Samarcanda

Fantastic Lebanese food in the heart of Granada. We were so glad we stumbled upon this lovely restaurant - the atmosphere was warm, the service was great, and the food was delicious! Really fresh, high quality ingredients and homemade dishes. We especially loved the wide variety of vegetable dishes. Would highly recommend you visit when you're in Granada, especially if you want something different from Spanish tapas!

Delicioso from start to finish! Fresh and extremely tasty. They were able to accommodate my dietary restrictions ( gluten free) without any problems.

Dinner was absolutely wonderful. We had salad, starter and three beautiful main dishes. The owner was so sweet and accommodating and very attentive. Truly a beautiful dinner and we definitely recommend this spot for dinner in Granada.

The food here was truly amazing! We even had assistance to help us decide what to order so we wouldn't have too much or too little food which we really appreciated. The chicken couscous had to be some of the most tender and flavourful we have tried ever!! Couldn't recommend the food and service here enough :)

10/10. This was my favorite meal while in Granada. Unpretentious and authentic Lebanese food cooked the grandma way, packed with flavors. Everyone around us was saying how amazing the food was, because it truly is! We had the mixed starters followed by the chicken & potato in gravy. Lemonade with mint was fresh and delicious. Close your eyes, you’re in Beirut. And the owner, from Lebanon, was such a lovely man. The terrasse is away from the business of the neighborhood, and they have a cute room inside. Go ahead, try anything on the menu — you will love it!

Just Amazing! This is a must if you are on Granada. I love Lebanese food and tried it in many places around the world, and this one is in my top 3. Some great dishes we tried are the Fatteh and the lamb with sesame sauce!

We ordered baba ghanoush, hummus, moussaka, and parsley salad, and they were all incredibly delicious. The owner was very kind, and the atmosphere was wonderfully relaxing. Thank you! We'll definitely come back

Outstanding Lebanese cuisine that was so delicious we just couldn’t resist going back a day later for another feast! As vegetarians we were well taken care of - there’s so much to enjoy and every dish was so fresh and delicious. The service was fast too and the hospitality extremely warm. Highly recommended!

Our first time trying Lebanese food. Every dish was tasty ! Service was great. Our family of four enjoyed the delicious dinner.

Delicious lemon chicken and garlic. Lemonade with mint was refreshing. Excellent service.

This place was awesome! We were looking for a late night snack (since we missed dinner) - the tabouleh, hummus, and falafel were all amazing!

We had such an excellent meal here, dare I say it was the best we've had so far on our trip. The atmosphere was cozy, the waiter (who might have been the owner) attentive and jovial, and the food amazing.

The Lebanese food was delicious! It was just like my grandmother makes. The service was exceptional and we had an amazing dinning experience.

This restaurant has wonderful food. The Baba Ghanoush was the best I'd ever tasted and the falafel was outstanding. Everything else we ate was delicious too. They were very accommodating to my gluten intolerance, which I very much appreciated. We had a table outside in a little square that was great for people watching. Really enjoyed this place.

This was the best meal we had in Granada, and one of the best of our lives. Owner was absolutely wonderful, helped us with his recommendations when we asked. We will never ever forget this place. Can't recommend eating here enough

Great reviews but just average food. Pita bread is not home made. Service and owner are nice.

Great find thanks to Yelp! Wanted to try Middle Eastern food while visiting Granada. One of our best meals in Spain. Owner was very helpful recommending dishes to share. Chicken with lemon and garlic was excellent!! Kafka with tomato sauce was good too. Limonade with mint drink was refreshing. All dishes were flavorful with just the right amount of seasoning. Quality food and very affordable. Look no further.. give it try. You won't be disappointed!

This review is loooong over due! Friends and I were visiting abroad July 2019 and I STILL THINK ABOUT THIS WONDERFUL RESTAURANT! Not only was the owner and his staff kind, but we were starving and trying to find a good restaurant that was still open. Samarkanda was closing at 11 and we had arrived around 10:30pm. Luckily, the owner let us sit and order seconds. I'm glad he did because the food was divine!! The meat literally fell off the bone as soon as you picked it up. It was truly TRULY delicious, nothing like I've ever tasted before! Please get an array of hummus (as they have various options) and do yourself a favor and order the Chicken w/ sesame sauce/caramelized apple!! I dream about this dish!! You won't regret visiting. Muchísimas gracias por la comida, eran muy amable!

Amazing food and great service! The food was very well seasoned perfectly cooked. The portions were great. Prices were super reasonable as well. The waiter was very busy with a full restaurant but was still attentive and polite. Will return if ever back in Granada!

Lamb and rice was delicious. But the chicken and sesame sauce stole the show. Great family run restaurant that's a must try if you're tired of tapas while in Granada.

Hubby wanted to eat Lebanese and Moroccan food in Granada and Samakanda is one of many restaurants in this area. This place was a short walk from our hotel and we stopped by on a whim. It was not very crowded for lunch. We wanted to order the lebanese wine but you can only order a bottle and we just wanted one glass. Hubby tried the summer wine which is wine with soda and it was good. I had hammara (vegetarian) which is red bell peppers paste with walnuts and served with thin pita bread. I was not very impressed with pita but hammara was really good. It was a change from the regular hummus appetizers I always end up ordering. The falafel balls were really good. they were big and crispy and very good flavors. Hubby had chicken in lemon garlic sauce as suggested by our server and he liked it. He wanted to order chicken pastilla not knowing how it is, but our server dissuaded us, as it is kind of sweet and he knew we would want things to be spicy rather than sweet. I ordered moroccan mint tea and it was really good. I am addicted to Moroccan mint tea now!

Excellent food !!! Well worth the wait , tried the kabab with sesame sauce and lamb tajine. Very tasty!

Best restaurant we went to on our 2 week trip. The food was phenomenal and the owner was very accommodating

Lamb in Sesame Sauce with 4 Pepper, spicy Chicken. Authentic appetizers and yum Deserts .... And Arak ...

My wife and I have been traveling through Europe for the past 2 weeks when we got to Granada. We were craving vegetables and fresh salads, and this place was perfect. The owner is very nice, but the food was amazing. We ordered a lentil soup (soo good with a hint of lemon and cumin) hummus, fattuch salad and the fish tagine in tomato broth. We couldn't stop raving about it all, and incredibly affordable. We're talking about going back tonight :)

Enjoyed the lentil soup, stuffed grape leaves, tabouleh salad, and lamb with Lebanese rice. Everything was delicious and our server was very friendly and attentive! If you want good food away from the busy street come here! Or just come here if you want good food!!!!

We tried several starters with pita breads and a tagine lemon garlic chicken. All very flavorful and delicious. The waiter speaks excellent English and was attentive and friendly. The location cannot be more convenient. We will come back.

Have to agree with a previous poster -- this is Lebanese food, not Moroccan. That being said .. excellent location in the "souk" area of Granada. The service was light on personality, but the food was heavy on flavor .. we enjoyed lunch here after a long morning of touring the Alhambra and would consider returning.

This is not a rating on the food but rather on the "customer service." My friend and I were really excited to try this place out. We entered around 9pm on Sunday and I asked the waiter (looked like the manager) if there was a table for two. He looked at my friend and I and dismissively responded that he had no tables for us. Then he proceeded to speaking with someone who had also just entered. This man didn't even ask how we were doing or inform us that the restaurant was closing in half an hour (which is likely the reason he turned us down). BUT No matter the circumstance for turning us down, he didn't have to be so rude, cold, and dismissive. I was shocked and even other customers took notice of the tension. I'm really sad I didn't get to try the food and probably write a much better review. The customer service would have been not so good though (given this poor treatment). I won't be stepping foot in there again.

This place is a hidden gem. Everything we ordered tasted perfect. Their avocado salad was so refreshing with the addition of fresh orange slices. The Kafta with potato was very creamy. We also tried their chicken with garlic and lemon which was also delicious. The prices were very reasonable. We would definitely recommend this place to everyone.

Excellent Lebanese down a quiet side street. Friendly waiter, cozy and comfy digs, not "touristed" up. We ate here both nights for our two night Granada stay, attracted initially by the vegetarian options and returning for the taste and accommodating service.

After a semi-exhausting hike to the Mirador de San Nicolas (a square at the top of a hill in Albaicín) to see the Alhambra at sunset, we navigated through a series of narrow, winding cobblestone streets (alleyways would be more apropos) in hopes of finding Samarkanda. Because the streets in this area of Granada are not clearly labeled, we trusted that Jen F.'s iPhone would lead us to the restaurant and not to a dead-end street. Although we had made quite a descent from the Mirador, Samarkanda is still situated on a hill. In all seriousness: the tables outside of the restaurant are clamped and bolted down to the ground because the grade is still fairly steep. The food is extremely well-priced Lebanese fare (with a few Moroccan classics) and some of the best that I have had in in the US or abroad (although I have not yet traveled to the Middle East). Our waiter also happened to be the owner of the restaurant and made it a point that our table and the table adjacent to us felt welcomed. After reviewing the wine list, we selected a reasonably priced Rioja from Marques de Caceres. To start, we ordered hummus and hammara. Because of the spread-like quality of both of these appetizers, we had to order pita bread (it costs 1 euro, so not expensive). We also ordered fattoush, which had some of the freshest vegetables (lettuce, tomato, purslane, mint) that I have tasted in this type of cuisine. As a main course, I ordered the maklube, which was an incredible dish that layered rice, chicken, and eggplant. The maklube was hearty and retained lots of juices and hints of allspice and cardamom. I also had a small taste of the pastilla, a traditional Moroccan meat pie. It had a hint of sweetness and cinnamon that satiated both my dinner AND dessert cravings. Although I did not try the lamb kafta, I was assured that these skewers were both flavorful and juicy. Jen F.'s tagine looked as tasty as it did aromatic. Ironically enough, this was one of the least expensive dinners that we had in Andalucia, but also one of the most enjoyable and memorable.

The best falafels I've ever had, and I've had a lot of falafels in my life. The hummus too. We wolfed it all down. Tabouleh was fabulous. Kibbeh was crispy and flavorful.

We read some great reviews elsewhere and ended up here. It opened at 7:30 and was not crowded. We ordered the dinner for 2 which came with a bottle of Lebanese wine, hummus, tabbouleh salad, grape leaf wrapped thing, kafta and the best falafel I've ever had. Never liked falafel but I liked these. Then when we thought we were done, we got very tasty meat kabob with deliciously spiced rice. Everything was so fresh and went so well together. After having lunch at the Alhambra palace terrace with the beautiful view I didn't think I'll be impressed but I was. Definitely worth the try at a very good price!

I'm not sure how it came to be that this is classified on Yelp as Moroccan because it is Lebanese food! The space itself feels very tired - the walls are decorated with tourist posters of Beirut, random masks and fake flowers, and last night, which was admittedly a cold night in Granada, this place was freezing. And unpopular- we showed up at 9:30 and it was us and another couple in a fairly large space. What we sampled here was fine - a but underseasoned especially the chicken taouck which was border line bland and a hair overcooked. Better was the rice and lentils served with grilled onions (the taouck also came with grilled onions which made for an onion heavy meal). Skip the hummus- it's too sour and too monotonous and it is serves with cold, hard pita. Dinner for two came to 27euros.

Probably our favorite meal in Spain so far. So authentic, piping boiling hot. I ordered lamb maklube and my husband ordered their traditional family recipe kofta in tomatoes. The maklube had almonds, raisins, zuchini and eggplant and maybe carrots mmmmm so good. Perfect flavors. The tabouli was so fresh with amazing flavors, just the right amount of lemon and salt seasoning. The Hamara bell pepper appetizer was so good too served with the super thin bread. Summer wine was great just like in other restaurants, they were able to serve mint tea without sugar. The best dessert was the homemade yogurt and honey...simple and delicious. If ur sick of tapas and ham and want authentic Lebanese better than anything in SF Bay Area then come here!

Loved this place!!!! Great food. After a long hot day at the Alhambra the hubby and I were looking for a delicious meal. We learned that Granada has some pretty bad tourist restaurants the first couple of days we were here (a lot of places serve microwave frozen crap) so we were being picky for a fresh meal. This place fit the bill. It is Lebanese and we loved everything we ordered. The hummus was some of the best I've ever had. My husband ordered Kafta in a sesame sauce that was sooooooo good. I got BBQ lamb which was so so so delicious. We plan to go back before we leave granada. Oh ps, I asked for some vodka in my mint lemonade and it was awesome.

This was a pretty sub-par meal and not cheap either. I should begin by stating that my partner and I have travelled extensively in the middle east, and have eaten the cuisine in the US and abroad many times. It seems to me the only way the other reviewers could have given this 5 stars is if they themselves have never tasted good, authentic Lebanese food. The lamb tagine at Samarkand was bland and tasteless - the meat was well-cooked but the rest of the vegetables were sloppy and overcooked, and the flavor was much too mild. The couscous was decent, though how hard is it to get couscous right really? The Fattoush salad was tiny and plain tasting. The Hamara was good but again, a portion so small you could barely make a sandwich of it. To top of the unimpressive food, and small portions, the prices were steep - our bill came to 40+ euros and we hadn't even had wine or desserts. The service was ok at best ... surly, and oddly suspicious of my partner who is white but spoke to them in fluent arabic (we could hear them talking about us in the other room). I would say that in a town with such a large Arab population, there's got to be somewhere better to get Middle Eastern food!