Lebanese Restaurants in Madrid: Las Mil y Una Noches

Arabic — By on February 6, 2009 1:00 am


If you’re looking for a Lebanese cultural experience that doesn’t involve the exertion of traveling, then this place will appeal to you.  With brilliantly colored, byzantine murals and Arabic arches adorning every room, Las Mil y Una Noches (A Thousand and One Nights) is decisively arranged to make you think you’re on a mini vacation. You can smoke Shisha (a water pipe with tobacco and honey) or sip hot tea at any hour while sinking into one of the numerous plush sofas.  Or – if it’s a weekend venture – you can nurse a bottle of Lebanese wine or beer (Almaza) as you marvel at the careful art of the belly dancers.

Beware of the seemingly “gratis” basket of pita bread, which they will plop down on your table at some point.  They’ll end up charging you per person for this small gesture.  To add injury to insult, the food is starkly over-priced and depending on your taste buds may not be worth it.  We’re talking about hors d’oeuvres for 7 euro and 10 and 13 euros for main dishes like Tayin, a small earthenware bowl of meat with prunes; or Chap, two (that’s right, just two) tepid croquettes filled with rice, potatoes, meat and pine nuts, all accompanied by a meager iceberg lettuce salad.  Dessert will add an additional 8 euros and if you order the Baklawa (the Lebanese version of Baklava) you might end up with a microscopic portion.

In short, everybody has different palettes, but you may leave this restaurant thinking you’d have been better off saving up your ducats and catching a flight to Beirut to experience Lebanon cuisine.

Las Mil y Una Noches
C/ Martín De Los Heros, 28
Telephone: 915 595 785
Metro: Ventura Rodríguez or Plaza de España

By Michelle Campagna

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  • Adam

    I have been to this place and it´s overrated. If you want good athentic hummus, mutabal you go to Bar Biblos behind gran via i´ve never had better and I travel regularly around the middle east.

  • pandepita

    http://madrid.salir.com/cafe_samir

    Check out here, it is amazing. Cheap and good quality , near plaza de las Ventas. authentic Moroccan Tayine , cooked in earthenware pans. surprising taste and not surprising prices. whole family could eat and have tea baklawa ( big ones) and mint tea and herbal shisha and pay no more than 10€/person.
    enter here and see. It is a Spanish-Moroccan restaurant run by a nice Spanish-Moroccan couple. Open minded people don´t mind about religion or any limits. you can also enjoy Mojitos, Caipirinha or anything. It is open until really late and they don´t mind staying with you until late if you want to have a private party!!! Families are welcome , they even have a baby changing station…

  • Hasebaa

    This restaurant should be closed. The food was cold and bad taste. We ordered for a couscous. I eat a lot couscous as this is my preferred dish but the one I had there was the worst of my life. I don’t recommend this restaurant to any one.