Al Waha

London’s most refined Lebanese restaurant. Refreshingly stripped of Arabian Nights clichés, the understated earth-toned room caters to the Notting Hill demographic. The falafel are airy and greaseless. The same light touch distinguishes the delicate pastries filled with spinach, pomegranate, and nuts; cinnamon-tinged makanek lamb sausage; and moujaddara, a subtly spiced lentil-and–crushed-wheat pilaf accented with caramelized onions. Every dish is prepared with the kind of care one rarely finds outside patrician Lebanese homes.