confit lamb preserved through Lebanese winters, combined with a daughter's preference for sunny-side-up eggs, folded into a man'oushe. This old-school Lebanese flatbread house in Guildford has been around forever, and the menu has grown to include things like a haloumi spring roll wrapped in deep-fried phyllo with za'atar, which is either an identity crisis or a perfectly reasonable Tuesday lunch.

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1. Vancouver Magazine 2026 · Silver Medal · Restaurant Awards: Best Middle Eastern
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A food hall in West Adams where the stalls read like a who's-who of L.A.'s best operators: Thai fried chicken from the Holy Basil crew, tlayudas from Poncho's, tamales and weekend barbacoa from Tamales Elena. The rotating pop-up slot keeps regulars guessing, and Sook sells Levantine pantry goods alongside pre-packaged dishes for the commute home. The full-service Maydan restaurant anchors the back with hearth-fired Lebanese-leaning spreads and whole roasted mains.

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1. The New York Times 2022 · 2 stars, Critic's Pick · Restaurant Review