I’ve always associated Lebanese food with health and nutrition. To me, it seems that everything in their menu is either baked, grilled and sauteed… in olive oil no less! They rarely use butter or cream; and red meat has rare appearances in their dish. How did I know? I visited Leil Nhar in Tahlia Street and got smitten with the simple yet filling comfort food of Lebanon.
Welcome to Beirut!
Founded in March 2007, Leil Nhar is a unique casual eatery that serves a wide array of savory dishes from salads, sandwiches, pizzas, and desserts. When compared to anything similar, you’ll think of it as Beirut’s answer to a pizzeria. Only theirs seems to be much more light and healthy. I have this feeling that Beirut is a very nice city just by looking at the Lebanese restaurants in the city. Have you noticed the clean lines, fresh colors, and lively atmosphere that most Lebanese restaurants have? I do and I believe when they say that Beirut is an upbeat, bright and lively urban city. Leil Nhar wants to re-create that mood here in Riyadh that’s why theirs is a place that offers quick bites around the clock.
Now, that’s a “light” dinner?! Haha.
The Leil Nhar branch in Tahlia Street was opened in October of 2012 but we only discovered it around the third quarter of 2013 when we frequently visited a friend’s office in Tahlia. She’s the one who introduced it to us and we liked the place. It’s one of the restaurants housed in that quite tall structure in the busy street. The family section is quiet and calming; a good place to relax. My friends and I were quite the chatterboxes when we were there. Perusing their menu, we found out that their items are really affordable. Don’t judge us, we nearly ordered everything because we wanted to try them all!
From their hot and tender starters, we selected the Grilled Halloumi Platter. It has my friend’s favorite halloumi cheese partnered with tomatoes. I’m quite sure you’re familiar with this unripened brined cheese made of goat’s milk and sheep’s milk. Now, halloumi can be a bit of a surprise if you’re not used to it. It’s salty and a bit dry but a lot of Middle Eastern people like this and my friend who grew up here in Riyadh is a fan. I’m not much of a halloumi lover but I finished a slice.
Grilled Halloumi Platter, SR 26
The Chicken Tenders is that – tender on the inside, crispy on the outside. It’s partnered with a honey mustard sauce that made the mildly-flavored white meat tasty.
Chicken Tenders, SR 32
I thought the Falafel bites were burnt but they were just browned a bit longer than the usual. I had little expectations of these but they were actually flavorful. It doesn’t even have to be dipped in the accompanying dip of tartar, mint, pickles, parsley, tomato and hot spices for it to be appreciated.
Falafel, SR 27
The Baked Potato was nothing to write home about. It’s bigger than most steakhouses though.
Baked Potato, SR 14
All cheesy and tomato-ey goodness!
And we went crazy with our orders of mains. You see, we only saw wraps and pizzas in the menu so we thought, “Hey, we can devour them all! There’s not even a steak in that menu!” And so we ordered one kind of wrap each and a pizza. Wow right? My friend who is a halloumi fan gravitated towards the Halloumi Bacon Sandwich of course. Apart from the halloumi cheese, it has beef bacon, tomatoes, and mayonnaise. It was salty all over but my friend loved it. (She loves everything halloumi!)
Halloumi Bacon Sandwich, SR 26
I ordered one of their cold sandwiches… Crab Sandwich layered with lettuce and carrots and laced with a lemon mayo sauce. I was quite disappointed with this one because I can’t seem to taste the marinated crab. I guess the brown flat bread they used made this sandwich a bit boring and dry. This is probably the reason why it’s no longer in their new menu (we visited last year).
Crab Sandwich, SR 24
For pizza, we went with one of the simplest… Four Cheese. Who doesn’t like cheese in our table? Apparently, none. And so we devoured this pizza devoid of any toppings other than glorious emmenthal, mozarella, fondel, and bleu cheese. Yummy! The crust is light and a bit soft. With the cheese, it was chewy in a good way. I think all we ever thought was CHEESE! YEY! CHEESE! Hahaha!
Four Cheese Pizza, SR 30
We ended our meal with really good desserts. Again, I wasn’t looking forward to their sweets since I’m not familiar with Lebanese desserts but I was surprised that the desserts of Leil Nhar delivered much more than sweetness.
The perfect conclusion to a light dinner! Haha!
Their Fudge Cake was oh-so moist and yummy! It’s one of my favorite cakes in Riyadh. The cake was soft and wasn’t overly sweet despite of the glistening, dark fudge above and between its layers. The fudge was thick but I couldn’t get enough of it. We also ordered the Chocolate Biscuit out of curiosity and we ended up with a slice of crushed biscuits packed tight enough by chocolate. It was covered in a think layer of melted chocolate and drizzled with chocolate syrup. We drowned the chocolatey goodness with black coffee.
Fudge Cake, SR 12
Chocolate Biscuit, SR 15
The service in Leil Nhar is fast and the waiter is attentive. He really should be because we were the only ones in the family section during that time! Haha!
A Leil Nhar meal
Leil Nhar is also at the Faisaliah Mall food court. You also have to check their website; it’s quirky and fun! This Lebanese restaurant is one simple dining place that serves quick, affordable food. No fancy anything, no pretences. We kindda really like it this way. Oh, and did I tell you about Leil Nhar? Yes, Night and Day.
Leil Nhar Restaurant
a. Tahlia Street Branch
b. Food Court, Al Faisaliah Mall
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
T: +966-11-288-33-66
FB: https://www.facebook.com/LeilNharRestaurant
Twitter: https://twitter.com/LeilNharLeb
Find their MENU here: www.Leilnhar.com/#nhar/menu
Good morning how are you?
My name is Emilio, I am a Spanish boy and I live in a town near to Madrid. I am a very interested person in knowing things so different as the culture, the way of life of the inhabitants of our planet, the fauna, the flora, and the landscapes of all the countries of the world etc. in summary, I am a person that enjoys traveling, learning and respecting people’s diversity from all over the world.
I would love to travel and meet in person all the aspects above mentioned, but unfortunately as this is very expensive and my purchasing power is quite small, so I devised a way to travel with the imagination in every corner of our planet. A few years ago I started a collection of used stamps because trough them, you can see pictures about fauna, flora, monuments, landscapes etc. from all the countries. As every day is more and more difficult to get stamps, some years ago I started a new collection in order to get traditional letters addressed to me in which my goal was to get at least 1 letter from each country in the world. This modest goal is feasible to reach in the most part of countries, but unfortunately it’s impossible to achieve in other various territories for several reasons, either because they are countries at war, either because they are countries with extreme poverty or because for whatever reason the postal system is not functioning properly.
For all this I would ask you one small favor:
Would you be so kind as to send me a letter by traditional mail from Saudi Arabia? I understand perfectly that you think that your blog is not the appropriate place to ask this, and even, is very probably that you ignore my letter, but I would call your attention to the difficulty involved in getting a letter from that country, and also I don’t know anyone neither where to write in Saudi Arabia in order to increase my collection. a letter for me is like a little souvenir, like if I have had visited that territory with my imagination and at same time, the arrival of the letters from a country is a sign of peace and normality and an original way to promote a country in the world. My postal address is the following one:
Emilio Fernandez Esteban
Calle Valencia, 39
28903 Getafe (Madrid)
Spain
If you wish, you can visit my blog http://www.cartasenmibuzon.blogspot.com where you can see the pictures of all the letters that I have received from whole World.
Finally I would like to thank the attention given to this letter, and whether you can help me or not, I send my best wishes for peace, health and happiness for you, your family and all your dear beings.
Yours Sincerely
Emilio Fernandez