Rimal
Lebanese-Mediterranean cooking in a limestone house on the old souk waterfront. Lunch and dinner, Tuesday to Sunday.
Opens Sunday at 12:30
4.9 on Google — sample rating
The house, in one sentence
The boats come in three hundred metres from the door, the oven is lit before noon, and the card is written after both.
The evening
An evening, in the order it happens.
Five moments from one night in July. Dinner runs from 19:00 to 23:30, and the terrace always empties later than the room.
19:00
The doors open
It is still full daylight on the water. The first table is usually two people who came for the sun on it, and they get about forty minutes of it.
19:40
The first plates
The sun is off the water. Mezze goes down the middle of the table — hummus, fattoush, saj folded straight off the iron — and nobody has ordered a main course yet.
21:20
Everything at once
Fourteen tables eating at the same time. It is the only hour of the night when the kitchen is louder than the terrace, and the only one where a table of two waits.
22:30
The souk shuts
The shops close one shutter at a time and the street noise goes out with them. For a few minutes the loudest thing on this stretch of coast is our own terrace — then that drops too, and you can hear the water working at the wall.
23:10
The last arak
The kitchen is down to bread and knefeh. Three or four tables are still out on the terrace with a bottle between them, and in six years nobody has been asked to leave.
The signature dish
Pick one, and see it properly.
The six the kitchen leads with, photographed on the oak in the dining room and shown at the size a plate is actually worth. Under each one is what the floor would pour beside it.
Pick your table
Choose the table, not just the time.
Fourteen tables: six on the terrace along the sea wall, four at the windows, three in the dining room, and one counter of six facing the pass. Pick the one you want off the floor and we hold it if it is free.
Choose a table from the list
Terrace
By the window
The dining room
Counter
The kitchen
The day starts at the port.
Chef Nour Haddad
Head chef and owner
The fish is bought off the boats before seven. What did not come in is not cooked that day, and the card says so.
The wood oven is lit at eleven and stays lit until the last order — the bread, the saj and the lamb all come out of it.
Mezze is made in the morning and finished at the pass. Nothing sits in a warmer waiting for a table.
The tasting menu changes about every six weeks, sooner if something stops coming in.
The sayadieh and the knefeh are family recipes, cooked the way they were handed over. We have not improved on them.
Allergies go on the ticket before the order does. Tell us when you book and the kitchen writes around it.
Sample photography
The oven and the cellar
Pick a bottle and see what it is for.
The rack stands at the cold end of the room and the wood oven at the other, which is the only argument this house has ever had about storage. Choose a bottle and the list below moves to what we pour it with.
Go to its pairing
Wine and arak
Twelve bottles, all of them from this country.
By the glass and by the bottle, with the dish each one was put on the list for. Prices are in US dollars. The arak is here rather than in a spirits list because at this table it is not a spirit — it is what mezze is drunk with.
White
- NadaObeidehThe BekaaPairs with Hummus beiruti · Saj flatbread · FattoushThe white the house pours without being asked. Lemon, thyme, no wood on it at all, and cold enough to stand up to garlic — it is on the table before the mezze is.
Glass$11
Bottle$46
- TaljMerwahMount LebanonPairs with Sea bass crudo · Batroun shrimp · FattoushMerwah off the terraces above the coast, picked early while the nights are still cold. Green apple and a chalk edge that cuts through raw fish better than anything else here.
Glass$13
Bottle$54
- MilhViognier and MerwahBatrounPairs with Sea bass crudo · Sayadieh · Batroun shrimpGrown twenty minutes up the hill from this door. Apricot from the Viognier, salt from the Merwah, and enough weight to sit beside the sayadieh without vanishing under the tahini.
Glass$14
Bottle$62
- GhroubMuscat, left on the vineZahléPairs with Knefeh · MouhalabiehPicked weeks after everything else, when the fruit has gone half to raisin. Orange peel and honey without turning into syrup. The glass is a 50 ml pour, which is why it costs less than the whites above it.
Glass$9
Bottle$44
Orange
- KahramanObeideh, three weeks on its skinsWest BekaaPairs with Charred octopus · Hummus beiruti · Kibbeh nayyehThe same grape as the house white, left on its skins for three weeks. It comes out the colour of tea and tastes of dried apricot and orange pith, and it is the one bottle here that can take charred octopus and raw kibbeh in the same sitting.
Glass$12
Bottle$52
Rosé
- SabahCinsault, pressed wholeJezzinePairs with Batroun shrimp · Saj flatbread · FattoushCinsault off the pine slopes at Jezzine, pressed the morning it is picked, so it never takes much colour. Dry, pale, and the safest thing to order when half the table is eating fish and the other half is not.
Glass$10
Bottle$42
Red
- NasimCinsault, old bush vinesThe BekaaPairs with Sayadieh · Kibbeh nayyeh · Charcoal mixed grillLight enough to serve cool, and that is how it leaves the rack here. Red cherry and dust. It is the red you can drink with fish, and the sayadieh is the reason it is on the list.
Glass$12
Bottle$48
- JamrSyrahWest BekaaPairs with Slow lamb shoulder · Charcoal mixed grill · Charred octopusSyrah from the western slopes, where the nights drop further. Black pepper and something smoky that meets the charcoal halfway. Order it with the mixed grill and give it ten minutes in the glass first.
Glass$15
Bottle$68
- HajarCabernet Sauvignon and CarignanZahléPairs with Slow lamb shoulder · Charcoal mixed grillFour years down in the cellar before it went on the list, and it still wants an hour open. Cassis, cedar, and enough grip to follow six hours of lamb shoulder without being flattened by it.
Glass$17
Bottle$84
- SanawbarCinsault and Grenache, from vines planted in the 1940sJezzineBottle onlyPairs with Slow lamb shoulder · Charred octopusThe one bottle on the list with no price by the glass: there are eleven of them downstairs, and a glass would be a promise we could not keep twice in a night. Dried fig, pine resin, and a finish the lamb does not shorten.
Bottle only
Bottle$120
Arak
- BaladiObeideh, twice distilled, aniseed from the same valleyThe BekaaPairs with Kibbeh nayyeh · Hummus beiruti · Fattoush · Saj flatbreadThe pour that lands on the table with the mezze. Arak first, then water, then ice — in that order, never ice first, and somebody at your table will explain why before you have finished asking.
Glass$7
Bottle$38
- FokharObeideh, three distillations, rested in clayThe ChoufPairs with Kibbeh nayyeh · Charcoal mixed grill · Charred octopusThree passes through the still instead of two, then two years in clay jars in the dark. Rounder and less sharp than the house pour, and it is what the kitchen drinks after service.
Glass$9
Bottle$58
Where it comes from
Three hundred metres for the fish. A hundred and thirty kilometres for the wine.
Seven places, north to south. Nobody on this map is named — a supplier is somebody's actual business, and this restaurant is not one — but the roads are real, and so are the days things turn up.
Rimal, Batroun
- 01
ZghartaLamb
Lamb, whole shoulders, Tuesday morning. The same butcher since we opened; he calls on Monday to say what he has, and when the answer is nothing, the lamb is off the card on Tuesday.
- 02
AnfehSalt
Sea salt off the flats, raked by hand in August and bought a year at a time. It is the only salt in this kitchen, and it is what finishes every plate that leaves the pass.
- 03
KouraOlive oil
Olive oil pressed in November and collected in twenty-litre tins from a family with about four hundred trees. It goes onto the crudo and into nothing that gets hot.
- 04
BatrounFish
The port is three hundred metres from the door and the boats are back in by six. We buy sea bass, bream and whatever came up with them, and we buy it whole — a fillet in a box has already been somewhere else.
- 05
AmmiqVegetables
Vegetables from the marsh edge in the Bekaa, up on Tuesday and Friday: purslane, tomatoes, radish, and the cucumbers the fattoush actually wants. It is two and a half hours each way, which is the argument we have with ourselves every spring and lose.
- 06
BaroukHoney
Honey from hives among the cedars, one delivery in autumn and that is the year. It sweetens the sweets, and for about three weeks in October it goes straight onto the mouhalabieh.
- 07
JezzineWine
The Jezzine bottles come up from the pine slopes twice a year, forty cases at a time. It is the longest drive on this map and the only thing on it that does not spoil on the way.
Private events
Sixty on the terrace, fourteen at one table.
Three ways to take the place over. Prices are per head and cover the food; drinks are counted separately. We write the menu with you and you have the number before you commit to anything.
The terrace
Up to 60 guestsFrom $55 a head
Sixty seated along the sea wall, or ninety standing. String lights, candles and no roof — if the weather turns we move you inside, and we decide that together by four o'clock.
The private room
Up to 14 guestsFrom $85 a head
One oak table for fourteen under the vault, with its own window on the sea. A set menu agreed a week ahead, and a door that closes.
The whole house
On request
Both rooms, the terrace and the bar, up to a hundred and twenty. We take one house booking a week and never on a Saturday.
Reviews
What people write afterwards.
Sample reviews
4.5 out of 5
5 out of 52
4 out of 52
2025
November
The crudo is the reason to come back. Blood orange and sumac on raw sea bass sounds like too much and somehow isn't. Book the terrace at eight and you get the light.
Sea bass crudo5 out of 5
2025
October
Lamb shoulder was excellent and the freekeh under it even better. Four stars only because the terrace gets loud once it fills up and we ended up leaning across the table to talk.
Slow lamb shoulder4 out of 5
2025
September
Octopus properly charred instead of rubbery. The waiter knew what was in every dish when I asked about nuts, which is rarer than it should be.
Charred octopus5 out of 5
2025
August
We did the tasting menu. Seven courses is a lot and course five felt like one too many, but the knefeh at the end was worth staying for.
Knefeh4 out of 5
These reviews are written samples for a design concept. They are not real guest feedback.
Press
Five write-ups, and five magazines we made up.
Invented publications
The titles, the quotes and the years below are written samples for a design concept. None of these publications exists, and none of this was said about a real restaurant.
2025
The Levant Table
The crudo comes about four minutes after you ask for it and tastes like it. I have had blood orange bury better fish than this; here it stays behind the sumac and lets the sea bass go first.
2025
Coast Guide Lebanon
Ask for the counter. Six stools facing the pass, dinner only, and the seven courses come over the wood by hand rather than round the room. You give up the sea view and you get the argument about the fish.
2024
Mezze Quarterly
The kibbeh nayyeh is minced the morning you eat it, and on my second visit it simply was not offered, because the meat had not come in. The waiter said so without apologising for it, which is the whole restaurant in one sentence.
2024
Nord Liban Gourmand
Six hours of lamb shoulder, freekeh underneath, pine nuts on top: the only dish here that is unmistakably a Sunday. Order it for the table and something else for yourself.
2023
Batroun Notes
The terrace has been the best table in town since the place opened, but go inside and sit under the vault once. The room is where you can hear what the kitchen is doing.
Before you ask
The questions we actually get.
Two or three days is usually enough on a weekday, and about two weeks for a terrace table on a Friday or Saturday. We hold the counter and two window tables for walk-ins at every service, so it is always worth asking at the door. Booking here opens WhatsApp — a person confirms it, not a system.
No. Most people arrive in what they would wear anywhere else in Batroun, and some come straight off a boat. The terrace is cooler than the town after dark, so bring something for your shoulders.
The old souk street in front of the house is pedestrian, so nobody parks at the door. The municipal lot is a four-minute walk up and free after seven. On Friday and Saturday we run a valet from the top of the street — hand the keys over there and walk down.
Yes, at both services. There are high chairs, and the kitchen will cook a small plate of whatever a child will actually eat rather than hand you a children's menu. Dinner after nine is quieter and mostly adults, if that matters to you either way.
Yes to all three. There is a seven-course vegetarian tasting menu at $60, and most of the mezze is already vegan or can be made vegan. Gluten-free means the bread and the saj come off the table, and we tell you which dishes are affected instead of guessing. The one thing we will not soften: nuts are used across the kitchen — pine nuts in the freekeh, pistachio in the sweets — and we cannot promise a plate from a nut-free kitchen. Tell us when you book and we will tell you honestly what we can do.
Yes — two bottles a table, $25 each in corkage, and not on a Friday or Saturday. If it is something you have been keeping for a while, say so when you book and the right glasses will be on the table.
The terrace seats sixty from $55 a head, the private room fourteen from $85, and the whole house is on request. That is food only; drinks are counted separately. Send a date and a rough number on WhatsApp and you get a menu and a total back the same day.
Tuesday to Sunday: lunch 12:30–16:00 and dinner 19:00–23:30. Closed Mondays, all day. The kitchen takes its last order half an hour before each service ends.
Cash in US dollars or Lebanese pounds, and Visa or Mastercard. Pounds are taken at the day's rate, which is written on the card at the desk and does not change once you have sat down. Service is already in the prices and there is no cover charge.
Tell us before midday and there is nothing to settle. After that we would rather have the call than the silence — a terrace table on a Saturday is somebody else's evening. Private room and whole-house bookings keep the deposit if they are cancelled inside forty-eight hours.
Reserve
Three questions, then it goes to WhatsApp.
Pick the service, the day and the time, tell us who you are, and the reservation opens in WhatsApp for you to send. A person confirms it, usually within the hour.
Demo booking — no table is actually held.
Find us
Hours
Opens Sun at 12:30
- MonClosed
- TueLunch12:30–16:00Dinner19:00–23:30
- WedLunch12:30–16:00Dinner19:00–23:30
- ThuLunch12:30–16:00Dinner19:00–23:30
- FriLunch12:30–16:00Dinner19:00–23:30
- SatLunch12:30–16:00Dinner19:00–23:30
- SunLunch12:30–16:00Dinner19:00–23:30
Where
Old souk waterfrontBatroun, Lebanon
Placeholder address — this restaurant is fictional.
Telephone: +961 6 000 000
The chef's counter
Six stools, facing the pass.
One long run of oak against the wall the food comes through. The seven-course tasting menu, handed over the pass by whoever cooked it. There is nobody behind that pass at lunch, so the counter opens at dinner and not before — and you give up the sea for it, which is the trade.
One is a perfectly good party; a counter is the most civilised place in any restaurant to eat alone. It is table C on the plan, and it is the one table that cannot be pushed together with another.
- 6 stools
- Dinner only
- $75 a person