Lebanese cuisine is widely acknowledged to be the finest in the Middle East. Excellent Lebanese food is available everywhere. A dish unique to Lebanon is kebbeh, made of lamb or fish pounded to a fine paste, with burghul or cracked wheat, and served raw or baked in flat trays or rolled into balls and fried. Also recommended is the traditional Lebanese mezza, a range of up to 40 small dishes served as hors d'oeuvres with arak.
Main courses are likely to include Lebanese staple ingredients of vegetables, rice and mutton.
Other typical dishes are tabbouli, houmos and mtabbal. Lebanese palates also favour pastries with local varieties of baked doughs flavoured with nuts, cream and syrup. A meal is always concluded with a wide range of fresh fruit, including melon, apples, oranges, persimmon, tangerines, cactus fruit, grapes and figs, which are all grown locally. Beirut also offers a large choice of international restaurants which offer dishes from all over the world. Alcohol is not prohibited.