Le Comptoir Libanais, London – Review

Le Comptoir Libanais on Wigmore Street is the kind of place you’d love to stumble across during lunch hour – or given its location, just off Oxford Street – a shopping break

It’s Leon like in its approach, with inexpensive, healthy food in informal surroundings. The walls are adorned with stylish food packages and the menu ticks the trendy box with macaroons and fat-free frozen yoghurt.

Where it differs from London’s recent implosion of cafe chains is its authenticity. Le Comptoir Libanais serves Lebanese food that I imagine you might find in the Paris of the East and the cafe uses the freshest of ingredients to show off these dishes at their best.

I feasted on ultra smooth humous, smokey, smokey babaganjou and minty tabouleh, fresh lentil and wild race salad, falafel and pumpkin kebbeh. As one would expect, there were plump fresh olives and something that looked like gherkins but which turned out to be Dead Sea pickles.

To follow, out came bowls of steaming tagines. The lamb dish oozed with spices that you’d only find in Middle Eastern cooking. After a large plate of meze, the tagines and their accompanying fluffy organic couscous proved all too much but the taste was worth it.

Le Comptoir Libanais does not serve alcohol, but you can bring your own and staggeringly, there’s no corkage fee.

Whether you’re popping in for coffee, a light lunch or a warming winter tagine, Le Comptoir Libanais is healthy, uncomplicated eating at its best.

Le Comptoir Libanais
65 Wigmore Street
London W1U 1PZ
Tel: 020 7935 1110

Approx: £10 per head