Some developers would have stripped the character from a nineteen-thirties bank vault, but Kinz, a new all-day Lebanese brasserie located in a former Lloyds bank in Notting Hill, makes the massive vault door a distinctive feature of the place. Where residents of W11 once stored their money, diners can now sit and taste Lebanese wines from the Bekaa valley.
This triple-height dining room with mezzanine seating is a very different proposition from the small artisanal Lebanese restaurants that have anchored the Edgware Road area since the nineteen-seventies. While Kinz offers kibbeh nayyeh (finely minced raw lamb and beef with bulgur, spices and pine nuts), shish barak (small lamb and herb meatballs in yoghurt sauce) and warak enab (vine leaves stuffed with lamb and courgettes), as many places do scattered in pockets across west London, there is something decidedly more cinematic about this elegant setting.