Abdul started his venture from scratch
Abdul Al Lokla, owner of Babylon Mediterranean and Middle Eastern restaurant(Image: Liverpool Echo)
A man fled a warzone and started a successful restaurant from scratch. Abdul Al Lokla runs the Babylon restaurant in Bebington, which specialises in Mediterranean and Middle Eastern cuisine.
The space, located on Old Chester Road, has been delighting locals since it opened in November last year. It has received many positive reviews and regularly entertains customers with DJs and belly dancers.
It’s been a massive journey for Abdul, who lives in Toxteth. He was born in Syria, where in 2011 a brutal civil war began. Hundreds of thousands have been killed during the conflict since.
Abdul fled his home country as a teenager in search of a better life. Speaking to the ECHO, he said: “I left Syria in 2012 because of the war. Then I moved to Lebanon. I stayed there from 2012 to 2017.
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“In 2017, I just applied for a visa to move to the UK. We got lots of support here from the beginning. Up to now, everything has been good, everything has been amazing. We’re really happy. I really appreciate this country, what they did for us.”
Abdul lived in Warrington for a time before moving to Liverpool. He had two sisters studying at Liverpool John Moores University at the time. Abdul became a student himself last September, studying software engineering at the University of Bolton. However, during his degree, a friend of his came up with an idea.
Abdul Laokla opened Babylon last year(Image: Liverpool Echo)
Abdul said: “To be honest, I didn’t have any idea about food when I moved here, but I just started working in takeaways. Then I moved to a restaurant, and I used to work with one of my friends in the restaurant. Last year when I was in university, I was talking with the friend who said, ‘we should open a restaurant because we’ve got experience, we just need to find a good place and we start from there.’”
His friend knew the landlord of an empty space on Old Chester Road but one or two previously restaurants had been opened in the same place but they shut down very quickly. Nevertheless, Abdul and his friend took a chance, opened Babylon last November and kept working at it, even though they had to make sacrifices along the way.
Abdul tries to make sure “everything is perfect” for customers(Image: Liverpool Echo)
He said: “To be honest, I was struggling to balance it with my studies in the beginning, but I just did the first semester. The second semester I didn’t go. Soon, when the business gets stable, I’ll go back.”
Furthermore, for a long spell Babylon didn’t make any profit. Abdul only began making money from the restaurant last month. He puts this success down to his attention to detail. He said: “I like cooking food. I really enjoy adding spices, new tastes, new flavours, and we always try something new. That’s why it’s something we enjoy.
“I’m always there. We always make sure everything’s nice, with fresh plates and the design of the food. We think everything should be perfect. That’s why we are always there. The customers, they’re really happy about that because we check everything in there.”
Abdul is delighted at what he has achieved since moving away from his home as a teenager. He said: “I’m very happy at the moment. I feel like I’ve done something with my life. We started this from scratch and now we’ve just started making a profit.” Babylon is located at 181 Old Chester Road in Bebington.