I know little about Middle Eastern food, having only eaten it on a few occasions.

Deciding I should learn more, and seeing as the restaurant was part of a discount scheme I had recently signed up for, I headed down to Karaam for what I hoped would be a pleasant end to the weekend.

Things didn’t go entirely to plan at first. We were supposed to book in advance if we wanted to benefit from my new Tastecard’s two for one offer. But Mo, our friendly waiter, let us off this time.

Scanning the menu I let my girlfriend choose while she had the rare experience of me agreeing with everything she said - being half-Palestinian, I figured she would know best.

And she did, selecting a meze of starters rather than any mains.

We had warak inab (vine leaves stuffed with rice, tomato, onion, parsley and spices) at £4, muhamarah (crushed nuts mixed with red peppers, chilli and olive oil) for £5.50, tabouleh (parsley salad with crushed wheat, tomato, mint, onion, lemon juice and olive oil) at £4.25, kibbeh maklieh (crushed wheat paste stuffed with minced lamb and onion) for £4.50, sojok (Armenian beef sausages with hot spices and garlic) at £4.75 and arayes (minced veal with parsley grilled in Lebanese bread) at £4.50.

It was a real variety of tastes and textures which all added up to a lovely meal, and a real pleasure to enjoy something different with every mouthful. The taboluleh worked well as a palate cleanser as well as being a treat itself. The heat was just right, the meat was satisfying without being too heavy and the parsley was cool and refreshing.

We washed it all down with a glass of house wine each, red for me at £3.90 and white for my girlfriend, costing £3.95. It all came to £35.35.

The only disappointment was that only certain dishes were part of the offer (the warak inab and tabouleh in our case).

As we wanted a variety of dishes, we decided to forgo the deal, which didn’t really work for us and is probably better for those sharing main courses.

The restaurant's décor is basic and pleasant and had nice touches like attractively designed chairs and pictures of Lebabanon on the walls.

It was busy for a Sunday night and with the quality of the food (as good as any central London Lebanese restaurant according to my girlfriend) and excellent service, thanks to Mo, I could see why.

I’ll definitely be back to Karaam and think I’m going to get much more familiar with Middle Eastern food.