Yunie Kebab: authentic Lebanese food in a charming retro diner

Wonderfully no-frills restaurant Yunie Kebab is run by a Lebanese husband-and-wife team who took over a charming seventies diner and changed nothing about it but the menu. They now serve up incredible Lebanese food, and quite possibly the best hummus in Madrid.

ANCIENT RECIPES

A Syrian friend recommended Yunie for its dedication to millennia-old Middle Eastern recipes and its silky-smooth hummus, which took us straight back to a two-table hummuseria in Antakya (a small city in Turkey near the Syrian border).

The owner, Ibrahim, made his hummus the traditional way by first pounding the ingredients together in a large vessel until smooth, and then serving it with pickled gherkins, diced tomato and a peppering of cumin.

Hummus in Antakya

YUNIE’S RETRO SALON

This cosy Madrid eatery is kitsch, having barely changed since the previous owners decked it out with modest seventies splendour. There are smokey-pink mirrors on every wall and a vase of plastic flowers by the Orient Express-style leather booths. The whole place is every shade of brown, set off by a little colour from half a dozen photographs of Jounieh, the ancient ruin-studded coastal city in Lebanon from which this restaurant takes its name.

YUNIE’S FOOD

Because Yunie Kebab lies in the heart of Madrid’s university area, it gets a huge amount of custom from in-the-know students. Everything on the menu is cheap, tasty and nostalgic, mixing no-frills food with a proper dining experience.