Noujaim's Bistro - Winchester

This was a lucky find for us as we headed to a vacation spot this past weekend. We arrived before the dinner rush began, so seating was plentiful. The serving sizes were incredible and the food itself was nothing short of amazing. We left completely full and completely happy. The staff were so nice, and took great care of us. Do not miss out on this gem of a restaurant.

George is a fantastic cook who puts his heart into the food. Escargot is a rare treat and he does it well.

You wont get a more authentic experience anywhere other than George at Noujaims. Everything is so fresh and flavorful. He puts his heart and soul in to every dish. Best baba and hummus around for sure. Clean restaurant and priced well. You cant go wrong and the portions are plenty!

Just wanted to leave another review because everything was amazing during my visit today. It's a bummer to see a bashful review (she wrote a whole book too), but everyone has their own opinions. This is my boyfriend and I’s absolute favorite restaurant and we've been coming here for years. The food is incredible—I can't eat at any other Mediterranean places because nothing else compares. On top of that, the service is always fantastic. They did a whole birthday she-bang for me today even though they were super busy. There's no other place I'd rather spend my birthday. PS: Heads up, they don’t have a host, so don't just seat yourself and then complain about not being served because they didn't see you!

We were very excited to try this place as we are both very fond of Middle Eastern cuisine. Full disclosure at this point, we were giving them the benefit of the doubt as they had a big party in, but I have a feeling that it didn 't make a difference to the food. Also, we did not complain to the waitresses, they were rushed off their feet and we didn 't think that complaining would make much of a difference tbh. We were seated at a table for two that we could barely squeeze onto (my husband is 6ft 5. and which had only one glass and place serving. We then had to wait 20 mins for someone to even come and offer us a drink/water with no apology just a demand to know if we had a reservation, I mean why else would we be sitting there? We were finally given our drinks and some hummus and pita. I was surprised that the pita was cold and flabby and not toasted an omen of things to come? Yes. Our main courses arrived super quickly, which aroused a bit of suspicion, my husband had the chimichurri steak and I had the chicken shawarma. Both dishes were entirely cold and tasteless (I asked for more garlic sauce so that my meal actually tasted of something etc. My chicken was extremely dry and the portions were off, I had twice the rice and green beans that my husband did. My husband asked for his steak rare and it came blue. It felt as if the food had been sitting around all day and had been microwaved to order, my rice was freezing but with a super hot core that made me nervous. There were no specials, the fish hadn 't been delivered that day and they were out of various things on the menu. I appreciate that this is no one 's fault per se, but it 's disappointing and none of these things seem appropriate for a restaurant that has a 4.7 rating. We both had desert, my husband had a 'brick ' of flabby Baklava and I had a desert that was supposed to be filled with a rose syrup cream, it was either curdled or it was more like a lumpy ricotta, it had a really unpleasant texture and tasted of nothing, it was just sweet. This is only decent Middle Eastern cookery to anyone who has never tasted truly decent Middle Eastern cookery and that 's a shame. It was utterly uninspired, where were the extra touches, pomegranate, garnishes, seasonings, anything?! As I say, so disappointing and we won 't be back.