Rehan Lebanese Cuisine

Rehan is the Kempinski Ishtar's classical Lebanese restaurant and the benchmark for Lebanese cooking on the Dead Sea. The brigade is Beirut-trained and the mezze programme — fifty cold and hot plates rotating seasonally — is the deepest in Jordan outside Amman. The restaurant is the default choice for the classical Lebanese evening that anchors most Dead Sea stays.

The room is a stone-and-textile hall with high ceilings, brass lanterns, and a wall of arched windows facing the Dead Sea. Tables seat four to eight and two private areas accommodate groups of twelve. The cooking is uncompromising: hummus with Jordanian olive oil, tabbouleh with parsley cut fine as rain, warak enab hand-rolled at the pass, fattoush with the bread toasted to shatter-crisp, and the full grilled-meat and fish service as mains — shish tawook, kafta halabiya, grilled sea bass with tahini.

The wine list runs Lebanon's full canon (Château Musar 1994 through 2021, Ixsir, Massaya, Kefraya, Château Marsyas) and a strong Jordanian sleeve (Saint George, JR). Arak service — the Lebanese anise spirit — is available by the bottle or carafe with the traditional small glasses and ice.

Dinner service runs long — a proper mezze evening at Rehan is three hours. The private dining rooms hold twelve, which has made Rehan the default venue for delegations, conference closing dinners, and diplomatic entertaining on the Dead Sea. Dress is smart-casual; the brigade is ceremonial without being stiff.

Rehan is the Dead Sea's business-dinner room when the signal the host wants is 'Levantine gravitas' rather than 'Wagyu spectacle'. The private dining rooms — twelve seats each, sound-separated from the main hall — are the booked choice for delegations and deal-closing dinners. For team dinners of eight or more, the wraparound horseshoe banquettes along the window wall are the request.