Loris opens its first UK restaurant inside Selfridges
The Beirut-born chain's first move into the UK and the EU lands on the second floor of Selfridges' Oxford Street store, with kibbeh, manousheh and charcoal-grilled lamb.
Loris, the Lebanese restaurant chain founded in Beirut in 2015, opens its first UK restaurant this month on the second floor of Selfridges' Oxford Street store in London.
Founder Jean-Marie Riachi has grown Loris from a single Beirut address into outposts in Cairo and Riyadh, plus a Michelin Guide-listed restaurant in Doha. The Selfridges site, run with Icon Hospitality Group, is the brand's first move into the UK and the European Union.
Loris' first stop outside the Gulf
Wherever we go, the soul stays Lebanese.
The restaurant seats 80 and opens seven days a week. Its menu was built specifically for Selfridges: hummus topped with mini fried kibbeh, smoky moutabal made from grilled and fried aubergine, toshka parcels of cheese and minced meat, and manousheh with za'atar, cheese or keshk.
The charcoal grill carries kabab bil karaz, lamb cooked in a sour cherry sauce, alongside a pistachio kebab and a mixed grill platter meant for sharing. Drinks run to Lebanese wines and beers, plus tamar hendi, a cold tamarind infusion.
"Wherever we go, the soul stays Lebanese," Riachi said of the opening, describing the move from Beirut to Oxford Street as a proud moment for a brand that started at one address.
A test for Selfridges' food halls
Lucy Menendez, Selfridges' director of food and restaurants, said the menu's focus on Lebanese culture and sharing "offers something truly distinctive" inside a food hall that increasingly imports whole restaurant concepts rather than building them in-house. She called Loris "a fantastic addition" to the store's restaurant line-up, which already mixes standalone brands with in-house kitchens across several floors.
Riachi has not said whether Loris plans further UK sites beyond Selfridges. For now, London is a single test of appetite for Beirut's charcoal grill outside the Gulf and Cairo. See also another London opening this week, Florence Knight's Lunette.
A department-store counter is still a narrower bet than a street address, and Loris will need more than one floor to prove the thesis. It follows Big Mamma's new City of London site.
