Beirut has always eaten well, but fine dining in Beirut right now feels especially alive. The city’s best kitchens are cooking with real confidence: grandmothers’ recipes sit beside fermentation jars, set menus run to thirty small plates, and a burger can earn a place on a regional list of the finest restaurants. These five tables, each recognized by The World’s 50 Best organization, make a generous introduction.
A note before you book: hours and menus shift with the seasons, so confirm directly with each restaurant before you go.
1. Beihouse, Gemmayzeh
Beihouse is the name on everyone’s lips this year, and for good reason. It took fifth place on the Middle East and North Africa’s 50 Best Restaurants 2026 list, along with the Highest New Entry Award and the title of Best Restaurant in Lebanon. The setting is three restored villas on Pasteur Street, gathered around a courtyard and a centuries-old olive tree, with a sandstone dining room, a bar and a living room that invites you to linger.
Chef Tarek Alameddine ferments, preserves and reimagines Lebanese flavors with a light, precise hand. Expect smoked hummus with caviar, duck wrapped in vine leaves, a foie gras parfait and a thoughtful reworking of shawarma. Save room for the desserts of pastry chef Azzam Darwich.
2. Em Sherif, Monot
If Beihouse is the city’s new voice, Em Sherif is its grand, generous heart. Founded by Mireille Hayek and now led by her daughter, executive chef Yasmina Hayek, a graduate of the Institut Paul Bocuse in Lyon, the restaurant on Damascus Street ranked thirteenth on the 2026 regional list.
The room is pure theater: chandeliers, deep blue and rose textiles, live Arabic music drifting between tables. The set menu runs to roughly thirty sharing dishes, so arrive hungry. Kibbeh nayyeh is a highlight, and the evening ends softly with mouhallabiyeh, a rose water milk pudding scattered with pistachios. A daily dish changes with the market, which gives regulars a reason to return.
3. Baron, Mar Mikhael
On Pharaon Street, chef and owner Athanasios Kargatzidis cooks the kind of small plates that make a table go quiet for a moment. Baron was named the Best Restaurant in Lebanon in 2023 and appeared on the regional 50 Best list in 2025. The cooking leans on organic, market-fresh produce, and the signature whole roasted cauliflower with yogurt tahini is the dish people remember.
It’s relaxed, a little playful, and very much part of the neighborhood. Order widely and share everything.
4. Buco, Gouraud
Tarek Alameddine’s second address proves that refinement can be casual. Buco opened in December 2023 as a warm, terracotta-toned gastro bar, where the bar, terrace and open kitchen flow into one another. It ranked thirty-ninth on the 2026 regional list.
The menu is short and very well judged: mini lobster rolls, corn with chili butter, a classic cheeseburger and a wagyu burger topped with provolone and caramelized onions on a Japanese milk bun. Fries arrive in martini glasses. The cocktail list moves from aperitifs and sours to low and no alcohol options, which makes Buco an easy place to begin or end an evening.
5. Tawlet, Mar Mikhael
No tour of fine dining in Beirut is complete without a lunch at Tawlet. Kamal Mouzawak, who founded the Souk el Tayeb farmers’ market in 2004, opened this farmers’ kitchen in 2009 to celebrate home cooking from across the country. Cooks from different villages bring their own dishes and stories, and the food is served as an open buffet that changes daily.
It feels less like a restaurant than a Lebanese home with an unusually talented family. As of this writing, Tawlet serves lunch from Monday to Saturday, and Saturdays bring a brunch with the market close by. Go early, take a little of everything, and ask the cook of the day where each recipe comes from.
Planning a Beirut dining weekend
- Book Beihouse and Em Sherif well ahead, especially for weekend dinners.
- Pair Tawlet at lunch with Baron in the evening; both sit in Mar Mikhael, so the day needs no driving.
- Beirut dines late. A 9 pm reservation is perfectly ordinary, and dinners at Em Sherif tend to stretch.
- Leave space for a stroll through Gemmayzeh between courses. The old staircases and painted facades are lovely after dark.
Five tables, five moods, one thread running through them all: a pride in Lebanese ingredients and the pleasure of sharing them. Start anywhere. You’ll want to come back for the rest.
