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The Best Thai Restaurants in London
Updated March 2026
Hummus has become a supermarket staple, falafel wraps are now a go-to lunch, and there’s never a bad time to have a kebab – the love affair between Londoners and Middle Eastern food is a deep one, so it’s no surprise that the Middle Eastern restaurant scene in the capital has gone from strength to strength in recent years.
You’ve never been short of places to have a kebab in London but not all kebab houses are created equally. There’s Mangal II in Dalston, run by original founder Ali Dirik’s sons Ferhat and Sertac, which serves up some of the best Turkish food in town, including the doner kebab made from scratch in-house. Berenjak in Soho, inspired by the hole-in-the-wall restaurants of Tehran, serves up epic authentic Persian kababs whereas Maison Bab in Covent Garden puts a modern spin on them – their pork shawarma, slow-cooked for 15 hours and served with chermoula mayo with some iskender fondue fries on the side is a winner.
Then there are the proper neighbourhood joints that you find yourself going back to time and time again. Israeli chef Oded Oren takes inspo from his home city of Tel Aviv at his spot Oren, where you can get dishes like Jerusalem mixed grill; monkfish ‘chraime’ & hand rolled cous cous; and chargrilled hake kebabs & sheep’s yoghurt. Bubala is a fully veggie spot where you won’t miss the meat thanks to confit potato latkes with garlicky toum and ried aubergine with zhoug.
Middle Eastern Restaurants
Updated March 2026
Hummus has become a supermarket staple, falafel wraps are now a go-to lunch, and there’s never a bad time to have a kebab – the love affair between Londoners and Middle Eastern food is a deep one, so it’s no surprise that the Middle Eastern restaurant scene in the capital has gone from strength to strength in recent years.
You’ve never been short of places to have a kebab in London but not all kebab houses are created equally. There’s Mangal II in Dalston, run by original founder Ali Dirik’s sons Ferhat and Sertac, which serves up some of the best Turkish food in town, including the doner kebab made from scratch in-house. Berenjak in Soho, inspired by the hole-in-the-wall restaurants of Tehran, serves up epic authentic Persian kababs whereas Maison Bab in Covent Garden puts a modern spin on them – their pork shawarma, slow-cooked for 15 hours and served with chermoula mayo with some iskender fondue fries on the side is a winner.
Then there are the proper neighbourhood joints that you find yourself going back to time and time again. Israeli chef Oded Oren takes inspo from his home city of Tel Aviv at his spot Oren, where you can get dishes like Jerusalem mixed grill; monkfish ‘chraime’ & hand rolled cous cous; and chargrilled hake kebabs & sheep’s yoghurt. Bubala is a fully veggie spot where you won’t miss the meat thanks to confit potato latkes with garlicky toum and ried aubergine with zhoug.
One of the best things to happen in 2020 was the refurbishment of Mangal II, swiftly turning it into our new favourite Turkish restaurant in Dalston, and one of our favourite spots in the whole city. Original founder Ali Dirik’s sons, Ferhat and Sertac, are now running Mangal II and they’ve bought the place bang up to date with a more concise menu, daily specials, and more variety – and there’s even natural wines too. We especially love the doner kebab, which they make from scratch in-house, the spicy ezme salad, the whole grilled fish, the aubergine, the mushroom manti dumplings, and THOSE sumac grilled onions. Basically we love it all, and brothers Ferhat and Sertac are some of the nicest, hardest working guys in the biz. If you want the best Turkish food in London, then look no further than Mangal II.
Bubala, led by Marc Summers (ex-General Manager of Berber & Q) and head chef Helen Graham (ex-The Palomar, The Barbary and The Good Egg), has found its permanent home in Spitalfields and has opened additional spots in Soho and Kings Cross. It’s inspired by the modern cafes of Tel Aviv and it also happens to be fully vegetarian. Helen brings with her some serious kitchen pedigree and with the bold flavours of Middle Eastern cooking on display, you won’t be missing the meat at all. Our standout dish is the fried halloumi (it’s unbelievably good and a reason to come here alone). Made by Kupros dairy in north London, the cheese itself is super soft (not rubbery at all like some halloumi) and is lightly fried at Bubala and drizzled with honey. We also love the confit potato latkes with garlicky toum; the hummus with burnt butter and pine nuts (make sure you order the laffa flatbread to go with it); and the fried aubergine with zhoug and date syrup. One for the hit list.
The Palomar has become a real Soho stalwart and a seat at the restaurant’s counter is still an exciting place to park yourself for a meal. The menu brings together the cuisines of Southern Spain, North Africa and the Levant, and features dishes like octopus with chorzio, labneh and broad beans; ras-el-hanout roast cauliflower with celeriac and cured egg yolk; sea bass crudo with blood orange and bergamot; and chicken with yoghurt sauce and chilli butter. You could equally just load up on fluffy pita and all the dips and leave happy.
As Coal Office is inside the Tom Dixon HQ at Coal Drops Yard, it understandably looks pretty swish. Thankfully, with Assaf Granit (who’s behind The Palomar and The Barbary) in charge of the menu, the food more than matches up. We’re talking kingfish sashimi, baked bone marrow shawarma, prawn pappardelle with cured lemon butter, beef fillet and black chickpea stew, and chocolate cardamom coffee tart. YUM.
After debuting in with a tiny spot in Soho in 2018, Kian Samyani has grown his Iranian restaurant Berenjak into a Michelin Bib Gourmand-winning group of three locations in London, with international sites in the US and Middle East. The menu is based around Kian’s family recipes and other favourite Persian dishes, with popular plates including koobideh kabab, jujeh kabab, sangak, ghormeh sabzi, black truffle olivieh, ghalieh mahi and kashk e bademjoon.
Counter Culture | London's Only Fatteh Bar - and It's Female-Founded
T by Tamara is doing Levantine signatures in Marylebone
At T by Tamara, founder Tamara Al Saadi, who has Palestinian and Jordanian roots and who grew up in Saudi Arabia, is celebrating the flavours of her childhood and the culture of the Levant. Her Marylebone cafe is filled with objects, like tiles from Jerusalem, prayer beads and mirrors from Jordan, and small keys that resemble the right of return to Palestine, that make it a home away from home, and the same goes for the menu – most of the recipes either come from or are inspired by her mother.
Fatteh, the layered dish of pitta, chickpeas, and garlic yoghurt sauce, is the signature dish and you can build it your way, customising your bowl with couscous, freekeh, tomato aubergine, sumac spiced chicken, and spiced ground beef. Other dishes include za’atar cheese manousheh, shakshuka, macaroni bil laban, musakhan flatbread, beid & lahme, and a mezzeh platter.
Whether you stop by for brunch, lunch or just a coffee, you can’t leave without at least one thing from the bakery section. Tamara’s version of her grandma’s cake – a vanilla sponge baked with olive oil and topped with pistachios – is a staple but there’s also pain au chocolate, za’atar croissants, almond croissants, chocolate banana bread and cookies.
And if you want something really special, Tamara also does custom cake orders, although, as Tamara herself has said: “When we would visit my grandmas home in Jerusalem we would always be welcomed by this cake on the table. We didn’t need a celebration to have cake.”
Key Information
Address | 17 Seymour Pl, London W1H 5BF
For more information | tbytamara.co.uk
Counter Culture
Counter Culture is LOTI’s original documentary series focusing on the inspiring people behind London’s shops, kitchens and counter tops – and the human stories you don’t see from the street. From corner shops doubling as cultural hubs to refugee chefs rebuilding their lives through food, each episode explores how migration, identity, family and community shape and enrich the city.
Real people. Real places. Stories you won’t find anywhere else.
See more in our series here.
Sister to the main Berber & Q Grill House in Haggerston, this sexy Shawarma Bar serves up mezze and cocktails inspired by the streets of Tel Aviv. It’s all about slow-cooking and spit-roasting here with dishes like cauliflower shawarma, rotisserie chicken with dukkah and lamb shawarma with tahini & harissa on the menu. Don’t skip the fried potatoes with whipped feta and the Turkish coffee ice-cream, chocolate sauce & tahini crumb either.
Stephen Tozer and Ed Brunet, the pair behind Soho’s Le Bab – which we are big fans of – have a sister site in Covent Garden. Whilst by no means massive, it’s a significantly bigger restaurant than the original and they’ve nailed the millennial interiors with pink neon, patterned tables, green banquettes and a very jazzy floor. It’s not a carbon copy of the Soho site in terms of food as there are more rustic and bolder dishes on show here, like the doner beignets with both garlic and chilli sauces, meat butter naans and iskender fondue fries. There are new sandwiches on offer too but the kebabs are always the winners – we can never resist the pork shawarma, slow-cooked for 15 hours and served with chermoula mayo.
Run by self-taught British-Iraqi chef Philip Juma, this Borough Market spot celebrates the street of food of Iraq. Handmade kubba, crispy potato and ground meat or mushroom balls, are his signature but you can also find the likes of bamia okra stew, spinach fatayer, mixed grills on fresh flatbreads, and knafa. On Sundays, he does a giant pot of dolma, rice lamb mince stuffed into peppers and vine leaves, which is flipped over and served at 1pm.
He’s spent time at Louie Louie and running his own residency at Borough Wines in Kensal Rise and now Israeli chef Oded Oren has his first solo restaurant on Shacklewell Lane. It’s a cosy space with just 35 covers, and a few stools at a small bar. It’s definitely nailed that buzzy neighbourhood restaurant vibe – it’s always packed and the music’s always loud, so it’s got a nice lively feel. The food is inspired by his home city of Tel Aviv, so you can expect dishes like Jerusalem mixed grill; monkfish ‘chraime’ & hand rolled cous cous; chargrilled hake kebabs & sheep’s yoghurt; and freekeh-smoked green wheat with Westcombe dairy ricotta & fresh herbs, and Zeren Wilson has curated the wine list, whic features some fantastic organic/biodynamic bottles and at not too scary prices.
With restaurants in King’s Cross and Borough Market, Arabica uses an amalgamation of ingredients from Lebanon, Beirut, Istanbul, Tel Aviv, and Jerusalem to create a selection of delicacies from all over the Middle East. Menu heavy hitters include lamb adana kofte with pickled cabbage, charred sumac onions & pita croutons; chermoula sea bream with herbed labneh & burnt lemon; spinach & feta boregi; and prawn pide, along with familiar dipping faves like hummus and baba ghanoush. Sweet toothed diners can enjoy the likes baklava and kunefe, and if you’re hungry for more, Arabica sells a range of spices, pantry goods, wine and meze for you to carry on with at home.
The older brother of the Berber & Q shawarma bar, the OG Berber & Q specialises in smoked and grilled dishes with a range of Middle Eastern influences. The vegetables are shown the same amount of love as the meat with dishes like cauliflower shawarma and grilled broccoli with muhammara & garlic crisps sure to have any self-respecting vegetarian writhing in ecstasy. Carnivores can also get hot-smoked merguez sausage, coffee-rubbed pork belly and low-and-slow lamb mechoui hot off the grill too.
The Hyde hotel group has opened its first UK outpost, taking over the historic Spiers & Pond building in Farringdon opposite the Old Bailey, and it’s tapped Selin Kiazim to create the menu for one of its restaurants inside. The 90-cover Leydi is a celebration of Istanbul and the city’s eating culture, starting with Turkish breakfast dishes like böreks, caramelised tahini spirals, stuffed lavash rolls and menemen. The lunch menu takes inspo from lokantas, neighbourhood restaurants that cater to everyone, and includes lahmacuns, pides, house-made döner and Islak burgers (the famous wet burgers where buns are soaked in tomato garlic sauce). In the evenings, the mangal gets fired up for adana kebap, lamb kebap with dripping pide, chicken thigh shish and more – make sure to save room for the XL künefe though. Kevin Patnode, twice named the best bartender in Turkey, has created the drinks list for Leydi and he’s done some killer spiced and smoked cocktails.
Hidden within the Union Street arches in Southwark, Bala Baya puts its own vibrant twist on Israeli cuisine. Not only does the restaurant takes inspiration from those bright Middle Eastern flavours, but the decor also mimics the Bauhaus architecture of Tel Aviv. Highlights on the menu include Bala Baya’s prawn baklava, kebab dumplings, and Tunisian tartar, which are meant to be shared in true Middle Eastern style. If you find yourself struggling to choose, you can opt for a journey through the menu as curated by head chef Eran Tibi.
Nopi is Yotam Ottolenghi’s Soho spot and the all-day restaurants celebrates bold flavours and inspired takes on Middle Eastern cooking with dishes like courgette and manouri fritters, coriander seed-crusted burrata with slices of blood orange and Valdeón cheesecake. Their cocktail menu isn’t lacking in creativity either, with classic serves alongside spice-infused bevvies like the sumac negroni, rose & cardamom gimlet and cherry & pine nut old fashioned.
Another of Ottolenghi’s restaurants, ROVI holds vegetables in high regard with a focus on fermentation and cooking over fire. We’re talking dishes like grilled octopus with borlotti bean piyaz, preserved lemon & sumac tropea onion; saddleback pork chops with charred peppers, pistachio & lime salsa; and Jerusalem mixed grill with baharat onions, pickles, pita & tahini. The restaurant is centered around a large central bar with cocktails based on seasonal spices and house shrubs, and a dynamic low-intervention wine list from small producers. A great addition to Ottolenghi’s culinary catalogue of restaurants.
Beirut is one of our favourite cities in the world – and a big part of that is down to the incredible food. Now, one of the city’s hottest restaurants, Em Sherif, has arrived in London taking over a corner spot in Harrods. Em Sherif was founded by Mireille Hayek in Beirut in 2011 and has since expanded across the region, into Egypt, Qatar and Kuwait to name a few – the Harrods location is the first in Europe. the menu reads like a catalogue of classic Lebanese dishes with a few modern, attention-grabbing twists like the hummus topped with grilled wagyu beef. Other must-orders include manoushe bread with zaatar, fattoush, tabouleh, and spiced tomato salad. You can’t move for shawarma in Beirut so it’s only right to get a lamb shawarma here too and you can choose to have a wrap or as a bowl where you can kinda DIY it with flatbreads, sauces and pickles.
Some restaurants win you over as soon as you walk in the door and Nandine in Camberwell is one of them. The homespun decor – plywood, pink painted brickwork, rattan lampshades and cute little vases of flowers on each table – charms you and then the kitchen keeps you enthralled with the food. Founded by Pary Baban, Nandine is a celebration of Kurdish food (Nandine means ‘kitchen’ in Kurdish). After she was displaced from her home in Kurdistan under the rule of Saddam Hussein, Pary spent time with relatives across the country, during which she collected recipes and documented regional dishes. She came to the UK in 1995, settling in South London, and started to sell Kurdish food in Elephant & Castle in 2007, before opening Nandine on Vestry Road in 2016 and then expanding to this site on Church Street. The food is packed with flavour, from the beaut beharat fries to the Kurdish dumplings to the stew tapsi; the portions are generous; and Nandine does some of the best baklava in London, so get down there for a true taste of Kurdish food.
Archway-based Cafe Metro is flying the flag for Palestinian cuisine. Since opening in the 1980s, the cafe has maintained a loyal customer base, drawn back time and time again by classic dishes like hummus topped with chickpeas and olive oil, fresh tabbouleh, falafels, lentil soups, and stuffed aubergine. And recently, the cafe’s regular Faten’s Family Dinner supper clubs have brought a new sense of community, with all proceeds donated to families in Gaza. Places go quickly so be sure to book early to avoid disappointment!
Imad Alarnab had three successful restaurants and several juice bars in Damascus, before the onset of war tore Syria apart, and his businesses with it. Fleeing the country, he eventually arrived in London via a long journey across Europe cooking for fellow refugees along the way. After trying several jobs in London, including as a car salesman, Imad returned to his true passion of cooking and started running supper clubs which sold out within hours. And now at the end of this incredible story, Imad finally has his own permanent restaurant, Imad’s Syrian Kitchen, which opened in Kingly Court in 2021. Happily, as well as good vibes, you can also find excellent food and wine here, with dishes like hummus with rose harissa, fattoush, batata harra, falafel, slow-roasted lamb shoulder, and pistachio baklawa.
French-Palestinian chef and hotelier Fadi Kattan, who runs Fawda in Bethlehem’s Old City, is also behind Akub in Notting Hill. Named after the Arabic word for Fadi’s favourite vegetable (it’s cardoon in English), Akub celebrates the flavours, culinary traditions and hospitality of Palestine through dishes like maftoul salad; arak cured sea bream; freekeh risotto; short rib fatteh; and Dead Sea chocolate cake. The bulk of the wine list comes from Palestine and Jordan, and the cocktails also make use of Palestinian ingredients, like arak and apricot paste. Fadi is vocal in his support of Palestine and regularly hosts charity supper clubs at the restaurant.
Logma
After running Logma as a supper club series, Farsin Rabiee and Ziad Halub have taken their Iranian-Iraqi concept permanent with a space in Hackney. Swing by in the daytime for kofte and aubergine sandwiches, stews with saffron rice, morning pastries, and proper Middle Eastern coffee and tea. On Wednesday nights, the pair run Logma Lates, where 18 guests gather around a communal table for dinner. After beginning with sharbat, a non-alcoholic drink made from fruit and herbs, the meal includes dishes that celebrate regional Iraqi and Iranian cooking, like sabzi khordan, oysters with herb oil, gondhoraj lebu, Aleppo pepper and sumac; arak-cured trout with pickled mango; cardoon with pea braise; duck fesenjoon and sholezard, an Iranian saffron rice pudding. Guests can bring their own wines, with no corkage, adding to the feeling that you’re dining in Ziad and Farsin’s home.
Kinz has been opened by Jad Lahoud, Karim Lahoud, and Rasha Khouri Bruzzo in the former Lloyds Bank building on Notting Hill Gate. Designed by architect Sir Edward Maufe, it’s an impressive venue and it’s being put to good use. The main space has room for 130, with a triple-height ground floor, a mezzanine level and a canopied bar underneath. There’s a private dining room holding 16 on the third floor, a dedicated wine room in the bank’s old vault, and a deli space up front. The all-day menu mixes recipes passed down through generations with modern creations. In the mornings you can get egg dishes, sandwiches and a full Lebanese breakfast, with mezze and sharing plates on offer for lunch and dinner. Expect the likes of baba ganoush; tabbouleh; lamb kafta; warak enab with koussa and lamb cutlet – spiced lamb and rice in vine leaves and baby courgettes; and fattet aubergine – baked aubergine layered with pine nuts, tomato, yoghurt and pita.
