Comptoir Libanais

I originally came in here just for a coffee but the menu looked so good that I just had to try something so I ordered the lentil soup served with flat bread. The soup was bursting with flavour and was so creamy and the bread was just baked and warm and delicious. I used up all the bread and the staff just brought me out more, I didn’t even have to ask. The place is super cool and funky and decorated in really bright colours. It is a great place to hang out. The whole menu sounded just delicious and I wish I had tried more. The coffee was super good too and a really decent size. Overall, I really like this place, and I can’t wait to go back.

From the outside it looks like this place is THE shit. When you sit down and eat the food, you realize that it is not the shit, it’s just shit. Okay, maybe it’s not that bad — but it’s not good either. The food is very mediocre and the male staff (even the ones working the kitchen) was overly flirtatious towards me and my friend and it just made us a bit uncomfortable. For the price you pay you can find a million better places in London, I guarantee it. They even had one of those microwave ovens that cooks food quickly and effortlessly, but not properly. It was just a bit tasteless.

Popped in with a friend as I am currently working in Soho. The minute we sat down the waitress just hovered and did not give us a chance to breath before coming back multiple times to ask us what we wanted. Without much time to relax we did get a drink, which was only OK for 6 pounds then ordered food that mediocre at best. I have had much better elsewhere, but the service really killed the place for me. The waiters hovered and repeatedly asked us if we liked the food and then took my drink when I had not finished it. Considering service charge was included in the bill I do not appreciate this type of service. Especially in a place that was not too busy so clearly the wait staff was bored and over attentive.

I went to this restaurant with high expectations as I had passed this restaurant several times and I wanted to try the food. The designs in the restaurant are very welcoming and very eye catching.
I tried the Baba Ghanuja a lovely aubergine dip but unfortunately the pitta bread came out of the microwave (not keen on microwave reheating). My friend had the Cheese Sambousek which consisted of 3 very small pasteries that lacked flavour. Overpriced with a captital ‘O’
The Moussakhous chicken was very bland. I didn’t taste any spices. However it was nicely served with salad and rice. The lamb and prune was completely disappointing. Soggy couscous with flavourless lamb topping. It did not seem very authentic as there were no spices again, A big restaurant like this should have a better system for reheating food than the microwave.
For dessert we tried Baklava Hadath. Not too sweet. They really need to improve their food. It’s not enough to look good with interia decoration.

We stopped here for lunch today and were pleasantly surprised at how great it is.
Ambiance: Comptoir Libanais is beautiful. Love the décor and welcoming, bright feel of the restaurant.
Service: There aren’t many servers in this restaurant so it takes a while to get things but our server was unbelievably nice and friendly.
Food: Overall quite good!
– Avocado on brioche was delicious. I just wanted to bottle the pomegranate molasses and take it home with me. I would definitely order this again.
– Moujadra was good but there were far too many onions to make it great.
– Husband seemed to enjoy his chicken wrap — I didn’t try this.
– Mini-​me had a children’s meal containing chicken and rice. The chicken seemed a bit dry but she ate most of the rice.
Comptoir Libanais is quite tasty… we’ll definitely return!

This restaurant looked colourful, and we were expecting some exciting dishes to match that. Lamb and Prune Tagine completely lacked depth and flavour, and couscous was overcooked and boring. Why don’t they add more herbs and spices and serve those separately?
Moussakhan again lacked flavour. It was just an ordinary nuked, pre-​grilled chicken.
The only dish we liked was Baba Ghanuj, which was creamy and tasty. However their pitta bread was just a flat bread — very flat & dry.
I believe all the hot food are per-​cooked and reheated, and they lacked flavour. I don’t know why they don’t bother cooking to order.

Amazing little Lebanese place. The moussaka was to die for. Very nice atmosphere and friendly service.

I think it’s an ok place for weekday lunch. I had a hot Meze, the quality is ok but don’t think it’s worth the money. Love Lebanese food and this place doesn’t quite do it justice

Extremely good and tasty Lebanese food. Founder Tony knows how to cook and enchant you into 1h of Lebanon. Unfortunately though only 2 – 3 people work whereas 6 – 7 family members (?) do office business or stroll around and appear to be bored. Really guys — that’s the way to disrespect the hard and good work of Tony.

Really solid for a casual place. Stopped in for a bite as was hungry and on the go and wasn’t in the mood for Pret or Itsu. Had the falafel wrap withe a little hot sauce on the side. The wrap was super fresh and tasty, salad good. Think they are a little stingy with the hummus and especially with the pickles, peppers but overall a great value. Also servers very very friendly. Will def go back…

This is a perfect, reasonably priced, delicious, casual, healthy, authentic Lebanese place. Not fine dining. You can take away or dine in with table service. They also sell Lebanese ingredients and cookbooks written by the owner.
We went 2 days in a row for lunch. We had a Mezze platter with hummus, babaganoush, felafel, a fried ravioli thing, lentil rice, tabbouleh. We also had a lamb with prune tagine and a lemon olive tagine both with couscous. The flavors are authentic, the place is really clean, and the staff was friendly.
The drinks are worth a review as well. Fresh pressed juices, and lemonade type drinks from rose petals, orange blossom, pomegranate, plus beer, wine, and my choice prosecco. We tried them all. Yum.
We also tasted the baklava which was moist and flaky.
I bought the syrups to bring home to make those yummy drinks for my friends, which also could make great gifts.
To top it off Robert Plant, lead singer of Led Zeppelin was having lunch at the table next to us. Nobody noticed… so I respectfully left him alone.

Looking for a change from typical English food?
Refreshing food in the middle of London right here. Tastes great, light, refreshing hits the spot.
Unilocal wants me to write more but who wants to read more?

I only go for 2 things here and so should you.
The pomegranite and orange water drink, can’t remember the name. yeah, its bomb. Just order it you’ll thank me later. And the lamb tagine. Don’t think about getting anything else, most of it is reheated wraps that are microwaved. But the tagine, is amazeballs.

This place is impressive not only from the inside look but also it’s food quality. Love how the menu looks and how the waitresses were extremely friendly and helpful in helping me to pick my dishes.
If you go here with friends, make sure you order the mezze for sharing. Every bits in the platter tasted wonderful and I highly recommend this as an entrée. As main meal, they have varieties of choice from vegetarian, chicken kofta and lamb. I ordered the dish with lamb moussaka. It’s basically seasoned lamb fillet with yoghurt and vinegar sauce. It tasted delicious! The pieces of lamb mixed with the yoghurt so well and it brought out the best taste ever.
I also love that they have lemonades and it surely complements your dish. When I was here, I didn’t get to try their desserts but the baklava on the display in front of their door looked all very tempting.

Ordered the wrap (chicken kofta) and oil was oozing out of the wrap on to my hands as I was eating. Not good and didn’t taste good. Just tasted like warm oil. No flavor came out from the meat or anything else. Word to the wise, don’t let the «Wrap Platter» that’s boxed on the menu fool you. It’s basically the wrap but you get a spoon full of hommos. The hommos makes it a «platter»…and for £2 more, not worth it. I feel like it’s deceiving to the customer. My partner ordered it and definitely felt fooled when comparing plates.

Micro chain Le Comptoir Libanais aims to bring fast, affordable and ‘fun’ Lebanese casual dining to London. The first branch, in Westfield, obviously worked well as there’s been a slew of them opening up elsewhere.
Having never understood why there aren’t more casual lunch spots like this, I was initially entranced. Sure it’s got a ‘stop me and buy one’ schtick borrowed from a Jamie’s Italian or a Bill’s Produce Store, with everything from salad dressing to handbags on sale in the souk inspired space, but it doesn’t have quite the corporate roll out feel that you’d expect from one of those. Tightly and brightly jewelled shelves, a packed glass chiller at the back stuffed with healthy greens and cartoony colourful furniture — it’s a lovely, fresh and open place to be on a summer’s day.
Sadly, it was hard to be anything other than underwhelmed by the food we had over lunch. Simple and authentic it might (just) be, tasty it sadly wasn’t.
I ended up with an overly salty halloumi salad, the four cold bits of squeaky cheese nestling apologetically on a bed of long ago prepared salad doused in an acrid dressing. The olives particularly were excruciatingly overpowering, exploding in the mouth like slimy, saline paintball pellets.
Alongside that we shared a plate of mixed mezze. A large enough portion, but nothing like large enough in taste. We left most of it to be collected, uncommented on, at the end. ‘Highlights’ included large dry falafel cannonballs, setting the cause of that noble dish back by years, their claggy mouthfeel reminding you why your mother always had to force you to eat chickpeas.
Alongside underpowered baba ganouch came glow in the dark purple stained turnip light sabres and kebab shop pickles. A brace of chiller cold pasties of indeterminate sort were also less than the sum of their (long ago prepared) parts — sparse filling sunk to the bottom like sediment in an unloved kettle.
Will it be a success? Sadly, almost certainly. Though the central locations will struggle to bring people back for a second visit, particularly if Yalla Yalla shifts up a gear and starts to roll out branches. Would I go back? Not without some coaxing. London isn’t short of decent, authentic fast food in this style, it’s just a pity that, with the exception of Yalla Yalla and Momo on Heddon Street, there ain’t much of it round the central parts. It’s just a pitta that none of the infinitely superior Edgeware Road or Knightsbridge brands haven’t capitalised on that yet.

Sickened of countless fastfood? Try the Lebanese Canteen. The flavors of the Mediterranean with a very sunny cook in the London gloom. Excellent. Good humor and kindness of the servers included.

Easter Monday isn’t a great time to eat out, but since another place we’d wanted to try was shut, we stumbled upon this place in Soho.
The décor was kind of like Bill’s and Leon’s. The place was airy and bright, with stuff to buy all over the place. Baklava littered by the front door makes you want dessert before your meal, but we resisted the temptation.
The food was similar to the quality of places like Pizza express or Vapiano, perhaps a little pricier.
Drinks were fine. The pomegranate and orange blossom was extremely nice as was the Baba Ghanoush starter. The mains were a little disappointing. The lamb turkish pizza was okay, Not very tasty, and lacking lamb. The Pomegranate roasted chicken was a little overcooked and tough. Which was disappointing, as had the chicken been perfectly cooked, there would be less need for marinade, which was always sparsely drizzled on the finished dish. The salad for both dishes was exactly the same. Meaning a bit of a salad overload.
To finish the dish, you can order a dish of baklava mix and match. Probably the best part of the meal. However whilst the food was adequate and the interior very pleasant, this is a case of style above substance.

So. as in my previous review, the cakes are still good. Rose mint tea still excellent. As promised, I have tried the mezze. Excellent. Highly recommended.
However, have also tried the veggie moussaka. This came covered in Yoghurt — which I’m OK with: this is clearly a culturally extending thing. However it was also swimming in oil. (Perhaps that should be «bathing» — not sure Moussaka can swim.) I can ingest oil and grease as well as the next person (ask my wife) but this defeated me. Really dreadful.
Conclusion: this is an excellent café, but a lousy restaurant. Stick to the cakes, tea and mezze and you’ll be fine.

Rose mint tea is a must!
I love it. Seriously love it. How about succulent lamb tagine that is soaked in mild yet flavourful spices? How about a traditional meze with hummus, babaganouj, tabbouleh etcetera?
And — how about a time and space machine that would take you to the Lebanon in the 80s? Unfortunately — I’ve never been there — but that’s definitely how I imagined it to be. Good noise level for a lovely brunch/​lunch — and nice character added by the Middle-​eastern tune.
The service is good — although they did make my mom wait for coffee — but that’s alright.
And the price — good & reasonable too.