Middle Eastern Food on Edgware Road, London
A guide to Lebanese and Persian food, shawarma and shisha cafes along Edgware Road in Westminster, and how to order.
Edgware Road, running north from Marble Arch through Westminster, is London's Middle Eastern high street. Lebanese, Persian, Egyptian and Gulf kitchens sit side by side, the shawarma spits turn in the windows, and the shisha cafes stay busy long into the night. It is one of the few places in the city that genuinely comes alive after midnight, and the food is the reason people keep coming back.
The lay of the land
The road splits roughly into sit-down restaurants, quick grill and shawarma counters, and cafes built around shisha and mint tea. You can do all three in one evening: a shawarma to start, a proper meze dinner, then sit out with a tea and watch the road. In warmer months the pavement tables fill up and the whole street feels like it is on holiday.
Lebanese meze and grills
A Lebanese meal is about the spread. Order a mix of cold and hot meze to share rather than heading straight for a main. Cold: hummus, moutabal (smoky aubergine with tahini), tabbouleh heavy with parsley, and labneh. Hot: falafel, kibbeh, halloumi, and sujuk. Get a stack of warm flatbread to scoop it all up.
If you want grilled meat, order mixed grill for the table: shish taouk (marinated chicken), lamb kofta and lamb cubes, with rice and salad. Fattoush, a salad with crisp fried bread and sumac, is a good sharp side against the richer plates.
Persian food
The Persian kitchens on the road do something different and worth ordering. Look for chelo kebab, grilled meat with buttery saffron rice and a grilled tomato, and koobideh, minced lamb kebab. Stews, called khoresh, are the ones people miss: ghormeh sabzi (herb and lamb) and fesenjan (walnut and pomegranate) are slow, deep and unlike anything on the grill menu. Order one with rice if you see it.
Shawarma and late night
For a quick feed, the shawarma counters carve chicken or lamb off the spit into flatbread with garlic sauce, pickles and chips. It is the late-night classic on this road for good reason. Point at the spit that looks freshest and busiest.
The listings below show real Middle Eastern restaurants in Westminster along and around Edgware Road.
Tips
- Share meze widely. Six or seven small plates between a few people beats a main each.
- Ask for extra bread. It is the tool as much as the side.
- Mint tea and Arabic coffee are the way to finish. Many places bring sweets or fruit with the bill.
- Shisha cafes are for sitting long. Order tea, settle in, and enjoy the pace.
- It gets going late. If you want the full atmosphere, come after nine.
You do not need to know the difference between Lebanese and Persian before you arrive. Order a spread, ask what the kitchen does best, and let Edgware Road do the rest. Then take a seat outside with a tea and stay a while.
Written by See The Smoke · kept current from the directory, last checked 2026-09-07