Some might know, I have Lebanese blood. Truth to be told, it is very difficult to find a good Lebanese place in London. When I fancy Lebanese food, I often offer myself a treat in an Iranian place. The flavours are similar, but it's easier to find a good Iranian than a good Lebanese. Not anymore. Sahara is the best Lebanese restaurant I tried in London so far. I would not go as far to acknowledge it is a truly Lebanese place, but it is a good place to have something not too far from the real Lebanese experience, and in particular their tabouleh.
Don't expect a fantastic atmosphere as the place is simple. Not too much effort is put in it. Service is efficient and the waiters do speak Lebanese.
Tabouleh was good, fresh, tasty and chunky. The wikipedia photo link has way too much bulgur to consider it a proper tabouleh. Tabouleh (like the one served at Sahara) should have much less bulgur, and more parsley. It is difficult to find a good tabouleh in London. It's understandable why it is so difficult and there are two reasons for this. First reason is parlsey has to be fresh and freshly cut. That's how it releases its flavor. Eating tabouleh not recently cut is just not a nice experience. Now, it always depends how it's stored... At home, it's always ok. But in a restaurant, my experience showed they just dont manage to store it properly, and the parsley looses it's chunky under the teeth... All in all, what we want in tabouleh is fresh parsely, freshly cut too. Second reason is that you simply cannot get a robot to cut the parsley for you. It HAS TO BE CUT BY HAND. Trust me, I tried a few times to cut it with a robot. The parleys becomes a puree... and that just does not work... even if you cut just a little bit, the parsley is not as chunky... and we deserve the chunky, don't we? I tried everything, different robots too, but nothing works. Tabouleh has to to be cut by hand. And that, my friends, is time consuming. Sahara does all this. And we thank them for that. The result is the best tabouleh in London, and I tried a few.
Truly Lebanese tabouleh at Sahara
Now, let's talk about the less positive points...
Kibbeh (orthograph might vary, I'll stick to the wiki one) is a dish a national unity in Lebanon. I don't know any counterpart in any other culture. What I mean by national unity dish is that EVERYONE in Lebanon eats it. Weathly people make it with less bulgur and more meat, poorer with less meat and more bulgur, but every home cooks it.
Kibbeh nayyeh
The kibbeh siniyeh is the kibbeh variant cooked in the oven. In my opinion, it was too thin, and a tiny bit too dry. And the people familiar with Lebanese food would agree the one they served looked more like a big kibbeh taboussa and not litterally a kibbeh siniyeh (although the taboussa version is fried, which is NOT the case of the one they served me). Usually, kibbeh siniyeh is supposed to have rigs on top then the oil drips in and cooks the meat better. That's how it becomes more soft. I would post a google link for the taboussa version but I cannot even find on google! The quality of the meat was good but not as great as it could. And unfortunately, no pine nuts inside... :( This being said, it's still a version of the kibbeh and if you're not familiar with Lebanese food, it will still taste somehow roughly how a kibbeh tastes.
Kibbeh siniyeh
Dessert I ordered was kneffe (again, orthograph might vary). The wiki link is not exactly what to expect, those photos are more the Turkish version. The photo below is more the real thing. Kneffe is - from very very far - a mediteranean version of tiramisu because it has cheese in it. Now, kneffe taste is very different than tiramisu. They reheated it as I expected: no places EVER make it just for you... unless you're in a Lebanese patisserie in Beirut... It tasted good and close to what it should taste. After the last mouthful, you're just completely full, could not move anymore... At this point, I remembered I was in a Lebanese restaurant...
Kneffe you can see the cheese at the bottom and
the couscous like grains on top
To cool it down, I had a glass of arak, Lebanese version of like uzo, sambuca, raki... It was very well balanced to my taste but £7.00 the glass... expensive you might think, but you cannot have the truth experience without it. Also, Lebanese restaurants always charge you so much for arak.... Don't forget they are born traders!
A glass of arak to help !
And after dessert, and you're full, I had a Lebanese coffee... which comes VERY VERY hot, and that's just how it should be.
To conclude, I would recommend this place for a few reasons. It's possibly one of the best Lebanese place in London for food. It's a cheap Lebanese considering what you usually pay for an ok Lebanese food (forget Edgware roads, I tried Noura, Maroush and assimilates... etc they don't serve good food and sometimes expensive). Now, the problem with Lebanese food, is that most of the dishes, including the most traditional ones, simply cannot be prepared just for you in a restaurant as some dishes take hours to be made. So, they do have to be reheated. Dont take offense, that's what all restaurants do. As a consequence, you never get the traditional Lebanese experience in a restaurant. From there you have two options. Either you're lucky enough to have a Lebanese friend and you go to his mum who cooks for you . Then you'll taste the real thing. Either you don't, and then you can go to Sahara. It gives a satisfying Lebanese experience for an ok budget. I would still consider it the best Lebanese restaurant in London, although not quite the real thing (apart from their tabouleh).
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