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P.F. Chang’s ABC Achrafieh

By Rami on June 4, 2012 in Reviews

P.F. Chang’s, the popular Chinese-American chain, opened in ABC Achrafieh around a month ago, and I decided to try it out last week because of all the positive feedback I heard from some friends who have tried it in Dubai.

The place has a really nice interior and is being almost always packed that you feel so lucky if you can get yourself a table, especially on weekends.

Anyway, back to food business, we were a group of 6 people and decided to share several dishes among which were Dynamite Shrimp, Chicken Lettuce Wrap, Crispy Honey Chicken, Mongolian Beef, Singapore Street Noodles, and a couple more seafood dishes.

The food tasted all great, and was much different that any other Chinese restaurant in town (especially Chopsticks). And best of all, the menu covers a variety of tastes from chicken to seafood to beef to vegetarian but is not dominated by the sauces you often encounter at other restaurants like sweet and sour, mushroom and others.

The appetizer I liked the most was the Dynamite Shrimp consisting of fried shrimp covered with yellow spicy sauce. It felt a bit too spicy for some, but it was really good! On the other hand, Mongolian Beef was my favorite main dish consisting of tender steak cooked with scallions.

And if you’ve got room for dessert at the end, try their Great Wall of Chocolate. It has 6 layers, and the below photo definitely doesn’t do justice to how big the portion is.

Overall, and even though it’s not the traditional Chinese cuisine we lack in Lebanon, P.F. Chang’s is definitely recommended to try at least once since it offers something totally new here.

Update:

Sareen brought to my attention that I forgot to mention how is the food priced at P.F. Chang’s. Here you go, starters vary between 9,000L.L and 21,000L.L (Dynamite Shrimp is for 21,000L.L), soups and salads are between 7,000L.L and 22,000L.L, while main dishes are almost all between 25,000L.L and 28,000L.L except for seafood dishes that are in the 30’s.

Varouj Restaurant – Bourj Hammoud

By Rami on April 26, 2012 in Reviews

Varouj is probably one of the best places I’ve lately discovered in Beirut. It’s a small restaurant hidden in Bourj Hammoud’s maze of streets and serves some really good traditional Armenian food.

The minute you step inside the place and get greeted by the owner who’s a relatively old man, you’ll be surprised by his character as he acts more like a dictator running his restaurant! But he’s not rude though.

There’s no menu for ordering there and the old man will just ignore you if you ask for it. Shortly after you get seated he’ll just come to your table and quickly list to you the available hot and cold dishes. We ordered Hommos, Fattoush, batata Harra, Mouhammara, Sou Boreg, Soujouk, Chicken Wings, Manti, and soft drinks, and although we tried to tell him which plates to bring first and which to delay a bit, he again ignored our request and decided to bring them as he pleases but didn’t disappoint us since he was serving us 2 dishes at a time that go really well together.

The food was so delicious that we wiped clean the dishes we ordered, all of them, and the old man was smiling every time he notices we finished a plate till the last bit.

Price wise, I have absolutely no idea how the pricing works there! We were not given a bill when we asked for it, he just immediately answered us “90,000 L.L”. That’s it all the 8 plates we ordered for exactly 90,000L.L, which is way cheaper that other Armenian restaurants like Mayass or Mayrig.

Varouj is TOTALLY recommended as the food is heavenly good, especially the Manti and chicken wings, next time I’m planning to try their little birds, frogs, and chicken liver. If you’re tempted to try it make sure you reserve beforehand as it only has 4 tables and always seems to be busy, their phone number is 03-882933.

~~I’m sorry I was unable to locate Varouj on Google Maps to show you where it is, so I appreciate if anyone can provide me with the coordinates to post a map of it.~~ Here’s a map showing where Varouj is. Thanks to Roupen.

Le Relais de l’Entrecote Beirut

By Rami on February 2, 2012 in Reviews

The name pretty much says all what this restaurant has to offer, entrecote meat. I went there a while ago an totally loved it. They have a fixed menu consisting of a lettuce-and-walnut salad as a starter, followed by two servings of steak cooked to your taste with butter sauce and fries on the side. And trust me, the steak is really really GOOD, I had mine medium cooked.

A dinner for two with drinks will cost you around $75-80, and I know you would be paying less than that for a bigger portions at e Cafe, but Le Relais de l’Entrecote offers a really different (don’t read better) experience and atmosphere that are worth paying for.

While one could save Le Relais for romantic dinners, e Cafe is to me more suitable for casual outings, and they’re both my favorites.

Le Relais de l’Entrecote is located at Abdel Wahab el-Inglizi street and has two other branches at Verdun and Downtown.

The Burger Bar – Sodeco

By Rami on November 29, 2011 in Reviews

Burger Bar is a relatively new burger joint located in Sodeco, across the street from Classic Burger Joint. Before getting to how good their burgers are, it’s worth mentioning that The Burger Bar logo is nothing but a copy of the one Johnny Rockets’ has.

So I’ve tried their Mushroom Swiss Burger a while ago, and unfortunately it turned out delivering almost nothing new or special, and I said almost because the bun was fresh and tasty. The patty on the other hand was quite average, while the sauce had too much mayo in it. It isn’t like you’ll hate it, but there’s definitely much improvement that can be done.

For the time being, CBJ seems like a better option if you’re craving a burger in the area. Though I personally would prefer going all the way to Hamra for Burger Nation!

Burger Nation Hamra

By Rami on August 16, 2011 in Reviews

I finally got to try the burger joint everyone has been buzzing about for a while now, “Burger Nation” located at end of Hamra street.

The menu is very straight forwards and offers either their selections of burgers or do-it-yourself, and while explaining about the burgers you can’t but notice how much the waiters emphasize on the fact that their patty is made of grass-fed Angus beef that’s imported from Australia.

Farah and I shared two burgers, the Nation’s Pride and the Swiss & Mushroom both 4oz and medium well, and I have to admit the patty is among the best in town, I mean you can easily feel the difference between others and what Burger Nation offers.

However, the sauces and toppings definitely need an enhancement, at least for the Nation’s Pride. With that holy beef patty, I was expecting a much better taste. And don’t get me wrong here, I’m not saying it tasted bad, actually I’m planning to go there again to try their 6oz burgers, but I’m pretty sure BN can do better with the toppings.

Would I recommend you to go there? Yes, and do try their belgian fries.

Nokia N8 review

By Rami on April 25, 2011 in Reviews

Earlier in March Nokia Lebanon lent me an N8 device to try out and write a review about it. I’ve been using the phone for over a month now and I have to tell you this, it’s GOOD.

Camera:

First things first, the N8 rocks a 12 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss lens and auto-focus, and that’s what I loved the most about this phone. The images it produces are just so detailed and natural, and you’ll probably have so much fun with the panorama tool that Nokia offers for free via the OVI store. You can check the N8 flickr group to check by yourself how good can its camera be.

Display:

The N8’s 3.5″ display might not be the best in the market, but you can easily watch a movie on it if you’re on a flight or something, that’s how good the colors look on it, let alone using applications or previewing the camera photos.

Keyboard & touchscreen:

The last touch screen phone I’ve used from Nokia was the N97 which had a quite disappointing resistive screen, so I personally noticed a big improvement with the current capacitive screen on the N8, but unfortunately you still cannot rely on it if you’re the type of person who texts a lot. So I wish the N8 had room for a hardware keyboard like the E7.

Multitasking:

The N8’s operating system, symbian ^3, was built to handle as much simultaneously open applications as possible. You can safely browse the internet while you’re listening to music, having your e-mail open, and maybe a Facebook or Twitter client as well in the background.

Satellite navigation:

While other phones offer a built-in GPS chip and leaves you on your own to search for a navigation solution, with the N8 and other Nokia phones you’ll get OVI Maps pre-installed with free navigation. I’ve been using OVI maps ever since I purchased the E72 last year, but experiencing it on the N8’s 3.5″ display was a treat!

What I also liked:

The HDMI-out capabilities and the ability to connect to a USB flash drive through the dongle that ships with the phone.

N8 vs iPhone 4:

Everyone who saw the N8 with me had the same question, how does it compare to the iPhone 4? I actually don’t think there’s a definite winner, it all depends on what you’re expecting to get from your device. If it’s all about games and entertainment, then you should go for an iPhone, but for everything else I’m pretty sure the N8 is up to the challenge.

Overall:

Would I keep it if I had the chance to? Yes, particularly for its superb camera and display, although I’ll be missing the hardware keyboard on my E72!

The quest for the best burger in Lebanon – Brgr Co.

By Rami on February 22, 2011 in Reviews

I went to Brgr Co. some time around September last summer after all the promising photos and messages I saw on their Facebook page at that time, but unfortunately I got disappointed with my overall experience.

When I arrived there, I was surprised the place had only two tables occupied while Classic Burger Joint who’s just around the corner had a pile of people waiting for their turn to go inside.

Anyway, my first disappointment was the difference I noticed between the prices on their Facebook page at that time and their actual menus in the restaurant. Both menus felt overpriced anyway (14,500L.L for the 4oz burger, and 25,500L.L for the 8oz).

I started by ordering some onion rings which tasted average and looked weird.

The major disappointment was with the 4oz burger I orderd. The patty and topping were OK, nothing super as I was promised, and the bun was very dull! I guess the least one should expect from a burger place is to offer fresh buns right? Well, check how fresh mine was.

I know a lot of people who agree with me about Brgr Co. being an average place, but I also heard a lot of people claiming it is among the best burger joints in Beirut, at least that’s what Khaled thinks, “Brgr co one of the best burgers I’ve tried in town!”. And I really trust Khaled’s taste buds since I’ve met him once, and I know what he does. So people seem to be divided about the place!

I guess the only explanation for this is that their service could just probably be inconsistent… what do you think?

Gou: A good place for tea in Achrafieh

By Rami on January 7, 2011 in Reviews

Finding a good cup of coffee is an easy job in Beirut, but finding a good cup of tea where most places serve you a hot cup of water along with a Lipton tea bag is a totally different story!

A friend of mine introduced me a while ago to a place in Achrafieh called “Gou”, a Restaurant/Patisserie/Salon de Thé, or so says the sign at the entrance. Anyway the place has several menus for food an beverages, and totally separate one for tea only containing at least 30 different selections! Each with a brief description about the ingredients and it benefits, along with the recommended infusion time.

On my first time there I order “thé du Hammam”, a Turkish blend I guess, and on my second time I had a Russian selection called “Anastasia”. The former was my favorite, although the latter was not bad at all.

Any tea you select is priced at 8,000 L.L (almost double the price than any other place), but you’ll actually get served a hot pot of water, along with the tea to infuse, that will make you at least three good cups of tea guaranteed to make an hour of your afternoon. I know it worked for me! 😛

If you’d like to try it, Gou is located at Tabaris, Saint Nicolas street, right behind IBL bank.

é Café at Eddé Yard Jbeil

By Rami on June 16, 2010 in Reviews

I went to é Café at Eddé Yard Jbeil upon the recommendation of a friend back in March for the first time, and have fallen in love with their food ever since!

Passing by the old souk of Jbeil, there’s no way you can miss é Café and the barbecue placed outside their kitchen. The place consists of a beautiful outdoor area and a cozy interior space, offering 2 small french and italian menus, in a very nice ambiance. However, you wont need to check on their items because you will know what to order the minute you start watching the chef grilling mouth watering pieces of entrecote!

The entrecote will be grilled to your taste (I recommend medium well) right in front of you. Once done, the chef will place it on a bed of grilled onions and potatoes, accompanied with a sauce containing butter and some other things but tastes good anyway, and a bowl or rocca salad with balsamic vinegar, all tasting very good!

When done, your experience will seriously be incomplete if you don’t order their Gauffre au chocolat! Ignore any other topping mentioned in the menu, and go straight for the dark chocolate, it just tastes like heaven!

The staff at é Café is very friendly, and it’s impressive that their service was very timely each time I went there. If you plan to visit the place, then I recommend you go there on a Saturday night during summertime as the old souk is now packed with outdoor pubs and bars, and gets crowded with people on Saturdays creating a nice atmosphere.

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