An Ammatoli brunch easily solidifies why it is one of the city’s most acclaimed restaurants. From James Beard Foundation accolades to a steady presence on the Los Angeles Times’ 101 Best Restaurants list, Chef Dima Habibeh’s space is now synonymous with the best of Long Beach food.
And while plates of Palestinian musakhan… Or dishes of shish barak and mloukhieh… Or mansaf and malfouf specials on the weekends have come to define the Levantine restaurant—along with their impeccable sweets from Chef Masah Habibeh, Dima’s daughter—their brunch is definitively distinct, if not wildly and wonderfully different from the onslaught of brunch-gone-decadent offerings common to Long Beach.
And now, the space has ditched bread from a local purveyor in favor of a far more appropriate bread maker: itself.
“It made no sense: Why are we serving sourdough when we have Jerusalem bagels we make in-house?” Chef Dima said. “We are a Levantine restaurant, and we want to best represent that—so that means that everything we do comes from us, by us.”
The beautiful boldness of an Ammatoli brunch.
You will find no hefty plates of mascarpone-stuffed French toast, add-bacon-on-anything option, or cheese-filled excess. (Though an ordering of knafeh is always recommended. That’s the kataifi-covered circle of heated akkawi cheese that is drizzled with rose water syrup atop it.)
Instead, you will find Chef Dima exercising her mastery of Levantine food while also being her most playful.
Surely, you can score a silver basin of fattet hummus. Garbanzo beans and toasted pita chips are melded with yogurt, tahini, and hummus. Yes, there are bowls of hummus. Some are lined with beef shawarma. Others are topped with shatta, ground green chiles.
Or bowls filled with muhammara, a roasted pepper-and-walnut dip. There’s her (rightfully) famed shakshouka. A breakfast staple throughout the Levant, tomatoes meet harissa and eggs with charred Serrano chiles.
Or her perfected foul. Pale fava beans, cooked and re-cooked for hours, mashed with garlic, lemon juice, tahini, and a heavy pour of olive oil. I like to think of them as Levantine refried beans when trying to explain them to the uninitiated.
But it’s where Chef Dima’s inspiration is drawn from her heavily Latino kitchen that the menu truly shines. It began with her staff making salsas for lunch in her kitchen, which led Chef Dima to explore with habanero chiles, creating the bright orange sauce staple served upon request…
Highlights from an Ammatoli brunch.
Need more visual cues? Fear not: Here are some personal faves from an Ammatoli brunch spread.
Shakshouka ($28): Poached eggs | Tomato stew | Onions | Peppers | Garlic | Jurusalem bagel
Fattet Jaj ($28): Chicken | Rice | Toasted pita bread | Garlic yogurt sauce | Toasted almonds | Pomegranate seeds
Smoked salmon and za’atar ($9): Puff pastry | Smoked salmon | Za’atar | Labneh | Dill
Fattet hummus ($26): Hummus | Garbanzo beans | Toasted pita | Yogurt-tahini sauce | Parsley | Pomegranate seeds | Toasted almonds
Bayd & battata ($18): Scrambled eggs | Potato | Add Sojuk $4 | Add cheese or avocado $3
Manoushe ($15 to $16): Your choice of: Za’atar | Meat | Jibne | Falafel
How to explore the mezza at Ammatoli for brunch…
Mezza are simply small plates—but they can be overwhelming for those who are indecisive or uninitiated. Here are some personal faves to help guide you.
Not pictured amongst favorites: beet labne; spicy hummus; grape leaves.
Hummus topped with shawarma ($20): With beef shawarma | Pine nuts
Mutabbal ($14): Fire roasted eggplant | Tahini | Toom | Extra virgin olive oil
Muhammara ($16): Roasted peppers | Walnuts | Tahini | Pomegranate molasses | Extra virgin olive oil
Foul Mudammas ($14): Fava beans | Toom | Tahini | Tomato | Parsley | Extra virgin olive oil
- Kibbeh ($16): Bulgur wheat balls stuffed with ground beef | Onions | Walnuts
- Spinach Kibbeh ($16): Bulgur wheat balls stuffed with spinach | Onions | Berberis
The importance of Ammatoli in our expanding food scene.
When Ammatoli first opened in 2018, things were not easy: A fast-casual space where people didn’t understand the difference between Levantine and Greek food, where Chef Dima had to appease American audiences by using the sub-header “Mediterranean bites” under the restaurant’s namesake, one can find the lauded chef becoming teary-eyed when reflecting back on her initial days.
“There were days when we weren’t sure if we could pay our staff, let alone pay off the loans we took out for the space,” Chef Dima said. “But I had a dream.”
The dream is, at least aesthetically, the opposite of what Ammatoli first was. Gone are the TV screens as menus and the walk-up counter. In are two expansions—first toward the east back in 2022 and then, most recently, the “hayati” room (حياتي), or “my life” in Arabic, toward the west—that have definitively redefined the space. A continual expansion of her menu and the replacement of Mediterranean terms with strictly Arabic ones, dismissing the American tendency to lump familiarity in exchange for correctness.
And the stories—like a man from Qatar with watery eyes as he ate a plate of Palestinian musakhan, pulling Chef Dima aside to tell her that it was a dish he shared deeply with his father—remain. He hadn’t eaten it since his father’s passing, bringing a surge of both comfort and memories. Or the many millionaires who have offered to help her expand her concept to other locations, but she refused because “Ammatoli is for Long Beach and Long Beach alone.” Or one Jordanian saying Chef Dima’s beef shawarma was the only one comparable to his favorite in Amman’s Fifth Circle.
It is a gem from a woman who fiercely fought for her dream—and we, Long Beach, reap the benefits.
Ammatoli is located at 285 E. 3rd St.
Editor’s note: This article was originally published on April 21, 2025. It has been since updated to reflect menu changes.
