I pass next to this place almost every night yet I never thought about trying it out until last week. The place is called “3al Baladi” and is located in Jeita right before Frulatte and Starbucks.

The place is a wooden house with wooden chairs and is decorated with some old tools used in fields and in Lebanese villages. Some walls and lights are also covered with lamb skins which I did not like.

Moving on to the food, this place serves authentic Lebanese dishes and I liked almost everything that I ordered. Fattoush was really good, Cheese Chanklish and Labne were great, and their Saj was also decent. Added to that, they serve Arak Baladé, which is stronger and better than the regular Arak and is rare to find in restaurants.

The best thing about this place though is that it’s located in Jeita, which is 5-10 minutes from the highway. I used to drive all the way to Ajaltoun or Faraya to go to similar restaurants (such as Erzel), so it’s good to have a place this close specially in winter.

Price-wise, the restaurant is really cheap and its portions are relatively big. For instance, Arak comes in a full glass not a small shot glass and their Fattoush platter can feed up to 4 people.

One last thing, they have singers and entertainers on Friday and Saturday nights, so if you don’t like a crowded place full of arguiles, go on week days or Sundays.

I finally went to see Nadine Labaki’s movie yesterday and I absolutely loved it!

It is by far the best movie I’ve seen this year and the best Lebanese movie ever produced. The characters, the plot, the music, the locations chosen, everything was just perfect!

There are a lot of funny scenes despite the drama involved, and I felt the movie was short despite being 110 minutes long.

Nevertheless, there are two things I did not appreciate in the movie:

- All men are portrayed as being irrational and impulsive and sometimes dumb while all women are wise and intelligent and can easily manipulate and trick their men.

- Lebanese Muslim & Christian women, living in distant villages, will NEVER go down to the city to bring back Ukrainian strippers/hookers to keep their husbands and the villages’ men entertained.

Still, those are minor details when we look at the whole movie which is simply brilliant!

I highly recommend it to all and I will definitely be watching it a second time soon.

PS: The movie scored a well deserved 7.4 on imdb and there are some nice reviews which you can read [Here].

One of my favorites places to eat while I’m in Lebanon is Mother. It’s a small restaurant located in the old souk of Byblos and I actually first found out about them after reading about them in the New York Times.

It’s not just one thing about the place thats good but it’s a combination of many things. First they have a pretty good variety of dishes on their menu without it being huge. It’s also the kind of menu where if you shut your eyes and randomly pointed at a dish you couldn’t go wrong with. They also have this amazing goat cheese salad which is by far one of the best salads I’ve ever had anywhere. For the main course depending what day of the week you visit they usually have a special being grilled. I always end up with a steak cooked either medium or medium well depending on if anyone is going to be sharing with me.

What sets them apart from all the other places in the old souk is the service. The waiters and waitresses are knowledgeable, friendly and the best I’ve had in Byblos. Price wise they’re not cheap but they’re also not over priced. Appetizers are generally under 20,000LL while main courses are around 35,000-60,000LL. They supposedly have the most incredible Tiramisu as well but since I hate Tiramisu I never got to try it. It’s a good place to take visitors and tourists but if you’re going to pass by on a weekend it’s probably a good idea to reserve a table since they do get pretty busy. For more information you can check out their Facebook page [Here]

I love burgers and I love apple pies which is why I was excited to pass by Cow & Apple in Hamra today. It wasn’t hard finding the place since they’re located right in front of Crepaway so I didn’t get lost although I was expecting to. The place is located inside the entrance of a building and it’s pretty spacious with a bit of a school cafeteria meets burger joint look going for it. I thought the benches were pretty tight and claustrophobic but I really liked their lights and the menu scribbled on the kitchen window.

I got the menu and went through it and kinda got lost so I asked the waiter which burger was popular and he told me the #5 which included cheese, mayo, grilled onions, home made bbq sauce, lettuce, mustard and a 250 gram beef patty. He asked me if I wanted it cooked medium or well done, I chose medium.

The burger took around 15 to 20 minutes to arrive and I thought the presentation was good. The bun looked delicious and the patty was pretty thick so I couldn’t wait to devour it. I took my first bite and realized my burger was more well done than medium which was disappointing. Why do places bother to ask you how you want your burger if they’re going to cook it their way? The bun as I had assumed was really good, it managed to soak up the bbq and mayo/mustard sauce without getting soaked and it also had a slightly sweet flavor to it. The beef patty definitely wasn’t as good as Brgr Co nor as juicy but it was better than the very think patty I had at CBJ two days back.

Now there is a slight twist with the ending since I ran into a bit of an issue with my burger. I was around 80% through my burger when I spotted what looked like a small hair. I decided to pull it out with my fork when I realized the small hair was actually not that small so I called the waiter and the manager came as well. They apologized and offered to make me another burger but I told them not to since I already had eaten practically all of it and I was pretty full. They told me then they wouldn’t charge me for it which I also refused since mistakes do happen and an apology was all I needed. They then insisted dessert would be on the house which I thought was ok since I wanted to try their apple pie anyway. I kinda felt bad for them since from all the people that could have gotten a hair in the burger it had to be me while I’m on my burger quest!

Over all though I was kinda disappointed and not because I found a hair in my burger but because I was expecting their burger to be better than this. If you’re in the neighborhood it’s not a bad burger to have but it’s not one I would crave or one that’s worth getting stuck in traffic for. One thing I think local burger joints should invest in is a good meat thermometer. Seriously if you can’t get that right then you should really hire a new cook.

I tried Lebanese Brew awhile ago and I didn’t like it. If you’re a fan of Laziza you’ll probably like this. Personally, I’m sticking to my Almaza.

As I previously mentioned I’m going to be reviewing all the burger places while I am here in Lebanon on my vacation. I know other blogs have already reviewed most of the burger places here but I believe I bring a different view and that is one of a true burger lover.

I decided to pass by and try Classic Burger Joint today after reading a lot of positive feedback. I figured I would start with the favorite to set the bar for the rest but after trying Classic Burger Joint I don’t think I am going to do that.

I went to the new CBJ branch that opened up in downtown Beirut. The menu isn’t big, it’s got a few burgers, 2 desserts, 2 salads and that’s basically it. You can’t choose the thickness of the patty and when I placed my order the waiter didn’t even ask me how I wanted my burger. So far not a good sign. I decided to go with the Classic Cheese which according to the waiter is their most popular burger and I honestly have no idea why.

When the burger arrived I couldn’t see the beef patty. The bun was just too big and the patty was very thin. I read gourmet on the menu and I read authentic but the burger I had was nothing close. The patty tasted frozen and was very dry while the bun was just too big and overpowered the whole burger. The burger actually reminded me of the Crepaway and Roadster burgers which isn’t a good thing.

Overall I was really disappointed since I had high hopes and now not sure what to expect with the other burger places. The waiter asked me what I thought of my burger and I told him, I also left my feedback on their comments card so hopefully they’ll do something about it. Not a good start to my best burger in Lebanon hunt.

Every time my brother or my cousins from the States are here on vacation, we have to go have lunch at least once at Manarit el Khalij in Maameltein. The place has been there for years and is consistently good and generous. It has been redecorated and renovated few times and looks as if it’s brand new everytime we go there. It also has a great view of the Mediterranean and the Jounieh bay.

We are first greeted with a large bowl of iced almonds along with some carrots and crackers. Very few places still get you the iced almonds bowl even though they are great.

Afterwards, we are served each a large sliced piece of tomato with sumac (سمّاق) on top and you can add to it garlic and even Arak.

Then we are asked whether we want fish or Machawi. If you choose fish, you have the option to pick the fish by yourself and whether you want it as grilled or fried. They usually have Sultan Ibrahim, Lo2oss and Mallifa among others.

Aside from the main platters, you get to choose from a large variety of cold and hot dishes, basically the regular Lebanese mezza. Portions are relatively big and are all good. Added to that and while you are eating, a waiter with a large basket of hot bread visits the table every 15-20 minutes.

The service is quick and impeccable and the manager is always around to see if there’s any complaint. Once done with the food, you are given rolled hot towels to take out the fish smell.

After the table is cleared, Turkish coffee is served for free for those who want to and dessert is also on the house. You’d think it’s a small dessert but it consists of over 6 types of fruits, Ghandour Biscuits with “Ra7a” and Achta w Assal.

Price-wise, you pay between 30 and 40$ per person alcohol included which I find is very reasonable.

After Chahe posted his Margherita review I decided to pass by and try it out. I’m a huge pizza fan and love the fact we have a lot of good pizza in Lebanon so I was curious to see how Margherita compared with the rest. Location isn’t Margherita’s strong point, I mean it’s located on the main Gemmayze street which is great except for the fact parking is impossible to find both during the day and night. I ended up going there for lunch but still had to park on another street and a few blocks down. Luckily the weather was great so I didn’t mind walking.

I loved the interior of the place. When you first walk in you have a large bar on the left side of the shop with a pizza oven at the end, on the right hand side you have three tall square tables with two bar stools each. At the end of this room are a few steps that take you into another large squarish room that is filled with regular tables and chairs. Because the restaurant isn’t that big the tables are pretty close together which is fine but like Chahe mentioned, smoking is allowed inside the restaurant and if you’re not a smoker it would be extremely annoying sitting that close to someone that’s smoking. There were maybe only two tables occupied but I decided I would rather sit on the tall square tables opposite the pizza oven since I would have more natural daylight to light up my shots.

I ordered a bottle of ice cold Corona, a large bottle of water, an argula with mushroom and balsamic salad for starters and a mushroom pizza with ham for my main course. The waiter was very friendly and social. We asked him a bunch of questions about the place and he never seemed annoyed or unhelpful, if anything he was actually very entertaining. I had to ask him if they had ketchup which I know is a sin to put on a pizza but I love ketchup on pizza. Of course they didn’t allow ketchup which was a bit disappointing but at least it made me feel the place was trying to be authentic. The owner it turns out is Italian which again adds more authenticity to the place.

Once the food arrived I quickly dug in. The salad was great although truthfully it’s a simple salad and very hard to get wrong. The pizza was good but I thought there was too much ham which overpowered all the other flavors. If I was to base my review on that pizza alone I would say it was fairly decent but that wouldn’t be fair since they might have better pizzas. Personally I would go back there again and order the same pizza next time but without the ham and more mushrooms. I had a positive experience overall it’s just that I was expecting my pizza to be better so might update this post in the future once I go back and try something else. My bill came out to be around $28.

Margherita is a pizzeria located in the middle of Gemmayze. Since it’s close to where I work, I eat there with some colleagues on a regular basis. I’ve tried enough pizza places in restaurant and I have to admit the pizzas in this place are amazing! I usually order a Pizza Diavola, which comes with tomato sauce, cheese, and spicy salami. It’s sooooooo good! I always start by eating really really fast, but slow down when I get to the final two pieces and secretly wish that one of my colleagues won’t be able to finish his / her food so that I can have some :) lame, i know.

One cool thing about this restaurant is the fact that they give you the opportunity to eat for free. The waiter asks you to pick a number between 1 & 90. He then mixes a container (see below) and pulls out a number, if you guessed correctly, the bill is on the house.

I had dinner the other night with a friend and for whatever reason, he picked the number 65 in the end, and we ate for free!

I asked the waiter what number was most commonly picked, he said guys usually go for 69, girls are more random. I then figured out why he chose 65… Initially he wanted to say 69, but switched to 65 in half sentence

Positives:
- Great food
- Opportunity to eat for free
- Location, right in the middle of Gemmayze

Negatives:
- The place is a bit tight
- Does not accept reservations
- Smokey as hell! While you are eating your food, people from other tables, which happen to be 10 centimeters away, start blowing smoke in your face
- You kinda smell like an oven / ashtray when you leave the place

They recently updated their menus and have a couple of blank pages for customers to leave comments.

Tsunami is a Sushi place in Achrafieh that I visited 2 or 3 years back and liked it. I never went back there again since it was impossible to find a parking spot and I hate giving my car to valet.

Nevertheless, I found out by mistake that it had opened near O&C, on the Jal el Dib highway, so I thought I would give it a try. I called and reserved and went there on a Saturday late in the afternoon.

The place looked nice from the inside but it was tiny. Everything was small, the chairs, the tables, the empty spaces between the tables, even the sushi once we ordered them.

The food was ok but portions were tiny and it took a lot of time to get to us. The menu was very varied and there were lots of specialties worth trying. Some of the things I tried was their authentic women’s mistake salmon-based and some banana wrapped makis which were delicious.

However I was still annoyed by how small and uncomfortable the place was. It reminded me of Torinos pub in Gemmayze on a Saturday night.

Overall, I would rather order take out instead of going there again to be honest because of the claustrophobic feel.

Here’s a link to their website. [sushitsunami.com]

Whenever I am in Lebanon I like going up towards Faraya and having lunch at Al Arzal. The past few times I’ve been there though the food wasn’t as good and the fact that they don’t have tabbouleh which I’ve suddenly fallen in love with after 30 years of hating it meant I needed to find a new place. I wanted to try Al Balad in Faqra but they close during the winter so we decided to find a new place. After asking some friends we were pointed towards a place called Jalsat in Mayrouba. When we got there it turned out to be a place that serves burgers and sandwiches, a place which actually would be cool to pass by after a day of skiing but not a place we felt like having our Sunday lunch. So we headed towards our “Plan B”, a place called Mat3am Al Mawasem. Supposedly the place had amazing food but when we got there we were turned off by the very plain and boring interior seating area. It was basically a large hall with white marble floor and cream colored walls filled with white plastic tables and chairs. They might have good food but with no view and a boring interior we decided to pass on this place. Finally we headed to another place that was also in Mayrouba called Cave Al Siwan.

The restaurant is located next to a small river stream and looked like a large stone hut. We spoke to the guy at the door and he told us they didn’t have any room inside but they had room in the “maghara” which was across the street on a ground floor of an apartment building. I figured since the place was very popular and since they couldn’t expand the restaurant due to the way its built and located, they just purchased the floor across the street and turned it into a disconnected extension. After a bit of “na7na jayeen awal mara oo 7abeen na3od jouwa” nagging the guy magically found us a free table to sit at.

Once I walked into the place I just loved it. The walls and ceiling were covered in stone with goat skin hung up randomly on the walls. It just looked very weird and I wanted something that was weird and out of the ordinary. Our table had a basic mezza laid out before we even sat down, thats because you pay per person and you eat everything they have. As soon as we sat down and started eating they started adding more and more items to the table like raw meat, hot french fries, tabbouleh, fattoosh, makanek, stomachs, pigeon eggs, shrimps and more and they kept adding stuff without removing any dishes so you ended up with plates piled up on top of other plates and you just ended up with a table literally covered with layers of delicious food. We gave our waiter a LL20,000 tip to hook us up and I ended up getting a bucket of ice filled with Almaza beer compared to the single bottle I was getting before the tip. It was just amazing, over-indulgence at its best.

[YouTube]

I am really not a fan of Arabic music, I actually hate it but the stuff they were playing was different from the usual and I found it actually pretty weird, I swear if you watch the video above which I recorded it sounds like an Arabized version of the Trololo song. People were really kicking it and it was like 2PM in the afternoon! That combination of darkness because there were no windows and the unlimited supply of Arak probably had something to do with that.

The food was pretty good. I thought the tabbouleh had too much na3na3 (mint) but that was actually my only complaint. Price wise it was around $30 per person. I am not sure if that’s a lot or normal since I don’t live in Lebanon but for the amount of food and the atmosphere I thought that was very reasonable. Finding the place isn’t that hard, if you’re on the road to Faraya, once you see the Mayrouba sign take a left and head into Mayrouba, you should then start spotting signs taking you to Cave Al Siwan. In the gallery below you should find a map that was on the back of their business card plus a phone number. I would highly recommend you reserve before you get there.

Would I go back again? Yes I would since I had a great time and I loved everything about the place. Keep in mind though that I was under the heavy influence of alcohol that day and so my judgement could have been affected.

I had mentioned in my Valentine post that I had dinner at Stove Restaurant and Terrace in Monot. Stove is a restaurant specialized in French cuisine that has opened recently in a beautifully renovated old Lebanese house facing Palais (previously Crystal & Circus).

We sat inside since it’s winter season now and the terrace is not yet open. We were given the wine list menu at first and it was a huge list, mainly containing wine bottles from France and some local ones, with the least expensive one costing around 40$. The inconvenience here, mainly when you’re a couple and one person doesn’t drink much, was that we only had three types of wines to choose from per glass while we had to order the whole bottle otherwise. We ended up ordering two glasses of a white whine from Bourgogne which turned out to be very good.

As for the food, we checked out the menu and it was quite difficult to understand so we asked the waiter for some help and she was very helpful.

We finally settled on ordering marinated salmon and snails with mushrooms as appetizers. Both were really good but the portion sizes were small. Moving on to the main dishes, my gf ordered caramlized pork ribs with pommes fruit (apple) while I had an entrecote with steamed vegetables. The caramelized pork ribs were awesome and my gf could barely finish her platter. The entrecote was as good and very filling as well.

Last but not least, we ordered for dessert pain perdu and a chocolate cake. Chocolate cake was not bad but the pain perdu was so freaking yummy and had lots of rhum which is how i like it, and was almost as good as the one I had at Eau de vie once. Too bad though that they did not have any chocolate fondu on the menu, pretty weird for a french restaurant not to have this.

In all, this is a great place to go for a certain occasion, specially Valentine or a special occasion, as the place is relaxing and calm. However the meals are very sophisticated and the prices relatively high. If you order a decent bottle of wine, two appetizers, two main dishes and dessert, you will end up paying at least 60$ per person.

For those who like cote de boeuf, there are two dishes that you can order for 2 or 4 people if I recall well, each costing over 100$.

If you want to visit Stove, it is recommended that you call and reserve in advance as it is apparently always packed. [Contact Stove]

Let me start by saying that if everyone treated their customers’ complaints the way Mr.Mario Haddad did, then the quality of restaurants in the country as well as customer loyalty will rise significantly. As some of you might have recalled, i had a relatively bad experience on my first visit to the Jasmine room and was asked to give it a second visit by its owner, Mr. Haddad.

The dinner was scheduled on Friday night at 9 pm and i attended it along with Chahe and Cohiba from the blog. I was greeted by Mario who invited us over to the round table, also known as a Lazy Susan. I thought it was gonna be the 3 or 4 of us, but then we were joined by 3 staff members from BrainStorm, a company that manages The Jasmine Room along with other restaurants, as well as the Commercial Director of TimeOut magazine in Beirut, and the executive chef Thomas Reger.

We started off with lots of cold and hot starters and a really good “Vin Rose”. There were lots of items i haven’t noticed on the menu on my first visit, among which a plate which i absolutely loved, consisting of a mix of chicken and carrots with a delicious side sauce which you can roll into small pancakes, and then came the “Crispy aromatic duck with pancake” plate which was exceptional. Afterwards, we were served two crab dishes and even though it was a hassle trying to get something out of them, they were succulent.

At this point, i thought dinner was over before another load of hot dishes landed on the table (Home-made noodles, beef and chicken dipped in various sauces etc. ) I was full already and very satisfied with what i’ve had and hoping there won’t be any desserts afterwards.

In all, i must admit my second visit to the place felt like going to a whole different place, and the bad experience i had during my first visit was a mere accident that i have already forgotten about. I believe this is one of the very few times, if not the first time, i change my mind on a restaurant that drastically.

On a last note, i wish to thank Mr. Mario Haddad and his team for this delicious dinner and agreeable company and assure them that the Jasmine Room will be my #1 choice when it comes to Chinese food.

PS: The Jasmine Room delivers and has a menu online for those who wish to check it out.

[BeirutNightLife]

I always enjoy events that are well organized, even when crowded and yesterday’s night-life exchange project was really great! Even though the location was tricky and the only way to get there was through the maritime road facing Jal el Dib bridge next to Aishti, there was barely any traffic at all time, parking space for everyone either on the sideways or in large parkings next to the place.

Inside, there was a large spot in the middle for people to dance or just stand there and mingle and on the sides tables and couches. I should have probably called and reserved a table in advance but it never occurred to me it would be like that. Nevertheless, the music and atmosphere were great and i am starting to like this Smirnoff Vodka more and more. Last time i had it was at Mandaloun and it was not that heavy and tasted good.

So in all, last night was very much enjoyable and am looking forward for next year.

I’ve always visited Paul to get his hot and yummy breads for breakfast but never thought about having dinner there. I don’t know why i had the impression it was a really expensive place for older people, but i gave it a try two weeks ago and i could not have been more wrong.

The food was excellent and very affordable and customers were from all ages. The atmosphere and service were also good.

Before ordering, i sat outside on the terrasse but we were practically on the highway and there was a lot of noise, so i moved back in.

I ordered as an “entrée” a cheese plate, containing goat cheese, roquefort, emmental and brie. It came with hot bread, small walnuts, dates and a side iceberg salad.The plate cost around 20,000 LL.

As for the main dishes, i ordered for my gf a “Feuilleté Atlantique” (consisting of a carré feuilleté, saumon mariné, avocat & fromage blanc) and for myself “Poulet Roti a la moutarde” (Blanc de poulet cuit au four, moutarde a l’ancienne, pommes de terre). Both plates were succulent and filling. Afterwards, i wanted to go for desserts but there were not many available which i did not appreciate much.

In all, the experience was surprisingly great and i would definitly give it another try.