Noura

We were a little bit disappointed with Noura. The food is great but based on the reputation and the prices we were expecting it to be Fantastic. We probably won’t be back as we didn’t find it to be any better than many of the other (also excellent) Lebanese restaurants in London. The price however seems much higher than the others.

Growing up in the Middle East exposed me to Lebanese and Gulf Arabic food. I instantly fell in love with dishes such as falafel, tabouli, kebbeh, shawarma, fatayer and machboos laham to name a few. When I moved back to Scotland, it soon became apparent that I would find it rather hard to get my hands on my favourite food. Ahead of my current trip to London with Ross, I discovered Noura Restaurant.
After taking a rather long time to decide what to order, our waiter brought us a bowl of crudités to snack on along with a basket of fresh Lebanese bread which they make in-​house. Not quite sure how lady like it is to snack on a whole cucumber and tomato in public though!
Not before long, our selection of hot and cold mezze started appearing at the table as and when they were ready. It didn’t take long for our table to be overloaded. Everything looked too good to eat and smelt wonderful.
The first dishes we tried were the cold mezze; hummous, moutabbal and tabbouleh. Using our fresh bread, I scooped up some hummous to try. It was the smoothest I had ever tasted. I couldn’t get enough. By far the best hummous I had the pleasure of tasting. I asked how they made it and he revealed the secret was blending the chickpeas with ice cubes. By using ice cubes, it helps to regulate the temperature while ensuring that it’s the smoothest it can possibly be.
Tabbouleh has always been a favourite of mine and I haven’t had it in years. Upon first taste, you could tell how fresh the produce were. It was clean, crisp and well-​balanced. A beautiful delicious salad. It worked well in the bread with some hummous added for good measure.
Following the cold mezze, we were presented with plates of kebbeh, sojok, rikakat, arayess and my all time favourite falafel.
Kebbeh is one of my favourite Lebanese dishes and Noura did not disappoint. They were utterly mouth-​watering. Lebanese food is designed to be shared and I reluctantly shared them with Ross as he had never tried them before. Instant hit with the boyfriend.
It’s no secret that I adore falafel. I cannot get enough of it. I can honestly say that the falafel I tried at Noura’s were the best I’ve ever had. They were beautifully crisp on the outside, soft and flavourful in the inside. Words cannot express how much I loved them. Dipped into some tahini as well as hummous along with some of the fresh bread, sensational. I want them right now as I’m writing this.
We still had more food to try but if I ate anything else at that moment in time, I’d burst. Unfortunately I did not try the arayess so left it up to Ross to try. They are rather similar to quesadillas, with the Lebanese bread being filled with minced lamb, pine nuts and toasted. Ross likened them to a kebbeh sandwich and that does sound rather good to me! Will need to save that for next time.
Managing to find some space, Ross & I shared the Mixed Grill. Noura’s version comes with three skewers of chargrilled meat; lahm meshwi, shish taouk and kafta meshwiyeh along with a fattoush salad. Delicious!
Overall, the food I tasted at Noura, has to have been one of the best meals I’ve had in a long time. I’ve missed good quality, authentic, home-​style healthy Lebanese food and I now know where I’ll be returning on my future visits to London. The staff were very friendly and attentive throughout, even when the restaurant was filling up. It is a little on the pricey side for some dishes, but the quality of ingredients and food produced makes it value for money.

We enjoyed a great meal here with friends. Very reasonable and great food. The Lebanese wine was also very good.

We went for dinner, and I’d give it 3.5 stars.
First, I’m no expert in Middle Eastern food, but things were good in general. We ordered a variety of starters (wings, Lebanese pizza, spicy sausage, pita), then I ordered the king prawns for main. Wings were good, though I wish parts of them weren’t so burnt. My prawns were massive and pretty solid.
Second, ambience was the most modern I’ve ever seen of a Middle Eastern restaurant. Quite spacious and good for any sort of event.
Finally, service was good, though they took a while to bring our bill in the end. Nonetheless, they were prompt and attentive overall.

Good food, horrible service.
I was thoroughly disappointed in my experience at this restaurant. I was visiting London from the US and decided to walk into this restaurant purely based on location as we were on foot in the area. The few good Unilocal reviews led me to think that this would be a good choice. I was mistaken.
There were maybe 2 other tables in the entire restaurant that were occupied, so «being busy» is not a valid excuse for the lack of attention. No one approached our table after we received our food for over 25 minutes. All drinks were empty, plates were stacked in the middle of the table, and we were sitting back awaiting a dessert menu. After 30 minutes, we just stood up to exit the restaurant. I literally had to walk over to the cashier and let them know that we had been sitting there for 30 minutes with no attention, and wanted to pay. The manager had the audacity to defend his servers and claim that they were constantly tending to our table.
This may fly in Europe, but such a restaurant would never survive in the US. The above-​average food here does not compensate for the atrocious service (from the wait staff to the incompetent management).

Thankfully my family tried Nouras early in our vacation. Our children were hesitant as they has not tried Lebanese previously.
Chicken Sharma and Ckn kabobs were Much enjoyed. Hummus was Excellent. Dover was good but was not ordered on our second visit.
I highly recommend Nouras. Excellent service but not quick.

Slid over to Noura when Mango Tree was closed.
Awesome food. We got the Noura for 2 — which is a lot of food. Service was great and the food was prepared incredibly well. The lamb kabob was fantastic.
I highly recommend.

Got the Noura feast for 2 which could easy feed 4. Excellent mezzes especially hot ones. The falafel was hot and not oily like most (very well fried). The kebabs were grilled just right. It’s in Belgravia so it’s a nice restaurant so don’t go strolling in there with flip flops and shorts.

This is a real Lebanese restaurant. What I mean by this, is that most non Lebanese will think it is too fancy for a Lebanese. But actually the place is packed with Lebanese people, looking for the real fancy Lebanese experience out of Lebanon.
You’ll find the staff speaking all languages completely mixed up, service quick and friendly, and plenty of staff for even the tiniest table ;-)
As for the food, it’s good quality, tasty (though not amazing)
What made it loose a star for me is that it was quite expensive for Lebanese food.

Overall, I found my experience at Noura highly disappointing. I am the type of person that is normally okay paying a premium for food that usually is delicious on the cheap (Indian, Thai, etc.) as long as that premium translates to high quality/​fresh ingredients and/​or inventive spins on traditional cuisine. Noura did neither and in fact I had a much tastier chicken kebab a bit up the street at the tiny cheap kebab joint Bosphorus a few months back for a fraction of the cost. I found my chicken at Noura to be dry and a bit bland served with a few wilted lettuce leaves and pita bread that seemed similar to what I pick up from Waitrose.
The service was good and the ambiance was nice if not a bit stuffy and over formal. I would say with all of the great places in London, you would be better off going elsewhere especially for the price.

I love going to Noura for weekend lunches. While the restaurant is often pretty busy at night, it is very quiet on a Sunday afternoon. The room is light and airy, and you can sit back and enjoy your lunch int his pleasant atmosphere.
The mezzes are the best things to get for lunch. My table of four usually gets: hummus with shawarma, kibbeh, tabouleh, moujadara, al-​rahib, cheese mana’eesh, fatoosh salad and makanek. If we have dinner, we get shish ta’ok and/​or the lamb kafta.
Noura’s food is always light and fresh. There’s never too much oil on anything, and it’s relatively healthy, as far as restaurant food goes. The vegetables and plain meat make it a great place to go if you are on a diet, as well.
The lounge next door is a great place to have a party. There are great areas to sit, a huge bar and a well-​equiped DJ booth.
The best part of Noura, though, is the service. Everyone is always friendly, and they genuinely want to help you. The owner of the restaurant comes out sometimes during lunch and dinner to greet guests, and if you go there a few times, the staff will remember you and you might — just might — get some free Lebanese sweets after your meal!

Ok, maybe not a solid 5 stars, but I’ll give it to them anyways…
We got three vegetarian tasting menus, but as the main dish, dad got the meat kabobs instead of the veggie main dish. He loved the lamb!
I didn’t know what I was eating since it was my first time having Lebanese food, but I knew it was all veggie friendly so I gobbled it all down. For the three of us, it was way too much food though… We felt bad for having so much left over. Maybe if they had small cards that explained what we were eating would have been helpful. LoL.
The service was great too and the dessert platter… oh my… so much!!! The ice cream they bring might look like strawberry, vanilla, and chocolate, but it tasted like flowers in my mouth… not strawberry or vanilla. LoL.
If I ever came back to London, I’d come back just because the service was good and it was veggie friendly.
152 pounds ($ 238)

Yes, it’s not cheap. But, neither is good food…
This is an amazing restaurant: good for. food! Fresh, healthy, rich in flavour and great staff.
THE SPACE: Spacious space, it’s big. Well lit, crispy white and rich table linens. I dont care much for the style they care, but… the food and smiles make up for that.
My love has taken me here 5 times, this is my favourite «kebab joint». The kids love it too. If you want a quick bite? The bar (££) ! Want to sit down? The restaurant (£££).
Go for small and/​or big mezzes to share:
— Tabbouleh (really!.. the best outside of. my mum’s kitchen)
— Chilled Okra in tomato
— Salads (me so happy with just their salads! It’s a taste bomb in your mouth!)
— Kebab /​Kofte with a humussauce you can die for. and roasted almonds,
— ‘ anything…
Got space left? Do it… dessert! Any, but really good are the traditional baklava’s. Rose water, roasted nuts, lovely honey… and guess what? Not painfully sweet, but just sweet enough. Crunchy and soft.
Noura? You make me happy. Thank you.

Lovely food and great personal service, but the bill did make me wince. We ate well, but there were no leftovers, which is something I’ve grown to expect if I’m paying over £25 for lunch… But would happily return, perhaps without the inlaws next time ;)

Oh Noura, you’ve gotten skinnier since I last saw you. I was back in London and had to come back at least once for lunch. As usual, if you come for lunch or takeaway, ordering from the bar «café» yields the best deal. Unfortunately, I felt like their portions have grown smaller (either that or I’ve gotten fatter, which is a BIG possibility). The bar menu is still really worth it for the quality of the food (mostly sandwiches), but the amount you get is not as amazing as I remembered.
Still really delicious, and worth a stop in, especially if you work nearby.
And! If you come here often, I just saw there’s a Privilege card that gives you 10% off lunches and takeaway. You just have to show your business card.

I had a wonderful lunch here the other day. Since I learned that they closed the Noura in Picadilly (due to a loss of the lease), I decided to trek over to Belgravia to have my favorite Lebanese cuisine. As with the Noura in Paris, there is a restaurant and a brasserie that are basically adjacent. I was initially concerned because I walked into the closed restaurant first (it’s not open for lunch), but was nicely redirected to the adjacent brasserie.
The service was wonderful and the food impeccable. The only downside with Noura is the price — you can spend a lot of money on lunch for two here. I think we came in at somewhere in the 140 GBP range ($ 200), including a nice bottle of Sancerre, but even in Belgravia that is a lot of money for lunch.
That said our meal was pure gluttony, 5 mezzes to start followed by 3 kebabs and dessert.

This is a large, airy and upmarket Lebanese restaurant, much favoured by the various Arabic embassy staff and their families in the area.
The restaurant is actually quite large, although surprisingly easy to miss when walking along Hobart Place as it occupies the ground floor of a rather nondescript modern office building. The interior has a high ceiling and is effectively one, large L-​shaped room, decorated in pale creams. There are some tables on the pavement outside, but you wouldn’t want to eat there with all the traffic rushing past on nearby Grosvenor Place.
The best part is the food go for a selection of mezzes, to sample a range of different dishes. When you sit down, you are brought a platter of salad vegetables, which
you have to chop up yourself (you are given a whole baby cucumber and a
whole beef tomato, along with radishes, sliced carrot, spring onion and sliced lettuce). On my visit, the vegetable dishes were extremely good, although some of the stuffed flat-​breads were a little disappointing. But overall it was a very enjoyable meal. My friend and I ordered 4 dishes each, which provided plenty of food. It’s good for vegetarians who, for once, are spoiled for choice.
Service was the main failing: it was reasonably attentive (though they weren’t that busy), but not terribly friendly. One waiter was an expert in the old trick of ‘not catching the customer’s eye’.
Finally, it is a bit pricey: most of the mezzes are between £6.50 and £10 each, but that would still work out cheaper than a set meal, which range from £32 to £45 a head. The set lunch (served until 18:30) is £22.50. There’s a bar menu with a set selection of mezzes at £14.50 or £16 (vegetarian). Expect a meal with wine, coffee and service to come in at round £40 to 50 a head.

My first time eating «Lebanese food». We ordered the «Normal Noura» which was 8 appetizers, main course, desert, and coffee. I asked the waiter to «bring us whatever you want» and he went away without delay. Though most of it was regional stuff I have eaten before (hummus, tapas, falafel, etc), it did have an orchestrated flavor that went well together and slightly different note than I have had in the past. The appetizers were great and I forgot that we even ordered an entrée until they cleared away the first course.
The biggest taste deviser between my companion and I was the rose ice cream. I love trying new things and I am thrilled to add it to my list, but probably not something I would get if Ben & Jerry’s were available.
If someone had never tried food from this region, I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it, if I were in town again, I might try something else, just to expand my horizons.

Excellent place for Lebanese food!
Was invited by a family friend to a big dinner and man… the amount of food we ate was ridiculous. The pita’s kept getting dropped off as we stuffed hummus, baba ghanoush, and tabbouleh in our faces. The fatayer had fresh spinach in it and the cheese in the rikakat was so ooey and gooey! The falafel was not oily and the kibbeh had a great balance of wheat shell and meat.
By the time the meat mains came out we were already full! The chicken shawarma and the mince shawarma were moist and seasoned really well. At the end we had baklava which we just managed to fit in after all that food!
The servers were really attentive and we even got up for a dance with the belly dancer. Would be happy to recommend and will defo be back!

I have to admit that I am not normally a fan of Lebanese/​Persian food. However, this place will definitely make a believer out of you.
When my friend first suggested it, I rolled my eyes and braced for the worst. But the food was the best Lebanese/​Persian restaurant I’ve ever been to. Again, I have to admit that I haven’t been to many, but if you’re like me and not a typical fan of this type of food, but you want some thing different, be sure to keep this on your short list.
They’ve got a fantastic selection of both appetizers «mezzes» (which can themselves be a full meal) and main courses. Try ordering a bunch of mezzes and just share them all with the group.
I normally despise humus, but theirs was delicious (tasty, but not too over-​powering with garlic and other «stuff»). I found myself trying new dishes that I otherwise would never touch. They bake and blend, breads, meats, spices, sauces in a way that will have you eating until you burst.
The atmosphere is trendy/​modern (no belly-​dancers), but that could be a good thing if you prefer a more professional environment.
The only draw back is that it was definitely not cheap. My bill was 60 pounds for two people (with no alcohol). But you get what you pay for. So if you’re up for a rare Persian treat, check this place out.