Yara - Alderley Edge

Residents of the leafy Cheshire town of Alderley Edge as well as gourmets from Wilmslow and as far afield as Manchester know and love Yara as specialists when it comes to Syrian and Lebanese cuisine. So popular has Yara become that it’s been obliged to stitch up the region with another outpost of this family-run restaurant up in Altrincham. Here on London Road, not far from Alderley Edge station, diners can enjoy Yara’s renowned hospitality and authentic cuisine in elegant surrounds, with a drinks list featuring vintages culled from Lebanon’s famous viticultural regions.

Yara’s Alderley Edge restaurant is a two-storied affair, set in handsome brick premises down London Road, the main drag towards the northern edge of town and the station. This convenient location makes it an easy hike from Wilmslow, for instance, not that a hike should be much trouble considering Yara’s reputation for delivering stunning examples of Syrian and Lebanese cuisine. The classic Middle Eastern culinary format is followed to a tee, with the menu offering hot and cold starters designed to get diners breaking bread and sharing with each other before the mains arrive.

And the main event is indeed lavish, with a wide range of kebabs and charcoal-grilled meats and vegetable-based dishes best accompanied by a selection of side dishes such as the spiced lentil and rice dish of mujadara. Alderley Edge locals with a taste for the Cheshire countryside that want to spice up things a little are advised to go for the rustic, mouth-watering lamb chops given a Mediterranean treatment, while the runner beans and lamb delicacy of fasoulieh or the aubergine and courgette tabakh rawhou offer an introduction to classics of Arabic culinary tradition. Attracting a regular crowd of locals as well as intrepid diners from Wilmslow, Macclesfield and across Greater Manchester, reservations are strongly recommended.