Award-Winning Restaurants in Lebanon

Awards are a blunt instrument. They reward consistency over surprise, they lag a year or two behind what a kitchen is actually doing, and they cluster around cities with enough critics to notice. What they are good for is a shortlist, and in a country where the best meal of your trip might happen in a room with eight tables, a shortlist is worth having.

These five have been judged by people who eat for a living and came away impressed, which is a different test from being popular. Between them they cover Lebanese fine dining, Mediterranean cooking, and a burger that has no business being as good as it is. Three of them have since opened under the same name abroad, which is its own kind of verdict.

Book ahead for all five. The rooms are small and the tables turn.