This is Winchester’s home to Lebanese hospitality. Serving traditional cuisine with authentic flavours crafted raw ingredients, paired with Lebanese wines and beers served with genuine heartfelt hospitality.
Owner Mohamed Elshabrawy is the signature to its authenticity. After crafting his Lebanese skills working at a selection of Egyptian and Lebanese restaurants in London, in August 2023 he applied that expertise to open his Lebanese House in Newbury. Based on that success he chose Winchester as the ideal location for his second restaurant in September 2024.
“All our food is home made,” he says. “The hummus, for example, we get the chickpeas ourselves and make it from scratch.”
Lebanese House Winchester catches the eye as a modern architectural breath of fresh air to the strip of more traditional buildings on City Road leading up to the station crossroad.
We started sharing as selection of Mezze dishes. We started with Hummus Beiruty made with chickpeas, tahini, lemon, garlic, olive oil, parsley red bell pepper and chilli flakes. Parsley gives a bright grassy note balance with red bell pepper adds a slight sweetness that balances the heat. Beiruti is different from other hummus, while still being creamy, the addition of chopped parsley and parsley being stirred in after blending brings texture and colour to the dish.
Baba ghanoush is a smoky rich and creamy blend of roasted eggplant with nutty tahini, garlic, citrus. The French call it caviar aubergines, due to its delectable taste.
Soujouk is Lebanese sausage made with either minced beef or lamb mixed with cumin, coriander and all spice.
Crispy Torpedo Prawns are fried King Prawns dusted with Panko, Japanese breadcrumbs. These crustless breadcrumbs have a lighter airier texture which absorb less oil during frying and stay crispier for longer than regular breadcrumbs, making them a lighter healthier dish. What a wealth of starters.
Lebanese Okra Stew is a classic Levantine dish of okra cooked in a tomato sauce with aromatic spices. It can be cooked vegetarian or with beef, lamb or sirloin steak served with Lebanese vermicelli rice or with warm bread.
The word Moussaka is normally seen as a baked dish. Lebanese Moussaka stew has all the expected flavours of eggplant, chickpeas served in a rich tomato garlic sauce, accompanied with rice.
They serve a grilled fillet of seabream salad, garlic and chilli dipping sauce with the choice of either rice, mashed potatoes or chips.
For dessert we chose two dishes. Firstly, Lebanese baklava, a rich flaky pastry with layers of phyllo dough. What differentiates this from the Greek and Turkish version is nuts and a fragrant syrup flavoured with orange blossom and rose water.
Secondly Znoud El Sit, a thin layer of filo pastry wrapped around Ashta cream made with a combination of whole milk and cream.
Our wine pairing was a bottle of white and a bottle of Domaine des Tourelles. They are Lebanon’s first wine company, founded by French winemaker François-Eugène Brun in 1868 who fell in love with this area of the Bekaa Valley. He was succeeded by his son François-Eugène and grandsons Louis and Pierre Brun. Three generations of wine lovers who love Bekaa and Lebanon collectively with 150 years of passion for the land and the wines and arak it allowed them to produce. It is now run by the Issa and Issa el Khoury families, the country’s youngest winemakers running the country’s oldest winery.
Their vineyards are in the Western Bekka at 1,050 m above sea level.
Domaine des Tourelles Red is made with grapes are fermented with indigenous yeast in concrete vats for 10 days. Malolactic fermentation begins spontaneously the wine is aged in concrete vats. The wine has minimal intervention and is a true expression of the Bekaa valley. Ripe dark fruit against a vibrant juicy reflects the hot dry days and cool nights of the valley. A blend of 40% Syrah, 40% Cabernet-Sauvignon, 15% Cinsault and 5% Carignan bottled at 14.5% ABV.
Domaine des Tourelles white has no malolactic fermentation, after blending the wine undergoes a gentle clarification. The wine has seductive exotic fruit and floral aromas on the nose which follow through on the palate with a juicy mouth-watering finish. A blend of Viognier 65%, Chardonnay 20%, Obeidi 10% and Muscat d’Alexandre 5%.
Beirut Beer is a 100% Lebanese premium light golden Pilsner with a persistent white foam produced at Kassatly Chtaura with a smooth balanced taste at 4.6%. Crafted with water, malted barley, hops and yeast emphasizing freshness, balance and drinkability.
A discovery journey with Laurence Civil of his best tasting experiences 
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