Checking London’s Lebanese restaurants against their own websites turned up something most lists have not caught up with. Two of the names that appear on nearly all of them are gone.
Kenza in the City closed on 9 January, announced on its own site: the lease was not renewed after eighteen years. Arabica Bar and Kitchen’s old web address now serves an Indonesian slot gambling site, which is what a lapsed domain looks like.
What is left is smaller than the lists suggest and increasingly run by two families. Here is what is actually trading.
The Edgware Road original
Maroush
Opened in 1981 by Marouf and Houda Abouzaki on Edgware Road, which is still the street where London’s Lebanese food lives.
Maroush
- Address
- Six London sites: Beauchamp Place at 38 SW3 1NU, Ranoush Juice at 43 Edgware Road W2 2JE, Earls Court, Kings Road, High Street Kensington, and Maroush at Crockers Folly at 24 Aberdeen Place NW8 8JR
- Nearest
- Marble Arch or Edgware Road for the original
- Hours
- Beauchamp Place midday to 3am Sunday to Wednesday and to 4.30am Thursday to Saturday. Ranoush Juice on Edgware Road 9am to 3am every day. Crockers Folly midday to midnight every day
- Booking
- Online, plus delivery, collection and catering
- Standing
- Trading since 1981. Halal throughout
How to get in
The Edgware Road address in the group now trades as Ranoush Juice, a small shawarma and juice counter rather than a dining room, though their own site still calls that Edgware Road stalwart busier today than it was in the eighties. The thing worth knowing about this group is how late it runs: Beauchamp Place serves until three in the morning and until half four on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, which makes it one of the latest kitchens in central London. The outlier in the group is Maroush at Crockers Folly, which occupies a grand listed Victorian gin palace in St John’s Wood rather than a restaurant room, and is worth choosing on the building alone. Mezze, shawarma and charcoal grilled lamb are the spine of the menu. They also do a Lebanese breakfast, which almost nobody in London does.
The group that now runs much of the rest
Tony Kitous founded both of the next two, and the same group ran Kenza until it closed in January.
Comptoir Libanais
Comptoir Libanais
- Address
- Nine London restaurants: Chelsea, Ealing, Gloucester Road, Liverpool Street, London Bridge, Shepherd’s Bush, Southbank, South Kensington and Wigmore Street, plus Stansted airport
- Nearest
- Varies by site
- Booking
- Online, plus delivery and collection
- Standing
- Founded by Tony Kitous, serving Middle Eastern and North African food
How to get in
Read the description carefully, because it is not strictly a Lebanese restaurant and does not claim to be: the food is Middle Eastern and North African, which is a wider brief than the name suggests. What that buys you is reliability and reach. There are sites across London and several in airports, so this is the one you can find rather than the one you seek out. Bright, casual and priced accordingly.
Yalla Yalla
Yalla Yalla
- Address
- 12 Winsley Street, W1W 8HQ, off Oxford Street
- Nearest
- Oxford Circus or Tottenham Court Road
- Hours
- Monday and Tuesday 11.30am to 9.30pm. Wednesday and Thursday to 10pm. Friday and Saturday to 10.30pm. Sunday to 9pm
- Booking
- Online through SevenRooms, or 020 7637 4748. Group platters, click and collect and private events are booked separately
- Standing
- Lebanese kitchen built on home cooking rather than restaurant cooking
How to get in
The sister restaurant that Kenza pointed its customers to when it closed, which tells you where the group has concentrated. Mezze, wraps and grilled classics rather than a formal dining room, and the group platters are the sensible order for more than four people. They now publish their hours, which they did not a year ago, and the kitchen stops earlier than most of this list: half nine on Monday and Tuesday, ten midweek, half ten on Friday and Saturday and nine on Sunday.
What has closed
Kenza, City of London. Their own closing notice states the decision not to renew the lease and a final day of 9 January, after opening in 2007. It pointed guests to Yalla Yalla on Winsley Street and to three Comptoir Libanais branches.
Arabica Bar and Kitchen. The web address now resolves to an Indonesian slot gambling page. That proves the domain lapsed rather than proving anything about the business, but it means any link you follow from an old list will not take you to a restaurant.
If a guide still recommends either, it has not been rechecked recently. That is the main reason this page is three restaurants rather than ten.
Practical notes
Edgware Road is the street. The same way Green Lanes is for Turkish food, Edgware Road and the roads off it hold the concentration. A walk along it is a better introduction than any single booking.
Lebanese and Middle Eastern are not the same claim. Comptoir describes its food as Middle Eastern and North African. Maroush say Lebanese. Yalla Yalla keep Lebanese Kitchen in the title of their site but describe the food itself as Middle Eastern. If you want specifically Lebanese cooking, the wording on the website is the tell.
Order mezze for the table and fewer mains than you think. The format is built around sharing and the grills are large. Group platters exist at Yalla Yalla for exactly this reason.
Maroush is halal throughout, which they state themselves and which is worth knowing either way.
Everything here was taken from each restaurant’s own published information and rechecked on 28 September 2026, including both closure notices, which still stand. Confirm before you travel.
Halal restaurants in London sets out what the label actually covers, since whole restaurant, some of the meat and one ingredient at some branches are three different offers.
Where to go next
The Greek restaurants sit alongside this one, and they publish their arrival and cancellation rules in more detail than almost anywhere else in London.
The Turkish guide is the closest neighbour to this page, and it has the same shape: the food is concentrated on one street, and one name on most lists has closed.
The restaurants guide holds the wider field, and the other cuisine pages are built the same way: Japanese, Thai, Mexican, pizza and vegan.
Questions we get asked
What are the best Lebanese restaurants in London?
Maroush, open since 1981, with six sites and the original on Edgware Road, plus an outpost in the listed Victorian gin palace at Crockers Folly in St John’s Wood. Yalla Yalla on Winsley Street for mezze, wraps and grills. Comptoir Libanais for reach and reliability, though it describes its food as Middle Eastern and North African rather than strictly Lebanese.
Where is the Lebanese area of London?
Edgware Road and the streets around it, which has been the centre of Lebanese London for decades and is where Maroush opened in 1981. It plays the same role for Lebanese food that Green Lanes in Harringay plays for Turkish. Walking it is a better introduction than any single reservation.
Is Kenza restaurant still open in London?
No. Kenza in the City closed on 9 January after deciding not to renew its lease, which it announced on its own website having opened in 2007. It directed guests to its sister restaurants: Yalla Yalla on Winsley Street and the Comptoir Libanais branches at Liverpool Street, London Bridge and Southbank.
Is Arabica Bar and Kitchen still open?
Its former web address now serves an Indonesian slot gambling page, which means the domain has lapsed. That is evidence about the website rather than proof about the business, but it does mean any link to it from an older London restaurant list leads somewhere unrelated. It is not included here for that reason.
Is Comptoir Libanais actually Lebanese?
Partly. The name says Lebanese but the restaurant describes its own food as Middle Eastern and North African, which is a broader brief. That is not a criticism, it is simply worth knowing if you specifically want Lebanese cooking, in which case Maroush or Yalla Yalla are the more direct answer.
Where can you get Lebanese food for a group in London?
Yalla Yalla does group platters, which is the sensible order for more than four people and saves working through a long mezze list. Maroush handles catering as well as restaurant bookings across its six sites. Both formats are built around sharing rather than a plate each, so order fewer mains than instinct suggests.
Written by Robert J Wills, no. 110 in the guide.
Last checked 28 September 2026 against the venues' own published information. Nobody pays to appear here and we take no bookings.
