Lebanese delights at Abd el Wahab

I was invited along to an Influencer dinner recently to try authentic Lebanese and Arabic cuisine at Abd el Wahab in Belgravia. It’s the 19th global restaurant opening for the Abd el Wahab group who started with humble beginnings, opening their first restaurant on Abd El Wahab Inglizi Street in the centre of Beirut in 1999.

The restaurant is beautifully designed and has a really luxurious feel to it. Personally, the lighting (for dinner) was a bit bright for me but perhaps they had upped the lighting a bit so we could take better pictures of the food!

I took the gorgeous Natalie Seldon, aka Pretty Edible Stylist and author of The Goodness of Nuts & Seeds, as my dinner date and we were greeted warmly when we arrived with a glass of bubbly. We were seated at a table with fellow bloggers, including the lovely Milly from Mini Adventures.

We were served a selection of hot and cold starters to share. The cold starters included Fattouch salad, Tabbouleh, mixed pickles, Moutabbal (a smoked aubergine dip), Hummus, stuffed vine leaves and flat breads.

My favourite of the cold starters was the Fattouch salad as it was light, had great texture with the soft tomato and the crunchy bread and was quite vinegary – yum! I also really enjoyed the Moutabbal aubergine dip with the flatbreads and the hummus, which was smooth and creamy – just how I like it.

The hot starters comprised of Sojok, which are spicy sausages, a dish of pan-fried eggs with Kawarma meat (which had a slightly sweet flavour), cheese rolls (which resembled spring rolls) and Kebbeh, which are deep fried balls stuffed with minced meat. There was so much food! It was an absolute feast.

For our main we were given a mixed grill platter to share, which was delicious. I do loved grilled meat so no complaints from me!

To end off the meal we were served a selection of Lebanese baklawa and their signature dessert, called Maamoul Flake. The Maamoul Flake had a rose water flavour, which usually I don’t like but it was quite subtle so worked really well. It was topped with ‘Angel hair’ which was like candy floss. A very yummy and Instagrammable dessert!

I thoroughly enjoyed my meal at Abd el Wahab, discovering some new Lebanese dishes and enjoying old favourites. Big thanks to Mark, the manager, and all the staff for a great evening.