The eye-popping Bab Haus has scored a spot in a prestigious food guide
06:04, 05 Dec 2025Updated 11:08, 06 Dec 2025
Bab Haus’s Beef birria bun(Image: Leyli Homayoonfar)
Described as a “must try” and serving up “exciting flavours” one of Wales’ newest inclusions in the well-regarded food guide, Harden’s, is a market stall in Newport. A market stall with a difference as Bab Haus Mex blends Mexican food with Iranian thanks to the richly foodi-centric background of the brains behind the operation, former Waitrose Cookery School boss, Leyli Homayoonfar from Fairwater in Cardiff.
The business’ backstory is just as colourful as the wonderful dishes it presents – think birria beef buns or tacos oozing with meaty, cheesy goodness.
Leyli has been named one of the 100 most influential women in hospitality in the UK and was tempted home to Wales from London by her “pain” of a brother.
He saw an opportunity in the changing food scene to feed the Welsh food-lovers with her colourful Mexican BBQ. You can currently get the Bab Haus creations at a food stall in Newport as well as at Goodsheds, Barry and Ffos Caerffili.
You can read Leyli’s full interview with us here. For the latest restaurant news and reviews, sign up to our food and drink newsletter here
Harden’s Best Restaurants in the UK 2026 Guide names Bab Haus in the indoor market at Newport as one of the new entries to try this next year.
Its full entry reads: “This is a must-try” – an “all-girl crew” led by Cardiff -born Leyli Homayoonfar conjures up “an interesting twist on Mexican food with Iranian influences” (billed as ‘Fire, Food, Fusion’) in Newport’s impressive Victorian covered market, now a food hall. The exciting flavours are also available at outlets in Caerphilly and Barry.”
Hello tacos!(Image: Leyli Homayoonfar)
As well as the Harden’s rating, Bab Haus’s loyal customers aren’t shy in showing their support for the smoked-meat-maestros. social posts of their beef birria tacos regularly get comments like “simply the best food you will ever eat,” and “one best things I have ever eaten.”
Leyli has built up a range of cooking techniques, spanning the globe from Iran to Mexico and the southern state of the US, by putting in years of graft in high profile kitchens both in Wales and London.
Speaking to WalesOnline back in 2021, Leyli explained that her initial interest in global cuisine came from her childhood.
“My brother said the food scene here was completely changing,” she said. “All of the chains were starting to go out of fashion and he was hounding me all the time to come back home. I have to give a lot of credit to him because he was such a pain!”
Now TV-famous Bab Haus’s popularity has seen Leyli recently appear on BBC’s Saturday Kitchen and the stall also got a shout out on popular podcast, Off Menu with James Acaster and Ed Gamble after Welsh comic Rhys James said the tacos were the: “best thing he’d ever tasted in my life.”
But going back to the beginning the chef previously told us where her love of food first started and it’s her upbringing that laid the foundations for the absolutely banging food she creates now.
“The combination of the two cultures is what created this,” she said. “Both of my grandmothers were amazing home cooks and they passed this onto my parents. We were a foodie family and every night we had amazing home cooked meals. The only time we ever had fish fingers and chips was when my friends came around and they were put off by the weird food we used to eat!”
Bab Haus Mex joins a host of Welsh restaurants appearing in the guide, including five in Harden’s top 100 for 2026 – read the full list, here.