Ammatoli

Though many of Southern California’s best Middle Eastern restaurants can be found in Orange County’s Little Arabia, there’s one place on the edges of Orange and Los Angeles Counties that we consider worth the extra drive: Ammatoli in Long Beach. Combining Jordanian, Syrian, Lebanese, and Palestinian influences, this stunning restaurant was deliberately placed halfway between OC and LA, so anyone in either county could access James Beard-nominated chef Dima Habibeh’s outstanding cuisine.

Over the course of perhaps a dozen visits – each meal earned individually by a prior experience – we’ve judged Ammatoli’s food and service to be consistently excellent. Although one can opt for all the meats and vegetables one might hope to find at a Middle Eastern restaurant, we frequently make entire meals of Ammatoli’s dips, such as red pepper muhammara, eggplant mutabbal, and chickpea hummus, each presented like pieces of art with intense flavors, alongside just-baked, still inflated pitas.