BEIRUT
Verdict: 6.5/10 (Nice food, but décor wise, like an eat-in take-away)
On 20 March 2008 (Thur.) I finally visited Beirut with a friend of mine for dinner.
I say 'finally' because on the first attempt with D we found it closed, and then I started meat-fasting for a week for the Lent (it should be for 48 days, but I decided to do only the first and the last week this year), and it was meaningless to visit kebab restaurant when I could not eat meat.
When we arrived at 7:15, there were two guys working in the kitchen and one person chatting with them. It was a week-day, but being a day before Holy Friday, it was practically weekend. It could have been busier.
Beirut calls itself a restaurant, but it is more like a take-away place with some tables inside. There are about 20 covers there, and there are also some bar-stools in front of the kitchen counter. As we entered we were greeted by two cooks, we continued to the dining area, found a table and sat down, but even after 10 min. no one came to take the order, so we went to the kitchen counter and told them what we wanted.
This is one of our starters: Tabbouleh (£ 2.50). It was the first to arrive.
I have eaten tabbouleh in the past, but it contained more couscous or bulgur than vegetables. This version, instead, was made mainly of flat leaf parsley and mint, some raw onion, tomato, lot of lemon juice, and lastly very small quantity of bulgur wheat.
We liked it very much, but it is rather a side dish than a salad in itself. We then ate it with kebab, and was very nice.
Then we got Falafel (£ 3). We ordered them thinking it is one of the most famous Lebanese dishes.
There were four good sized falafels on a plate, with shredded iceberg and sliced pickles. They were piping hot, and they should have been freshly cooked.
This is how it looked like in the middle. It looked pretty yellow I think from spices. Unfortunately they were too salty to be eaten on their own. Probably they taste better in wrap (it is not on the menu, but one of the cooks said that they can be served either on plate or in wrap).
However, they weren't bad, and we ate them with tabbouleh. It might be a good idea to order pitas when you order starters.
When we have not yet finished even a half of the starters, the main dishes arrived. As it happens often with casual restaurants like this, the appellations 'starter' and 'main' refer rather to the portion than to in which order the dishes should be served.
This is one of our main dish, Shish Taouk (£ 6). We had a choice between chips and rice as side. This one we got with fries.
There were two skewers of marinated and grilled chicken breast cubes (here one part of the chicken is hidden by chips). Again there was shredded iceberg salad, a half grilled tomato, and sliced red onion with sumac. Quantity of meat wasn't particularly generous, but was enough for us. Meat wasn't too dry, even if it was chicken breast. Chips were... usual frozen chips.
We tried also lamb version, Lahem Meshwi (£ 6), and we asked it to be served with rice.
Lamb cubes were very tasty and not tough. However, it is not forgivable that they burnt one fourth of the meat. It is not strange that the Lebanese, as all the other Eastern Mediterranean people, don't have the concept of rare meat, but it was far too much.
The rice, instead, was very very good. It was a pilaf cooked with a lot of cardamom, and something looked like very thin and short noodles. Next time we will be there, we will definitely order rice instead of chips.
The mains were served also with some pieces of pita bread. It was one large, round, thin bread cut in four. Such a thin pita was unusual to me. Also pretty nice. (I was told that the main comes with bread, but, we were charged for this, £ 0.8).
After the meal we went to the kitchen counter again and ordered one mint tea (£ 1.50) and Lebanese white coffee (orange blossom) (£ 2). We were asked how much sugar we wanted, meaning that the sugar should be put while brewing. The mint tea was a nice palate cleanser, but white coffee was a bit too heavy and did not smell much of orange flower water.
We had also two bottles of mineral water (£ 0.80 x 2), and the bill came to a bit less than £ 24. The food was between acceptable and fine, but comparing to the Persian restaurants in suburb, I felt that the value was somehow inferior, taking in account also this is like a take-away outlet with some tables. Even so, this is only one Middle Eastern restaurant in city centre and the quality of kebabs was better than at Zagora (albeit if they don't burn the meat). I might come back with my kebab lover husband.
