Al Hallab

Al Hallab is the latest addition to the admittedly unlively Garhoud restaurant scene. A friendly, good-value Lebanese joint on two levels, you’ll find it between Compu-me and the Eppco garage next to Chili’s on Garhoud road 5 Reviews

Al Hallab is the latest addition to the admittedly unlively Garhoud restaurant scene. A friendly, good-value Lebanese joint on two levels, you’ll find it between Compu-me and the Eppco garage next to Chili’s on Garhoud road. The view is over the expressway, but extra-thick glass means that inside it’s a quiet and fragrant place.

Downstairs there’s a series of counters selling Lebanese sweets and pastries, and upstairs there’s a comfy if rather chintzy seating area. Columns wrapped with fake roses, pillars topped with golden acorns and cherubs with glass grapes abound. Seating is on padded chairs or banquettes with cylindrical cushions, and tables are bedecked
with dwarf lamps tasselled with red and yellow beads. Slightly oddly, guests are also supplied with Italian balsamic oil dispensers.

Al Hallab offers a predictable but nonetheless pleasant menu with all your Lebanese favourites: pastries, salads, hummos, bread and grills. We were starving and needed some serious stodge to mop up the excesses of the night before, so we ordered a decent selection and got stuck into some rejuvenating fruit cocktails. These ice-cold, multicoloured devils were delicious, but so thick with puréed avocado and chunks of nut that they were almost impossible to suck up the straws.

Our mezze arrived and we leapt on the grilled haloumi– oblongs of sheep’s milk cheese with a salty edge and a nice bite. Thick hummos with plentiful shreds of lamb and a tree’s- worth of pinenuts was bolted down with the obligatory bag of pitta-style bread, and cheese sambousik was freshly cooked, with light, non-greasy pastry. Our mains arrived as we were finally polishing off a plate of kibbeh, a fine upstanding version of the mince and bulgur wheat snack. We had a full mixed grill, stuffed with marinaded kebab meat and tomatoey bread, plenty enough to satisfy the most grizzly-bear style hunger. A meat escalope was less impressive, though still fine – slightly dry meat with a bizarrely sweet crumb coating and a bevy of fries.

Overall, though, Al Hallab offers a good if not outstanding meal at a more than reasonable price.

• Previous reviews
  • 30 March,2009- reviewed by Time Out Dubai staff
  • 26 March,2008- reviewed by Jeremy Lawrence
  • 12 March,2007- reviewed by Time Out Dubai Staff
  • 30 April,2006- reviewed by TimeOut Dubai Staff

Time Out reviews restaurants anonymously and pays for meals. Of course, we cannot guarantee the accuracy or independence of user reviews.