Eatalian

Eatalian is a popular restaurant which was founded by the owners of Casper & Gambini's. As opposed to the myriad of different Italian (and Japanese) restaurants dotted all throughout Beirut, Eatalian, like Il Mattarello previously reviewed, is a restaurant that gives as seriously authentic Italian cuisine as it gets in Lebanon. And mind you, given the visible Lebanese passion for all things Italian, particularly their food, this says a lot.

I will characterize the service as quick and efficient. From the valet who took our car (a necessity due to the lack of available parking), to the welcoming maitre d', till the waiter that served us, all were super polite and professional. A nice change from rude waiters one gets at "every day" eateries. Even though the restaurant was packed to the brim on this Saturday night with a huge table of mostly girls celebrating a birthday, and even a famous sports personality enjoying his pasta and chianti, we always got our food on time and got it nice and hot.

As good as the mood and service are at Eatalian, the food is where this place really shines. You can't go to an Italian restaurant without eating pizza and pasta right? So on with the good stuff. The delicious pizzas are made in a wood-fired oven to authentic Italian specs. They were noticeably way above average. By Italian pizza here I mean the original pizza that Americans would call "thin crust" and not the greasy practically-all-bread stuff that comes from the US. For pasta, I highly recommend the Tagliatelle with fresh mushrooms, truffles and cream sauce. The cream is light and has an mmm oh so delicious dollop of fresh garlic dumped in! Not to worry though, none of the neighbors will realize.

By far the most pleasant surprise came though from the Filetto. A piece of Angus beef with caramelized pepper slices and chopped fresh mushrooms, all over a light cheesy-creamy sauce. To put it simply, it was culinary heaven! So juicy and tender and flavorful all at the same time. It was the top scoring hit of the evening.

The evening gradually wound down with our bellies pleasantly full that didn't even mind the bumpy road.

Lord of the Wings

You guessed it... this is THE place that specializes in chicken wings. You can get all sorts of different kinds of chicken wings here, ranging from buffalo, BBQ flavored, honey mustard, and others. What's more, the wings can be ordered with a level of spiciness that, if you so choose, can range from mild, to hot, to suicide! It doesn't end there... Lord of the Wings has one of the best burgers I have ever eaten.
I presume that that is attributed to the make-it-yourself nature of choosing each of the ingredients and toppings that go into your burger, which include choices that show that those who came up with the menu spent a lot of time paying attention to detail. Such ingredients and topping for your burger include whole wheat bread, Angus beef, avocado, guacamole, a breaded mozzarella patty, and others, as well as your usual offering of condiments and such. One of the things that really did it for me to consider their burger a success is that it was served hot. That is rare. It is served to the point where it will be warm in your mouth, where, if you order the breaded mozzarella patty with it then it would slightly melting. It's just perfect, and it's something I've never experienced anywhere else, with any of the burgers I've eaten. The branch in Gemmeyzeh has one of the friendliest waiters I've come across too.
Our waiter, Nicholas, was jovial and knew how to maneuver his way to making his clients feel welcomed and at ease, and cracked a joke about needing to "take the test" so we could order.
You see when we sat down we were each given a sheet with circles next to the menu items and pencils. We needed to tick off the items that we wanted to eat and hand in the paper to the waiter to process our order, something like how taking the SATs or the TOEFL were before they became computerized.
Dessert was great too. If you're crazy for espresso and just love vanilla ice-cream, then just get the dessert that combines the two. I must have swallowed it all up in under a minute's time.

Mandaloun Café

Situated on the main st. of Achrafieh, this restaurant/café is not to be confused with either of the other Mandaloun concepts, Mandaloun sur Mer, Mandaloun Grill or Mandaloun the nightclub. Yet, like its cousins, the Mandaloun pulls off its café version with class and poise.

Upon walking in, one notices the warm, woody decoration that isn't spoilt by anything but being slightly too bunched up with tables being too close to each other and the fact that there's a flatscreen tuned to a football match on the back wall bookshelf, a feature that has the potential to encourage antisocial behavior. After being greeted and politely lead to our table we forge on to ordering our food and drinks.

The service is attentive and friendly, with staff that give and take when casually spoken to. They aptly answered any questions we had and took our order.

The food arrived promptly tasting "good", leaning towards "safe", all while looking scrumptious. For an entrée, the lentil soup was served as mashed yellow lentils with mashed potatoes, a side portion of croutons and a lemon slice served alongside. The fish brochettes, came next and had a pleasing, tangy quality to them. The Funghi pizza also, was "not bad". After the meal came degestion time.

By the time we finished our meal, the café had filled, and the volume level rose a little. We enjoyed each other's company and the waiter managed to take an order for tea from us on his second offer.

We drank a nice digestive tea, which also turned out a little more standard tasting than what the menu makes it out to be, paid, got our cars from the valet, and returned home for the night.

Cristobal Colon

Saturday night. Destination Cristobal Colon in Hamra facing Dany's. Colon is a gastropub that marries European & Latin American Flavors with a speciality in Latin club sandwiches and refreshing punches.

Indeed any food you order will be guaranteed to taste good since extra care was placed in selecting this pub's chef. This is your classic 'good food, good mood' spot with a selection of drinks that any taste could accommodate with their flexible waiter George.

George, with his understated style, will accommodate to your every need whenever he can drop an eye on your table. And when staying late in the weekend night then you can still be sure of a continued wild time until you decide to leave!

Osteria Il Mattarello

The Osteria Il Mattarello, which means "The Rolling Pin Inn" in Italian, is another restaurant where clients can sit and have a quiet meal. It's situated just off Gouraud st. in Gemmeyze.
The decor is eclectic with a curious combination of minimal design cutlery, modern furniture, futuristic speakers on the roof and black and white pictures of presumably old, famous Italians framed with ornamental Louis IV-esque frames.
What makes this restaurant different than the majority of the other Italian restaurants is that the menu is dedicated to finely cooked Italian dishes other than the typical pizza and pasta that you usually find. So much emphasis is placed on these dishes that they take up the whole menu, with the usual pizza and pasta taking up only a smaller, side mini-menu within the main menu.
Our waiter is very accommodating in deciphering the menu along with helping us choose a fine red Italian wine.
I highly suggest the wild mushroom mille feuille as an entrée, if you like fresh mushrooms, it's a flavourful dish. As a main course the veal cooked in wine was another hit. But as great as these two dishes are, nothing could prepare us for the dessert that came next, the "Bomba". The Bomba is, simply, a chocolate pizza. It comes in the form of a ball stuffed with Nutella, which is to be mashed, then cut into slices and shared, and my God how delicious it is!
Definitely a place that I'll keep coming back to, with its decent prices.

India

India is, as the name suggests, an Indian restaurant (Punjabi to be more specific) which is located at the Monroe Suites building facing Azarieh building in downtown Beirut. The mood could be felt as soon as we walked in as quiet, if not empty, especially for a restaurant in Lebanon. There must have been about 15-20 different sized tables in there with only two that had diners at them, and that was at around 8:30pm. We were promptly shown to our table.
A glance at the menu showed that this restaurant offered your usual Indian selection, yet also funnily enough it seemed you could order a manouché, a Continental breakfast, or even a full blown Lebanese mezze! It quickly dawned on us that this restaurant also catered specifically to the hotel guests. As this was an Indian restaurant, we got down to ordering the Indian food and some wine.
The food is good. I say that while feeling a lack of oumph, of extra flavour and spice that a competing Indian restaurant offered (which I will also review at a later date). Yet, for a spicy-hot meal I can suggest the Chicken Madrass after an entrée of Papadams & Naan with Samosas, Mango Chutney, Mint Chutney and others. The wine we had, a local white, complemented the meal well, which constantly kept our glasses topped by the ever-attentive service.

Hi and Welcome

Hi and welcome. First of all, for those who are reading this just after it's being posted, happy new year! I am a former reporter who is based in beirut and living with my wife. As evident, the name of this blog is Beirut Restaurant Reviews, yet sometimes I'll review restaurants outside Beirut, and I'll also review places that aren't restaurants, such as cafés, snack joints, the odd pub or two, and maybe even nightclubs.
I can't wait to explore and re-explore Lebanon's myriad available culinary delights with friends and family and to write about them for you. I hope you'll enjoy reading about them as much as I'll experience them.
Just a quick note about the methodology I'll be using for the reviews: I'll be making reservations under a pseudonym, or else showing up to the mentioned venues unannounced and will remain totally anonymous throughout the experience to produce each review. Also, I'll try to re-review each venue at least yearly. The opinions written in each review will be my opinion, sometimes along with the help of the opinions of third parties present with me during each meal.
Happy reading!