Sohaila — Restaurant in London

I went to Sohaila for lunch and while I did enjoy the food, I was disappointed by the experience.

This is a self-stated Lebanese inspired restaurant and so I was quite surprised they did not offer halal options. I was left with a sense that this restaurant was profiting off Lebanese culture/food while also excluding a majority of Lebanese people from being able to enjoy many of the menu items.

I tried to discuss this with our waitress but she brushed away my concerns and didn’t seem too bothered by this. I am also reposting this as I did not receive a response and I believe the owners deleted my original review. Hi Nathalie - thank you for your reply - I am editing my original review as I am not able to offer a response to your comment below. I had initially posted this on Saturday but only my review from today is showing so I am not sure how to point you to this given it is no longer appearing.

I do recognise there are Lebanese non-halal eaters but my point was that offering halal items as well would allow more people from this background to enjoy all the dishes. The reason I wrote this review is because I was very disappointed by the response I got from our waitress - I don’t believe I was rude and I did not laugh at the waitress. I asked what the cuisine was and said I was surprised that there was no halal options on the menu to which she replied ‘okay’ and offered no further response. I intentionally asked the question in a non-accusatory was as I appreciate there are number of people from different backgrounds in Lebanon so I thought that might be the case here.

I am sorry to hear your staff member was made to feel uncomfortable and I would appreciate more information on why she felt this way when I asked a genuine question in a non-confrontational manner. Perhaps she was made uncomfortable by the content of the statement rather than...

As someone who eats out regularly in London I was absolutely outraged at the prices of this place. Online they seem pretty standard, but the portion sizes are so small they're a joke. My friend and I ate here and thought we'd get a mix of dishes to share. The halloumi came out and we thought they forgot the halloumi part because it looked like a tiny plate of rocket salad only...but after digging through we found two of the smallest pieces of halloumi we've ever seen. Then there's the £14 aubergine dish which is literally ONE SLICE of aubergine. Not a big one either, it was eaten in a few bites. We actually told the staff to send it back because we refused to pay £14 for something so small, but the manager told us to keep it and he would take it off the bill, but not before he tried to justify the cost by saying food prices have gone up and this was a special aubergine slice. Sorry but neither of us are tourists, we have lived in London for over a decade and other Lebanese restaurants are not ripping off their customers like this. We had other things to eat but honestly nothing was special about them. In terms of staff, our waitress was pretty terrible, typical disinterested hipster type who was pretty unpleasant but this is becoming standard in London. The manager was nicer but still, the vibe of the restaurant is absolutely not good enough to justify these tiny portions/high prices. For the same kind of food, but better and with reasonable portion sizes, I...

Came by this new restaurant/deli/wine bar the other day and decided to give them a try -- there isn't a whole lot of good Lebanese in the area and the menu sounded quite exciting (think akkawi toastie with zaatar, winter tabbouleh, salted tahini and chocolate tart). Opted for a selection of their grab and go options for take away as we came at a slightly odd hour and had to wait for a little bit until we got our food but holy moly it was SO WORTH IT. Really fresh, home-made dips and crackers and delicious little pastries (I particularly recommend the cheese sambousek). Wouldn't expect to find this sort of quality food in such a busy high street location, but it's GREAT!

Very happy about this addition to the neighborhood and will definitely come back for sit-down dinner and wine. Oh, and we found out from our waitress (Zoe) that the restaurant group is essentially a social enterprise, offering hospitality skills training for people without permanent accommodation -- amazing! Good food and a great mission, what more...