Chez Yara

The most royal mezze in the principality? You’ll find it at Chez Yara, of course! Forced to drop out of her pharmaceutical studies and flee her native Syria, Yara Abazid traded in test tubes for pots and pans and, with help from her brother Yasar, opened a joyful café with azure blue walls in a well-hidden oasis behind Place Saint-Lambert. Come wolf down a fantastic falafel, chiche taouk or kebab sandwich, a slew of delightful homemade tapas – galeb olive oil bread, fasoulia (beans with cilantro and garlic), fatayer (small hand-rolled and stuffed turnovers), magdous (miniature eggplant stuffed with walnuts, or peppers and garlic, and slow-cooked in olive oil); then a spicy kabsé (smoked rice and chicken), a foul moudamas plate (broad beans and chickpeas cooked in tomato sauce); and a halawayat (small pistachio and sugar syrup cakes)…. Perfect for a colorful lunch on the verdant terrace or a Saturday brunch! // Monica Noli

FEELING THIRSTY? Lebanese Almaza beer (€3.50 for 330 ml), a traditional ayran fermented yogurt drink (€2), Lebanese Ksara wine in red, white and rosé (€4 a glass) or mint tea (€2.50).
PRICE: Sandwiches €6.50 to €7.50, mezze €2 to €4.50, dishes €13-16, desserts €3.50, brunch €16 (Saturday).