Cedar Grill

Mediterranean restaurant by the water, beautiful view.
Food is unfortunately absolutely terrible. We ordered 2 mezz platters, both were underwhelming but what still gives me nightmares was the shawarmas. We ordered 1 lamb and 1 chicken, both were served with fries which should have been the first indicator of how they were going to taste. The second indicator was the 3 sauces with the fries and the shawarma: mustard, tomato and another sweet tomato sauce. Needless to say the shawarmas were dreadful.
Do yourself a favor, jump in the water and swim away while you’re nightmares are not ridden with terrible shawarmas.

This place has more of a Pakistani/​Asian flare than Lebanese or Middle Eastern. I had the Taouk, grape leaves, and muhammara.
The meat was tender but the spices are more like tikka than Lebanese. The stuffed grape leaves were so-​so, but the muhammara was OK.
All in all, the place is OK but the food has strong Indian/​Pakistani influences. I wouldn’t call it a genuine middle eastern place.
Oh, and they charge for the pita bread, a big no-​no in middle eastern restaurants!

Pretty solid Lebanese restaurant in bustling Boat Quay. Though it is a little pricey, the central location and good flavours makes up for it.
I love cold dips, so I was excited to see the various mezzas they had to offer. Though the platters were tempting, our table wasn’t too hungry so we only ordered the hummus. The hummus portion was generous; however, I wish they gave us more pita bread. It only came with 4 small slices and the bread was quite thin.
For my main, I ordered the Lamb Kofta. I loved the lamb; it was perfectly spiced, tender, and not dry. I also liked how it came with various dipping sauces; the yogurt based one was my favourite. The rice that came with it was also spiced and flavourful, and it was a match made in heaven with the lamb! I definitely ate the orange slices at the end– it was a sweet ending and helped balance out the savoury.
Though you’re paying Boat Quay prices, I thought this was a great restaurant to start the weekend especially if you have a hankering for cuisines other than Asian food. It’s definitely more fun with friends, so bring the crew here before a night of drinking, or simply for a lively dinner!

We stopped here for dinner last night after completely botching our original plans. We wanted dinner on the river in Boat Quay, but had to wait about 20 minutes for a table. They took us upstairs to a hookah lounge to grab drinks while we waited. This area had a run-​down night club feel with large red corner sofas and small tables for drinks and hookah. There were a bunch of high school kids enjoying hookah and the weeks’ gossip when we took our seats.
We headed downstairs after about 20 minutes when we’d had enough of the scene upstairs and took a table right at the edge of the water. The place serves Mediterranean food from Lebanon. We started with the Cedar Mezze Platter, which included selections of Cold & Hot Mezze: Hummus, Moutabal, Baba Ghanouj, Cheese Borek, Falafel, Sambousek Spinach served with Pita Bread. Then we had the Mixed Grilled Kebab which was a platter of Kofta, Shish Taouk, Tikka Kebab and Lamb Chops with grilled vegetables on the side served with Oriental Arabic rice or Pita Bread. All was very good and well-​seasoned. As upset as I was that our first plan fell through, Cedar Grill made up for it!
The ambiance was lovely and the service was spot on. My glass was never empty and the servers seemed to anticipate exactly what we needed, when we needed it. I was very happy with the experience and officially rate them at 4.5 out of 5 stars.