We've decided to be nice. Having teased your visual palate with the tantalising sights and imaginary tastes of Dubai's delectable cuisine, our CW Asia team takes the initiative to suss out some of the best Middle-Eastern dining establishments that you can find right here on our doostep.

Admittedly though, the initial results of our search surprised us. Although our young nation has seen a quiet, nascent development of Middle-Eastern dining establishments within the past decade (most notably Arab Street, for its casual, family-style café eateries), a dearth of upmarket restaurants offering Middle-Eastern cuisine persists. Indeed, several issues ago, *we featured two Lebanese restaurants - Al-Hamra and SanoBar, as example of the few prevailing establishment that offer fine Middle-Eastern cuisine here. Two years have passed since; the culinary scene appears to have scarcely changed, and both restaurants still seem to reign as the leading Middle-Eastern establishments in Singapore. Or are they? We take a look at one of the newest Lebanese restaurants to hit the streets this year, and an Iranian restaurant whose cuisine has drawn the likes of diners from as far as the Middle-East.

King of His Castle

Regular visitors of popular dining anclave Holland Village would have grown accustomed to the reigning presence of Al Hamra, the only establishment offering traditional Lebanese cuisine amidst a myriad of other wining and dining options. Two months ago however, the arrival of a new Lebanese cuisine restaurant disrupted that status quo. "I worked at Al Hamra for eight years as executive chef, but felt that I didn't have the option to explore things the way I wanted. So eventually I reached the stage when I said, 'Enough! I need to open my own restaurant'," says Chef Ghazi Georges Khanashat gleefully, now the executive chef-owner of Al Qasr.