Palmyra's Kitchen

Just a short walk from London’s Finsbury Park station, Palmyra's Kitchen is flying its all-too-modest flag for home-style Lebanese cuisine from its quaint premises along Clifton Terrace, right next to the Finsbury Park Theatre. Owned and operated by a husband and wife team, it’s hard to find a more authentic Lebanese menu and meze selection than that on offer here, all prepared from scratch using ingredients that the chef selects himself. As any fan of Lebanese food knows, delicious vegetarian options abound, but there’s also a bounty of fish and halal meat dishes available too.

Whether or not you are capable of feeling proper nostalgia for the Levant, dining at Palmyra's Kitchen makes you feel like you’re guests in the Middle Eastern home of the husband and wife team that run Finsbury Park’s favourite Lebanese eatery, far away from London. Hung with heirlooms and curios, and with seating on long communal cushioned benches at reclaimed tables (a couple outside as well), there’s a quaint eccentricity at work in this diminutive Clifton Terrace restaurant that makes the experience all the more memorable. All this is merely a prelude to the fabulous food, however. Every day, the chef heads out to market, bringing back fresh, hand-picked ingredients to weave into a tapestry of traditional vegetarian, maritime and meaty (halal) Lebanese dishes, accompanied by refreshing homemade mint lemonade and juices, plus fiery Lebanese arak, Champagne and cocktails.

Ideally located next to the Finsbury Park Theatre, Palmyra's Kitchen is a perfect spot to share a stack of inventive Lebanese meze platters before or after the show. The signature mezza is a good start, featuring the chef’s most popular dishes: falafel and hummus, cheese sambousek pastries, spicy aubergine moutabel, fresh tabbouleh and warak enab, stuffed vine leaves. Ask the friendly family of wait staff if you’d like to swap out a dish for, say, the punchy spiced sujuk or the seed-sprinkled halloumi. Heftier meals down Clifton Terrace are also possible, with all of the charcoal grilled mains served alongside Palmyra's Kitchen’s house Mediterranean salad and freshly baked flatbread. From kibbeh and freca to fried or grilled king prawns, these dishes are lovingly prepared representatives of Lebanese cuisine in north London.