Comptoir Libanais, Southbank Centre, London

The 20th Comptoir Libanais restaurant opened at London’s Southbank centre, heralding a new design direction for the brand underpinned by a stronger focus on storytelling, freshness and authenticity. The Comptoir Libanais brand is famous for bringing freshly prepared Lebanese food to diners, Comptoir Group challenged Harrison, to evolve the brand whilst retaining its characteristic distinctive, colourful, fun personality.

The Harrison team faced the challenge of a developing a multi-level space offering incredible natural light and visibility on the upper floor, contrasted with a darker more atmospheric lower level which was at risk of being uninviting for customers.
When it came to the design, Harrison wanted to ensure authenticity shone through. Photos of the founder, Tony Kitous, and his family adorn the bold but muted walls to showcase the family at the heart of the Levan cooking, coupled with art sourced from different Arabic countries.
Many of the lighting fixtures have also been sourced from Comptoir’s extensive store of curated pieces. A decorative tiled floor finish runs from the ground floor all the way to the back of the lower ground space, connecting the two spaces together.

Interior design

Emily Betty, Design Manager and Senior Interior Designer at Harrison, comments:
“Comptoir Libanais is a truly immersive experience, with a strong base of existing customers who love their restaurants not only for their food, but for making people feel like they’ve stepped into a whole different part of the world. It has a colourful décor which stands out on the high street, coupled with bright flora and displays of adornments inspired by travels to the Middle East and North Africa. We wanted to stay true to the brand while helping it take the natural next step in their evolution. If you look across the high streets, it’s the restaurants which have learnt to evolve in a considered way which have stood the test of time, and this is what we hope to do with the team at Comptoir.” 

Intertwining a considered layout with clever design at the new Comptoir Libanais was a priority for the Harrison team when approaching the brief, to ensure a cohesive flow throughout all of the spaces which would attract customers to both levels across all points of the day.

Key features include:

  • Maintaining an open kitchen on the ground floor allows for the theatre of the cooking to be at the heart of the restaurant and open decorative gantry detail wraps around the servery and ties into the wall decoration to allow for Comptoir’s distinctive loaded bric-a-brac to be on full display. 
  • The main entrance of the restaurant has been moved from a central door set to a double door on the left-side to allow for a dedicated ‘welcome’ space with a meet-and-greet to ensure the customer experience starts from the second a diner walks through the door. This means people will get immediate views of the open kitchen and arched lower ground, immediately drawing them into the space. 
  • To make the lower ground floor a more attractive and appealing space, Harrison wanted to add a standout feature. A large, centralised tree-like structure with vines, greenery and lighting is a show-stopping centrepiece. The structure is held within a rendered spine wall which provides the ideal space for lush greenery, while at the same time allowing for central fixed seating to ground the arrangement.