From Beirut to the World: Lebanese Restaurants That Went International | LYVV

From Beirut to the World: Lebanese Restaurants That Went International | LYVV

Swiss Butter, Gemmayze

Swiss Butter

Gemmayze

Your friendly neighbourhood steakhouse, and the formula has since travelled well beyond the neighbourhood. Swiss Butter does one thing, steak with sauce, fries and salad, at a price and a pace that made it a habit rather than an occasion. The Gemmayze room is the one most people picture when they hear the name.

Em Sherif, Monot

Em Sherif

Monot

The room that reset expectations for Lebanese fine dining. Em Sherif in Monot serves a set procession of mezze followed by grills, in a setting deliberately closer to a private house than a restaurant. It has since opened under the same name in several cities abroad, but this is the original, and it shows.

Leila Min Lebnen, Naccache

Leila Min Lebnen

Mar Mitr, Achrafieh

Casual Lebanese cooking from the freshest ingredients, which sounds modest until you notice how widely the format has exported. This is the Mar Mitr branch at ABC Achrafieh. The menu is the everyday Lebanese table rather than the special occasion one, and that ordinariness is precisely what carried it abroad so successfully.

Zaatar w Zeit, Sodeco

Zaatar w Zeit

Sodeco

Your quick casual Lebanese urban eatery, and the phrase that launched a hundred branches. Zaatar w Zeit turned the manoushe into something you could order at two in the morning in a dozen countries. The Sodeco branch is the one generations of Beirutis default to, and the menu has barely needed changing since.

Malak Al Tawouk, Kaslik

Malak Al Tawouk

Kaslik

The most popular tawouk chain in the country, built on original recipes and an unwillingness to dilute them. Malak Al Tawouk turned a single sandwich into a format that now runs well beyond Lebanon. The Kaslik branch is busy at every hour that matters, and the garlic sauce is the reason people argue about it.

Iris, Beirut

Iris

Beirut

The open-air rooftop that made drinking above Beirut a category rather than a novelty. Iris fills as the light goes and keeps going long after, with a bar and a kitchen built to hold a crowd that is not sitting down. The format has since been exported and imitated widely; this is where it started.

Bar Du Port, Antelias

Bar Du Port

Antelias

A cosmopolitan restaurant and bar at Aishti by the Sea, with the water on one side and the sunset doing most of the work. Bar du Port runs as a proper dinner early and turns into something louder later, and the name now appears in several cities. Antelias remains the one with the view.

Clap, Downtown

Clap

Downtown

Japanese fine dining in Downtown, looking out over the city and the Mediterranean at the same time. Clap is precise, expensive and entirely aware of both, the kind of room booked for an occasion rather than an evening. It belongs to the small group of Beirut restaurants whose name now opens doors in other countries.

Baron, Mar Mikhael

Baron

Mar Mikhael

Mediterranean-influenced, re-imagined classics from a Mar Mikhael kitchen that has collected recognition well beyond Lebanon. Baron cooks with restraint: a short menu, sharp sourcing, and dishes you recognise arriving slightly rethought. The room is small and the tables turn quickly, so book ahead. This is one of the few Beirut restaurants you genuinely cannot walk into.

BeBabel, Downtown

BeBabel

Downtown

The casual chic sibling of Babel, serving Lebanese all day in a modern Downtown room. The menu is broad enough to cover breakfast through dinner, but the daily plate is where the kitchen shows its hand: the sort of home cooking that rarely reaches a printed menu because it depends on what the market offered that morning.

El Estez Snack, Achrafieh

El Estez Snack

Achrafieh

A snack counter in Achrafieh that grew into something much larger without ever pretending to be a restaurant. El Estez is fast food in the Lebanese sense: made to order, eaten standing up or in the car, and consistent enough that people will drive past three perfectly good alternatives to get to this one instead.