Tarboush

Northernmost of the middle eastern restaurants in the great edgeware road middle eastern restaurant cluster.
Not heavily frequented — which tells you something —
but the customers are all middle eastern which tells you something else.
I had a fine mint tea a perfectly reasonable and pleasant moussaka, and rice to knock your socks off.
Good rice is not uncommon at London’s middle eastern restaurants — but this was admirable wonderful stuff. I could never replicate this quality of rice at home even if i bought the best basmati available.
Service is indifferent and the TV’s functionality is on again off again.
But the food is quite pleasant. There would be lines out the door of this place if it was in my home town.

After reading a couple of nice reviews here I decided to check this place out. I’ve never tasted Lebanese food before but it turned out that I love it, everything we ordered was delicious. The service wasn’t the best I’ve seen, the staff were quite busy and rushed the meals but still the atmosphere was generally welcoming and pleasant.

We spontaneously went there with a small group of colleagues, and got a good table (despite the fact that we had no reservation). We all ordered the same menu, something along the lines of a Lebanese feast. The staff was very friendly and surprisingly multilingual.
The starters arrived promptly and I could have stopped eating after those. That’s when the second round of starters came, which were even better than the first. They were followed by a delicious variety of meat, sauces, bread and everything you could hope for. The whole evening turned into a blur of indulging all the delicacies I could get hold of.
I wish I could tell you about the dessertsbut it was just physically impossible to try any of it by the time we got there. I was very glad our hotel was not too far away, because walking turned out to be quite difficult. And I did not need any breakfast the next morning.
What a great restaurant!

I found they are not good value for money, in fact it’s very expensive for what you spend and what you get. The waitress isn’t cheerful. But they cook meat nicely so i will give two stars.

There is no shortage of Middle Eastern restaurants to choose from on this stretch of Edgeware Road, but what ultimately won us over was the atmosphere. Seasonally decorated for Christmas, white tablecloths and low lighting made Tarboush much more appealing than some of the other much brighter restaurants.
After we sat down and ordered our drinks, we were presented with a bowl of fresh vegetables, which I was quite pleased with (although, beware that there are very spicy peppers lurking amongst the carrots and celery!)
I ordered the moussaka and a side of vegetables and was a little surprised when they arrived. I was expecting the types of moussaka that are layered like lasagna, but this was more like an eggplant stew. The vegetables were also stewed in tomato, which is fine by me. My dining companion ordered lamb and I tried a bite and it was delicious and spicy (and made me wish I’d ordered that).
We finished with a lovely trio of baklava and coffee. Definitely a good evening.

We started walking to a different restaurant and upon finding it closed continued walking until we came upon Tarboush. At first I was a little worried seeing as it was nearly empty during peak time but after sitting down and getting our first taste of the food I was pleasantly surprised.
The meal started with what can only be described as a bowl of salad, but the salad was not made it was just whole veggies that we had to cut up ourselves and didn’t have the proper equipment to do so with. Either way it was good and we hoped the rest of the meal would make up for it.
To our surprise everything after that was absolutely amazing! Hummus, the tabouleh, the lamb the cucumber sauce… all of it was top notch and left us craving more. I can’t say enough good things about the food.
They staff was very cordial and even wrapped up the remaining food as takeaway for us. This could easily be a 5 star place with just a few adjustments but on a cold, rainy night, this was a perfect find.

authentic lebanese food, lovely fresh hommous served with delicious pitta bread. main course wasn’t to my taste, calamari is a favourite of mine and this was supposed to be fresh but didn’t appear to be and was rubbery. service was extremely rushed — we hadn’t finished first course and our waiter dumped the mains on our plates whilst we were still wading through starters which was a bit annoying. however had a nice buzz to the place and was cheap so if you’re looking for a genuinely ethnic experience you could do worse.

Dont be fooled by its slightly drab appearance from the outside this is one of the best spots in the capital for quick and authentic middle eastern food. Locked away on the busy Edgeware road this excellent Lebanese restaurant serves up huge portions of kebabs and hummus all to be washed down with a selection of over 30 fruit juices. The brisk service ensures you constantly got food on the table and the no nonsense approach to the food ensures a busy mix of middle eastern locals and local workers. In the summer its worth coming along for the hookah pipes, a perfect way to while away some hours with a group of friends where everyone leaves with a full belly and a full wallet to match.

Tarboush is truely a place which reaches my standards. I am very picky with oriental restaurants and similar, I need them to be very oriental looking. If the decoration isnt good I refuse to go. I believe that 50% of the experience is the surroundings and Tarboush really did compliment these 50%.
The food was absolutely DELICIOUS, one of the best kababs I have ever eaten. This is truely a place I can recommend to everyone.
Pro’s: Great food, good interior, capturing smell of food from outside
Con’s: No con’s so far

This is a fantastic little place. The food is great value for money and the quality and flavour of the food is excellent. I have never tasted a better lamb Shawarma (kebab) in my whole life… you have not lived until you have tasted a Tarboush Shawarma. If I could I would eat here daily.