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.

I passed by ABC Debayeh late last week and while there I spotted the Nestle Toll House which Chahe had previously posted about. I decided to try it out and post my review of it. The place looked pretty cozy and the three times I passed by Toll House this past week the place was always empty so finding seating shouldn’t be a problem. They’re located in the basement next to the kids area and right below the perfume section between the escalators.

I went up to what looked like a fridge and noticed they had a few different kind of cookies along with an assortment of cakes like kit kat brownies, cookie cups etc.. I decided to go for the classic chocolate chip, each piece is for LL3,000 which is very reasonable. The cookies and all their goodies are located inside a temperature controlled unit the keeps everything nice and warm.

I took my first bite from the cookie expecting the worst since my dessert experience in Lebanon has always been disappointing unless it’s Nutella banana crepes. To my surprise the cookie was actually pretty good. By far the best cookie I’ve had in Lebanon and over all I would say it would be in my top 10 cookies list (#1 is Ben’s Cookies). The biggest issue I had with the cookies was the sweetness, they were just too sweet which is disappointing since it means you can’t have too many. I had two and a half cookies and overdosed on sugar. Other than that they were chewy and delicious, had them three times out of the five days I was in Lebanon for.

I had this banned Lebanese movie for a while now and haven’t seen it until yesterday.

What a crappy movie that was! No plot, no proper acting, no proper footage, no nothing!

I had the uncensored version and the whole controversy done on this movie was about the main actress Joanna Andraos, playing a prostitute called Souraya, showing her breast at two or three occasions.

What annoyed me the most about this movie is that i could not relate to anything that happens that often in Lebanon.
- A prostitute who has a gay friend and likes to do threesomes with rich customers.
- A beggar who gives away all his money to buy a gun and kill whomever tried to kill his prostitute friend.
- A businessman who is preoccupied with killing the prostitute.
- A poor fat taxi driver who breaks into rich houses to take a bath (They show us his ass as well).
- A gay guy who has no problem kissing other guys in night clubs and in front of everyone.

And the list goes on and on …

Honestly, i think this is the worst movie i saw this year, right after “Lebanon“, that Israeli-made movie that is also really bad and boring as hell.

There is no better business than opening up a restaurant or a snack in Lebanon, however the latest trend is to come up with a very fancy place that attracts customers but serves crappy or average food.

One of them is the recently newly opened Chinese restaurant called the Jasmine Room. It is situated on the Jal el Dib highway and looks very fancy from the outside. I’ve been wanting to try it for a while and finally went there with my gf on Saturday.

Unlike what is stated in this review, it does look a lot like every other Chinese restaurant and resembles a bit ChopSticks! It even has that large rounded table in the middle that rotates so that you can hold like your small buffet.

We were out on a Saturday night and found a table without reservation. The chairs were comfy and the tables were not too close to each others. While checking out the menu, i noticed on the first page set menus for 4, 5 and 6 people. They varied from 200,00LL till 400,000LL or something like that. I don’t know much about food menus but putting such big numbers on the first page of your menu can push customers away.

The menu list was very similar to every other Chinese restaurant, same appetizers (Shrimp dumblings, Spring Rolls etc ..) and hot dishes.

We ordered the following:
- Vegetable Spring Rolls
- A steamed rice bowl with corn (It didnt come with corn but the waitress said she can add corn to it).
- A sweet and sour chicken platter without the green peppers and onions that come with it.
- Noodles with beef platter.

Few minutes later, the spring rolls came and they were not good at all and small as well. The hot dishes then followed and with them came major dissapointment.

- Steamed rice came without corn. They were unable to drop few pieces of corn into the bowl. It is very demanding indeed.
- Sweet and Sour chicken came with the green pepper and onions. The waitress realized the matter as soon as she got to the table, so she apologized, went back to the kitchen, took out the onions and green pepper and came back with it. How did i know that? Simply because the chicken and the sauce smelled like onions and peppers still, but i did not tell her anything.
- The noodles platter my gf ordered was disgusting. Noodles were not well done and they had onions all over them. We asked them to take it back and we ended up not paying for it.

That was pretty much my experience at the Jasmine Room and i am quite sure will be my last one. I thought for a while that ChopSticks is no longer that good, but it is great compared to this one.

There are no words to describe the taste of a Nestle Tollhouse chocolate chip cookie…
I’m on a diet now so I try as much as possible to avoid eating sweets and junk food, but today I failed big time, but it was soooo worth it.

So I went up to the cashier and the guy asked me if I’d like to sit and be served or just do take-out. I told him I’ll just have a cookie to go. I chose the regular chocolate chip cookie.

I took the bag and started going up the escalator when I took my first bite of the cookie…. It was fantastic!
I went up to the 1st level, turned around and went back down and ordered 2 more and ate them on the spot… so much for my diet. And I took another one to go in the end…

The cookie costs 2$ but u can get a dozen for 18$, and it’s worth it.

They have all kinds of cookies, with smarties, rice krispy treats, nuts..

I highly recommend that anyone who’s reading this try them.

The shop is located on the basement floor of the ABC Dbayeh, dunno if they have any other stores though.

I was invited to an iftar last week in a Lebanese restaurant called Basma, opened next to La Cigale in Charles Malek Avenue in Achrafieh. The Iftar was a bloggers’ meeting organized by Leo Burnett (Thanks Michael for the invitation) and i had the chance to meet up briefly with some Lebanese bloggers. I was in a rush so i barely stayed for 20 minutes and did not taste the food even though it looked delicious.

I went back yesterday again to Basma to have a taste of what i missed. I was with a friend and we ordered their special fattoush that comes with goat cheese and sesame bread, hommos, grilled cheese rolls, wings and a mixed grill. The food was OK but nothing special to be honest, but then we decided to order dessert and even though i was hesitant at first, i ended up ordering one of their specialities, Riz bi Haleeb with burned sugar and what a great delight my dessert turned out to be!

The desserts were succulent and worth every penny. The chocolate fondant my friend ordered was amazing and had some cinnamon on it, mine had burned sugar on top of the Riz bi Haleeb and some dried fruits. They also had Ismalieh with ice cream instead of Achta.

In all, i would definitly come back for lunch or dinner, specially when i am in the mood for a good dessert.

This has to be their best album ever. It’s just completely different than anything else they’ve done before, it’s the album we’ve been waiting for ever since Dig Your Own Hole in 1997. Buy it or steal it but just get it and play it loud. [Link]

I finally went to that new diner called Taxi and it was a horrible experience, mostly due to the service rather than the food.

The place is located at the worst location ever… Burj Al Ghazal Achrafieh. You can’t find any parking space and you have to give it to valet parking who charges you 5000LL for just moving your car a few meters.

I get in and the place is huge and nicely done. It must have cost them a good chunk of money for the decoration and all. The place was empty around 8pm, but it seemed like they had a large reservation.

I sit on an uncomfortably low couch and a waiter called H (not real name) approaches us and says:

H: Hello, my name is H and I will be waiting you tonight.

Me: Can you please get us a coke with ice and a seven-up with no ice. Make sure it’s no ice please.

5 minutes later, he brings both drinks with ice.

Me: We ordered it with no ice. Can you change it please ? And we’d like to order Nachos as starters and the buffalo wings. Is the wings sauce spicy ?

H: Yes.

Me: Can you please get a non-spicy sauce ? sweet BBQ sauce ?

H: Sure.

10 minutes later, H comes back and brings the buffalo wings dipped in spicy sauce.

Me: Looks like you want to kill me. I ordered the non-spicy BBQ sauce please.

H: Apologies, i will change it right away.

10 minutes later, H comes back and brings me wings dipped in HOT SPICY BBQ SAUCE !

I just let it go and barely ate any wings.

Then I had to order the main dishes…

Me: Excuse me H, can you tell me what’s the garnish on the Swiss Mushroom burger, and what’s the special Taxi sauce that comes along with it ?

(after few seconds of silence)

H: El Sauce fiya Mayonnaise.

(Wow very helpful)

Me: Ok please bring it on the side so in case I don’t like it, i can still eat the rest of the burger.

Amazingly he did get it on the side and there was no garnish on the burger. It was also a decent burger with long and thick fries on the side.

I was in no mood for dessert afterward and just ordered the bill. It was around $50 which is more expensive than most diners.

My car was parked right where I left it, but I still gave the valet a 3000LL tip. Apparently that is the minimum charge these days, or so i thought as he comes back and tells me it’s 5000LL not 3000LL.

As i was mentioning the other day, i had dessert at Sugar Daddy in Koreitem after my dinner at Le Rouge Hamra.

Sugar Daddy is located right after “Secrets”, a very well know patisserie for those who live in Beirut. It is 2 minutes away by car from LAU Beirut campus or Hariri’s residence.

It is a very original place that does cupcakes, brownies, muffins, cookies, pies and all sorts of cakes.

I go there mostly to get my pecan pie or apple pie. I started loving pecan pie from the show True Blood . Sookie‘s grandma does the best pecan pie apparently (in the show) and it looked yummy.
I had never heard of it before, so i asked around and surprisingly, i couldn’t find any place in Lebanon that does it until i spotted Sugar Daddy.

On my way back home from Koreitem, i passed by Hamra to have dinner at Le Rouge and waste time so i don’t get stuck in traffic all the way back to Jounieh. I am not a big fan of Hamra to be honest, but there are few decent places one can go to for a dinner or a drink.

Once we got in the restaurant, we were asked whether we want to be seated in the smoking or non-smoking area. This new trend in Lebanon is not really working out, as the two areas are practically within the same room with no isolator, so it’s like assigning a peeing area and a non-peeing area in a pool. Added to that, they don’t give you ashtrays in the non-smoking area and expect you to throw you garbage on the ground maybe ?

I ordered a grilled chicken platter and a shanghai salad and my gf ordered a steak sandwich. Funnily enough, the waiter didn’t write down the order and repeated it for us showing that he memorized it, but he still managed to get the steak sandwich with tomatoes and onions, even though we ordered it without them. Even before that, he got us the bill of some other table while we were waiting for our food.

But I was too hungry to be bothered and my meal was delicious !

PS: Le Rouge is also open in Gemmayze.

This place was one of my favourite hangouts few years ago, until the food and service deteriorated so i stopped going there for a long while. I decided to go there tonight with my brother mostly because i miss the location. It is situated at the beginning of Kaslik and is more like a cafe trottoir than a restaurant.

I must say the food looked decent and the service was surprisingly good, but it was mostly the location that i enjoyed and my Almaza draft beer. During the summer, the place is always packed day and night during week days and weekends.