Al Ain

Rating: Very good
Meal:  Dinner for 7
Price:  About 30,000 yen
Payment: Credit cards accepted
Dishes:  Lots of food, plus some drinks and 2 shishas
English Menu: Yes
Smoking:Yes if you count shisha.  Did not see any ash trays.

My wife and I had eaten at Al Ain for our anniversary several years back and hadn't been back since I started reviewing restaurants on this blog.  We met up with some friends of ours who had lived in Kuwait during the time we were there and decided to eat at the only Lebanese restaurant I know of in town:  Al Ain.  It's also in Yokohama, which is much closer to us than Tokyo.

The proprietor of Al Ain is very friendly man who was very solicitous of us.  He was also delighted by the children and very accommodating.  The prices are not cheap, but the food is quite good, as is the shisha.  Unfortunately there were "no pictures" signs posted everywhere so I didn't get much aside from a quick furtive shot of one of our dishes (shish tawouk).  But all of us really enjoyed the food.  The tawouk was made with white meat, not my usual preference, but it was properly marinated in yogurt such that it was very tender and juicy.  For more pictures, check out their website here:  http://www.alaindining.com/index_eng.html

While not Excellent, this Very Good rating is quite high, and since we don't haven't found anything better, it's essentially the best Lebanese in Japan at this point for us.