Upon walking through the door of Sohaila Restaurant, you are immediately hit with a sense of warmth and comfort. There is a buzz of conversation in the room and the warm-toned lighting and wooden chairs are familiar and welcoming.
Glancing around the restaurant, there are wooden accents everywhere. The walls without art are adorned with floor-to-ceiling shelves of wine that you can choose to have with meal or even purchase to remind yourself of the experience later on.
The Teta Menu
At Sohaila, dishes are made to be shared. Right now, the restaurant has a special menu called the Teta Menu, which means Grandmother in Arabic. The menu features classics that are commonly found in a Lebanese family’s kitchen, including fattoush, labneh, and many more. To start, the labneh and chili butter appetiser seemed the most popular, as it was on almost every other surrounding table. Their labneh balances the classic creamy richness that the Lebanese natives are familiar with, and contrasts it with a vibrant heat from the chili oil, giving the dish a new spin.
Moving on to the beloved Fattoush, a great recommendation. A colourful salad garnished with crunchy fried pita, a classic in many Lebanese kitchens. When taking a bite of this salad, you are immediately hit with the zestiness of the lemon offset by the deep flavour of the sumac. This unique dressing is drizzled on top of a fresh bed of vegetables, making the dish refreshing and comforting.
The hummus is a great benchmark of any Lebanese restaurant. Here, the hummus is creamy and comes with some funky fried chickpeas on top too. The pickles here are really unique. Any Lebanese person will tell you about how much they love pickles. Usually, cucumber and beetroot are the go-to pickles but at Sohaila, they had a gorgeous selection including green beans, cauliflower and radish.
For the main course, a fatteh is really unique. Traditional ingredients include chickpeas and a garlic spiked yogurt. At Sohaila, the fatteh is the work of a genius made with rice and ox cheek too. The rice makes such a big difference and works so well with the dish.
To end off a delightful meal, dessert must be had, and the Mahalabia cannot be missed. A richly creamy milk pudding, with light floral undertones from the rose, a delicate pear flavour, and top notes of nuttiness from the pistachios.
The wine selection can often seem intimidating, but with Sahil’s advice, it is easy to sort through the selection and choose a bottle to pair with the meal. Within the wine menu, they have a few rare bottles sourced directly from small-batch Lebanese producers and even friends, that you will be hard-pressed to find anywhere else in London.
Chef Nathalie Moukarzel
Launching the Teta Menu is a full-circle moment for chef and founder Nathalie Moukarzel. She has decided to return to the kitchen for the first time since she launched Sohaila in 2022, for a two-month head chef ‘stage’ to bring this menu to life. Chef Moukarzel was inspired by her own grandmother to make the menu, and even further than that, her grandmother’s name is Sohaila, whom she named the restaurant after. Her grandmother, Sohaila, just turned ninety-five years old, so having this menu as a nod to her is really special for Chef Nathalie.
The Sohaila restaurant embodies everything Chef Nathalie Moukarzel loves and cherishes: her Lebanese culture, her grandmother, and of course good food. She has made a place where friends and family can come together and break pita, enjoy a glass or two of wine, and share a plate of food.
For more information, visit Sohaila Restaurant
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All Images Courtesy of Sohaila Restaurant.