Levantine

Sami

Lovely surroundings but nothing exciting 12th May 2007

2 found this helpful

The restaurant itself is gorgeous as are the accents; the hammered brass plates, the bench seating with the silky pillows, the ornate hookah pipes and the absolutely stunning pool next to the washrooms laden with floating candles and rose petals, which made the entire experience worth it. I still dream about this pool, it's absolutely beautiful.

But on to the food, which I really don't have much to say about. It was ok but really nothing special. This isn't a place to come to eat but more of a restaurant to go to when you're in the area with a couple of friends and you have a hankering for a bottle of wine, a couple of mezze, and you want to smoke a hookah and watch the gorgeous belly dancer, who distracted me from my dinner the entire evening, she was so good!

Beware - this is by no means a quiet place. Although the atmosphere might be drenched in romance, it is NOISY. Really, really noisy. They crank the music up way too much and when the belly dancer comes on, forget it - you have to shout across the table in order to be heard by your dining partner.

Not somewhere I'd return to, just because this city offers so much in the way of choice - but if I'm in Paddington and don't know where to go, then I might find myself here again. However, it's worth a visit just for that incredible rose pool if you like ornate things!

(Anyone want to install a rose pool in my house?!)

shelo9

Finally a lebanese restaurant to write home about... 6th May 2007

3 found this helpful

The restaurant was very cosy (if a bit squashed) but the staff were really sweet and helpful. They were amused by my excitement when i heard the music (reminded me of the middle east).

We choose the smaller dishes (a la tapas) to share between ourselves. The sausage (halal) was just as i had wished for and the other dishes were good.

This was better than a lot of other middle eastern/lebanese resturants i have been to in the past. I can't comment on the price as my friend used a discount card and paid for the meal, but from my knowledge it would have been reasonable full price.

walid

Lebanese in Paddington 28th March 2007

4 found this helpful

Went to Levantine last weekend on a date as I was looking for an intimate place with a little bit of originality. Levantine is a pretty good Lebanese restaurant that serves your traditional Lebanese food: hommus, taboule, falafels, kebabs..etc. You can order a la carte menu or if you'd like to explore the whole breadth of choices they have then go for either the meat (£24.50), vegetarian, or fish menu.

The food is good but not the best that I've eaten. It has the flavours and is well presented but it lacks that wow factor. The staff are friendly and very welcoming. On most nights, you can also watch the belly dancer who comes in at 20:00 and 21:30. Whilst she obviously wasn't of middle eastern origin she did a pretty good job and even managed to get people from other table to come and dance with her.

Overall Levantine is a pretty good place and I'll probably go back to it, but I'm sure there are more interesting Lebanese places out there with that wow factor.