Masaad has a reputation of being the BEST taouk place in Lebanon.
The place isn’t really very posh, in fact it’s the complete opposite, it’s a bigger version of a regular “snack”. Maybe that’s what gives the place a charming atmosphere?
I was there with a friend and we took a table on the second floor. We ordered 3 taouks and it took them 45 minutes to get us the food!
There are 2 waiters serving the 2nd floor, but only one of them is allowed to take your order, and he disappeared for 20 minutes. I was asking the other guy to get me a Mirinda or a Fanta while waiting for the food to arrive, he told me “ta yerja3 el m3allem”.
When the m3allem finally came back, I asked him where the food was, he told me that we’ll get it in 1 minute. 24 – 1 minutes later the food arrived.
The concept is basically a regular taouk sandwich with some fries and lots of garlic, rolled and put over the fire to make it crispy, then zaatar with olive oil smeared on top. It’s served with some hommos, pickles and coleslaw.
To be honest, I found the sandwich to be a bit dry and hard to swallow (that’s what she said).
All in all it was an average experience, between the food being late and the dry sandwiches.
I told Najib about this and he told a friend of his who wasn’t really happy with the comments I had made about this restaurant. He said that you shouldn’t go on a weekend and that the sandwich tastes better when you have a ze7lewi with you. mmm, really? having a person from Zahle sitting with me at the table would make the sandwich taste better?