Restaurant Beyrouth
The Estephan family has run Amsterdam's best mezze since 1990.
Beyrouth has been feeding the Kinkerstraat since 1990, back when this stretch was shawarma-and-video-store territory, and the Estephan brothers now run their father's dining room with the same unhurried confidence. The move is the mezze combo, ten or twelve plates for the table, warm and cold, arriving in waves: hummus slicked with olive oil, tabbouleh that's genuinely all parsley, labneh with garlic, fried cauliflower with tahini. Twelve of the starters are vegan without anyone making a thing of it, and the charcoal grill handles shish taouk and kafta for the committed. De Westkrant flatly calls it the city's Lebanese restaurant, and thirty-five years of neighborhood loyalty back that up. It's cheap enough for a Wednesday, generous enough for a birthday, and the Foodhallen crowds two blocks away have mercifully never figured it out.
Order the 10-piece mezze and insist the fried cauliflower with tahini makes the cut.
What to order
Full menu- Mezze spread (10 kinds)€48 for 2
The table-filling order reviewers describe, hummus, muhammara, fattoush and friends for two
- Mixed grill€29
Kebab, tawouk, kafta and a lamb chop, the carnivore answer after the mezze
- Hummus€9.50
Silky benchmark version; decades of Kinkerstraat regulars swear by it
- Shish tawouk€22
Garlicky grilled chicken skewers, the safest great order on the grill list
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