The brainchild of Maltese-Lebanese restaurateur Hany Harb, BABA Lebanese Street Food offers a wide range of food with some very intense flavours!
Lebanese food is based on that of ancient Levant, a region that includes modern day Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Palestine and Israel. The influence of the Levant is most obvious in our use of spices. Lebanese cuisine is very popular world-wide and what makes it special is a focus on herbs, spices, and fresh ingredients.
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We are lucky to have some excellent outlets serving Lebanese food in Malta. Here we review a recent addition, BABA Lebanese Street Food. It is the brainchild of Maltese-Lebanese restaurateur Hany Harb, the man behind well-loved Lebanese restaurant Ali Baba Gzira Malta. As the name suggests, BABA Lebanese Street Food focuses on Lebanese street food and is located in Gzira, a locality has now become one of the main food places on the islands with a wide range of outlets offering a great variety of foods. Last year, Harb rightly made headlines for flying to Lebanon together with a couple of other well-renowned chefs on humanitarian purposes, following a devastating explosion that hit Beirut in August 2020.
The menu at BABA Lebanese Street Food is varied. Each name is a timely reminder of how influenced our Maltese language is from the Arabic. We started off with the Muhammara, from the Arabic word ahmar, which literally means red. It is a vibrant dip which by itself lends itself excellently with the Pita Bread which was included. A very thick sweet and savoury dip, slightly smoky and quite oily. The taste of pepper really comes out with every taste, though we would have preferred it to be a bit more spicy, although that is a question of taste.
The Homous Beiruti, a Lebanese version of Hummus that adds a copious amount of garlic to add some spice to it. This was an extremely pleasant chickpea dip with lemon juice, tahini, boiled broad beans, parsley and mint, cornichon and paprika. The whole beans made it feel very natural and homemade. It’s zesty nature was a very welcome feature. This Homous Beiruti was easily one of our top picks from BABA Lebanese Street Food.
Meshwi Imshakkal consisted of a mixed grill of beef sujuk, chicken shish tawouk and beef kafta, grilled onions and tomatoes, kabis (pickles), biwaz (onions, parsley, sumac) and fries. A very generous portion of meat with a strong bbq taste which immediately transports you to the summer days. The doner was very flavourful, bursting with flavours of herbs and spices. The whole lot, including grilled tomato, was all wrapped in pita bread, with some good sized chips. At €16.75 it is not the cheapest options, but it is also a really good one.
The Halloumi Meshwi sandwich was composed of a Saj bread wrap (unleavened flatbread), filled with grilled halloumi cheese, basil and garlic pesto, tomatoes, cucumber and olives. A very intensely cheesy wrap, with some warm, salty, chewy-hard cheese which was as colourful as it was enjoyable. Good job BABA Lebanese Street Food.
Also very intense in flavours was the Kebab Dejej Meshwi, which consisted of four pieces of chicken kebab comprising minced and grilled chicken thighs and breasts. This came with fries, toum (garlic paste), mixed salad and kabis (lebanese pickles). Another big and filling portion, and again one which was very intense in spices, though perhaps less intense in flavours than its other kebab counterparts.
Finally, it was time for the Baklava, which is normally sweet, very sweet. BABA Lebanese Street Food offers a Baklava which is sweet, of course, but not overwhelmingly so. Two thumbs up from us as a result. The savory smell of nuts, pistachios, syrup and crispy phyllo dough was every bit satisfying as it sounds. The Baklava is smothered in orange blossom water syrup but still retained a flaky, yet not too sticky texture. The caramel taste was extremely welcome, whilst the pistachio filling was simply lovely.
This was a very hearty meal and we had quite a few leftovers. Some items such as the Homous Beiruti was addictive to say the least, whilst the Mehswi Imshakkal is the real deal. Our two star items, although the Baklava deserves quite a shoutout. Overall the meal came at a total of € 51.15, so not the cheapest of ‘street foods’. Then again, this was quality food which we enjoyed to the full. Looking forward to more from BABA Lebanese Street Food.
Star Items: Mehswi Imshakkal / Homous Beiruti
Website: https://baba.hanyharb.com/
Email: info@hanyharb.com
Address: 140, Fleet Street, Gzira
Tel: +356 2134 3431/2
