A note on the words: hummus is a paste of chickpeas and sesame, muhammara a Syrian paste of red pepper and walnut, mutabbal a paste of roasted eggplant, falafel deep-fried balls of chickpea and herbs, and tabbouleh a salad of parsley, cracked wheat and tomato. Aish is the flatbread of Egypt. A tagine is both the conical clay pot and what is stewed in it. Kadayif is the fine shredded pastry used across the eastern Mediterranean. Prices are as of this writing (August 2026).
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CARVAAN TOKYO on Tabelog (English) — opening hours, payment details and the Japanese address are kept up to date there, not here.
Right, this is Hangover Meshi. This time, to Shibuya Scramble Square! On a day off it is of course extremely crowded, to the point where the escalators form something of a line. Floors one to three or four are packed, but once you go higher than that it eases up a certain amount ^^ And this time it is “CARVAAN TOKYO,” the Arabian restaurant on the twelfth floor of that same Scramble Square! Looking at the interior it seemed rather stylish. And since I do not often eat Arabian food, I was very much looking forward to it!
Get to the shop and the atmosphere is thoroughly Arabian lol
In front of it is an observation space where large windows look out over the streets of Shibuya, with plenty of people taking in the view.
Tagine course 8,800 yen
There seemed to be course menus as well, but since it is Arabian food and one does not get the chance often, I decided on the style of firing off orders for whatever looked good at a glance. The range of beers was unexpectedly wide ^^
Beer first!
The Carvaan Belgian White, made with Egyptian coriander seed and yuzu from Hanno!
The pattern of ordering the beer that bears the shop’s name, at least once ^^ It is good, and there seems to be a fair amount of it.
And then, ordered straight away, the Arabian plate!
Hummus, the chickpea paste, and muhammara, the Syrian paste of red pepper and walnut. Mutabbal is a paste of herbs and roasted eggplant, and falafel is chickpeas and herbs deep-fried without batter. Tabbouleh is the standard salad made with parsley, cracked bulgur wheat and tomato. And you are meant to wrap them in the aish, the Arabian bread lying stretched out alongside.
You can order more aish, but we wanted to eat a fair range of things, so we split one between us.
Yes — seasoning of a sort I have not really eaten in Japan, and extremely good.
Moussaka! This one I have heard of. I had imagined something like a lasagna made with eggplant lol
It is apparently a Greek dish, and the real thing seems to be layers of ground lamb with eggplant and seasonal vegetables. The home-country version is the healthier-feeling one ^^
Eat it and the seasoning is superb! It does feel close to lasagna in character, and the ground lamb and the meltingly soft eggplant go together beautifully.
A slightly stronger beer.
The Carvaan Tripel, was it. Or was it a different one ^^;
This looked Arabian too, so I ordered it.
You can choose between 8 pieces and 12; well, 8 it is. Two of each!
- Adana kebab topped with balls of ground beef and lamb
- Chicken shish kebab
- Swordfish kebab
- Shrimp kebab scented with harissa
Kebab apparently means something grilled.
There is a crisp cracker-like thing laid underneath, which makes it splendidly easy to pick up and eat.
This spicing is irresistible! It goes extremely well with beer.
I want a tagine too! — so I added the white fish tagine.
Lovely smell! An extremely spicy aroma drifts up and it looks wonderful!
It is white fish and mushrooms, and one mouthful tastes like a mellow curry. Well, it is spices, so that follows ^^ I imagine the vegetables go in afterward, because they have not gone limp, and they are good. The white fish keeps it clean, so it goes down easily. Arabian food is extremely good, is it not!
For dessert, the Arabian cheesecake lol
It is apparently rich cream cheese combined with Egyptian dates, whose elegant sweetness is something like brown sugar.
The threads on top are apparently kadayif, and the crisp texture is a nice touch.
An Arabian coffee to finish ^^
Full, and thoroughly satisfied!
It felt like extremely authentic Arabian food! To be able to eat this in the dead center of Shibuya — Japan is wonderful lol
There were plenty of other things I wanted to eat, so perhaps I shall come again. Incidentally, about half the customers seemed to be people of Arabic background from abroad, so perhaps it is loved by people from there as well! The atmosphere is good too, and it is probably crowded on days off, but I recommend it.
CARVAAN TOKYO (Cafe / Shibuya Station, Shinsen Station)
Tabelog dinner rating ★★★☆☆ 3.7
I ate here and paid for it myself. Nothing on this site is a comped meal.
One more for the road?
