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!