The name says it all, if you know your Arabic. Kinz, the new Notting Hill restaurant that has taken over a grand former bank on Notting Hill Gate, translates as ‘treasure’, according to Wallpaper*, and the word suits the place in more ways than one. The Kinz Notting Hill restaurant opened on 1 June 2026, according to DesignMyNight, and in the weeks since, it has become one of the more quietly arresting new arrivals in west London.
A Lebanese brasserie inside a Sir Edward Maufe building
The building itself is part of the story. Designed by Sir Edward Maufe and dating from the 1930s, the structure brings with it a solidity and grandeur that most restaurant fit-outs can only dream of inheriting. Triple-height ceilings soar above the dining room. Vast streams of afternoon sunshine pour in. Patterned patio flooring and leafy greenery work against the building’s former life as a branch of Lloyds Bank, cold-hearted institutions transformed, here, into something warm and Eastern Mediterranean in spirit.
The founders are Jad Lahoud, Karim Lahoud and Rasha Khouri Bruzzo, the latter also co-owner of nearby Palestinian restaurant Akub. The vision is an all-day brasserie: Lebanese dishes alongside wine from independent producers, lavishly spiced cocktails and transportive photographs of the country lining the walls. The Bekaa Valley house white comes recommended, and the cocktail list leans into sumac and chamomile with confidence.
One corner of the former bank has been given over to something rather pleasing: the vault itself, now a bar area for a post-meal drink. Who, genuinely, hasn’t wanted to peer inside a bank vault? At Kinz, you can linger in one.
Kinz Notting Hill restaurant: what to order
Dinner runs through a concise but genuinely difficult-to-navigate selection of classic Lebanese dishes: small plates of fatayer and rikakat, larger plates of fatteh and kibbeh, salads, and mashawi grilled skewers. The kitchen moves at pace. In true mezze fashion, food arrives within minutes of ordering, the table suddenly populated with over half a dozen handsomely presented plates: elegant swirls of hummus, plump discs of pitta, neat pastry parcels, a rich green bowl of tabouleh, cheese impaled on grand skewers.
Speed, thankfully, does not mean shortcuts. The hummus is creamy and slick, dappled with tickly spice, one of those dishes that reminds you why a thing becomes a classic. The baba ganoush pairs earthy aubergine with tart pomegranate. Fat chunks of halloumi arrive miraculously un-squeaky, complemented by a fresh coriander dip. The cheese rikakat and spinach fatayer are fragrant, well-crisped and just greasy enough: the kind of pastry work that is harder than it looks.
Nothing is bland, which is a genuine achievement across a mezze spread of this breadth. A couple of dishes push into overstatement, though. The tabouleh’s rough foliage collides loudly with tangy lemon, easily outweighing the tomato garnish and most else on the table. The cabbage mehshi varies parcel to parcel: some arrive as balanced bundles of meticulously textured crunch; others are forcefully minty, the balance tipping just past the point of comfort.
These are not fatal criticisms. Kinz is a kitchen finding its register, and the highs (the hummus, the halloumi, the rikakat) are high enough to carry the meal. Finish with a Lebanese coffee and a slice of what the Time Out review describes as “fabulously gloopy” chocolate cake. That description is accurate. Order it.
The Kinz Notting Hill restaurant is open all day at 50 Notting Hill Gate, London W11 3JD. Whether you come for lunch with the light flooding through those tall windows, or settle in for an evening that ends with a negroni in a bank vault, the building and the food make a persuasive case together. A treasure, then, in both senses of the word.