“Starters launched by force,” Jordanian-Lebanese chef Raed Bader laughed. This past January, the Lebanese restaurant in Maadi was still in its soft opening when influencers and curious customers descended upon his white cubicle looking for the Vine Leaves Bowl—one third tabboule, one third hummus and one third waraq einab, with a piece of kibbeh to top it off.

“How do you know about it?” Chef Bader asked the customers. He found out that a young woman named Farah had posted a video of Starters on TikTok, which was racking up thousands of views. Chef Bader gave her a 25% discount for life. While Starters do serve typical Lebanese spreads for a giant crowd of people, they specialise in smaller bowls for those who just want a little Levantine taste to themselves. Chef Bader and his co-chef Mohammed can simultneously make bowls and wraps to go, and fill the white plastic table tops with classic Lebanese mezze—tabboule, vine leaves, batata harra, hummus, muttabal and muhamara. They can craft creamy fatteh with crunchy pita, roasted cashews and tahina that doesn’t weigh you down. And they can even make it vegan.

Starters is named for the small plates it serves, but also for the young lives it kickstarts. Chef Bader is training young Egyptians like Mohammed in culinary practice and business ownership, so that one day he can run the restaurant himself. This is the first Starters branch of, as he said, “Inshallah 30."
“I will teach 30 young Egyptian men and women everything they need to know to open their own restaurant and start their life,” Chef Bader said. He and his first ‘starter’ Mohammed work side-by-side in an open kitchen. “Everybody is welcome to enter anytime,” Chef Bader said as he opened the door to a small kitchen already visible through the window. Mohammed chopped fresh parsley next to him. “I want customers to see the hygiene and fresh ingredients themselves. Future kitchens will be even more open.”

“People come for the clean food, but they also come for the interaction,” Chef Bader said. Starters has quickly become a neighborhood institution, for Maadi residents and Maadi animals alike—birds, dogs and up to 40 cats at a time.Once in the morning and once in the evening, Chef Bader scoops food out of a can with a gloved hand. Cats like Captain Jack, Batata, and the inseparable Titanic-inspired duo Jack and Rose never miss a meal. Especially not Suka, who sprints across Maadi’s 202 Street and toward Chef Bader’s open hand despite a missing left paw.

“Suka is originally from Shobra,” Chef Bader said, leaning down to feed her an extra bite. “Part of our profits go toward the animals. We feed, vaccinate and sterilise them.”

Starters may be built around mezze and small plates, but much of its identity comes from what happens around the food itself: the mentorship in the kitchen, the regulars filtering in and out of the tiny space, and the cats already waiting outside before sunset.