Beirut

Eigentlich wollten wir in ein anderes Restaurant, dass leider geschlossen hatte. Dadurch sind wir über das Beirut gestolpert. Wir hatten Humus und Falafel als Vorspeise, vegetarischer Eintopf und eine Humusplatte als Hauptgleise. Es war sehr gut, alles hat so gut geschmeckt. Der Service war unheimlich nett. S

Made a reservation and went on a fairly quiet weekday evening for dinner with a group. I believe that we got a selection for 4 people for 5 of us and it was way more than enough food (would easily feed 6). We were actually disgustingly full (even after the starter) but it was so very delicious that we felt compelled to finish our meal! Subscribed to the email list prior to our visit to get a 20% discount voucher. BYOB. Great ambiance, but bit dark… would be good for dates too!

Food was alright but the service breaks under pressure. We went for a great night out the celebrate a birthday and had to wait our whole meal for water. Come to the end of the meal and we were given dessert menus, wanted to get shisha, and they kicked us out saying they needed the space for more customers…
Very weak.

Amazing veg! Well worth stopping in for some great food & coffee!!!

Had a great banquet with over 20 of us. Staff were great and very efficient. Zazou enjoyed the starters and all the different tastes. She says she’d go back to taste some more Lebanese flavours.

The service here was hilariously bad. Actually the guy who seated us seemed nice and made some awkward smalltalk involving stereotypes from our home country. But the waiter was in a bad mood and took it out on us — when he wasn’t ignoring us that is. He got offended when we asked if we could share dishes family style and said «we don’t do that here». But eff em, we did it anyway. Come to think of it, maybe we deserved the bad service.
Anyway, the portions were small and the dishes were pretty bland, except the spicy sausages with little dipping sauces which was the best thing at our table.
Oh yeah and they don’t sell alcohol but you can BYOB.

We had a slightly bad experience on reviewing day, but we’re generally big fans of this place. We summed it up: «we still rather like Beirut. This time there were some hiccups in the service and food, but having been before when both were impeccable, we dare say that it was our own fault for going in the middle of the afternoon when we should have been having a roast in some nondescript pub.»

Great Chicken and Lamb Shawarma from Beirut Express. Beats the pants off a Turkish Kabab!

I tried beirut in Manchester and it was a great experience so when it opened in edinburgh i couldn’t wait to try it but i was a bit disappointed especially with their shawarma! :(which is very expensive for a sandwich (5 pounds) !!!
I went there once and never going back!

Service here was pleasant throughout my evening visit on November 2^nd. We were greeted and seated promptly (easily done as we were the sole customers at the back of 5) and left for a reasonable amount of time to make our choices.
As suggested by our server the fattoush salad was ample between two and the falafals we ordered as an accompaniment were well sized and not over cooked. I’d like to go back and see how much tea is served when you order it just for one as £7 for two lots of mint tea for two (amounting to 3 cups each) seemed rather steep, as did the £4 for 4 (admittedly very tasty) baklawa to round things off.
My companion and I unfortunately became invisible at bill time and then had to advise that the one we’d been presented with was the wrong one. This place has potential but glitches such as these need to be worked out if it’s to do well, especially in the current economic climate.

I was in Tate Modern in that London fairly recently. Now, I’m not big on modern art (or art in general) but there was one installation that really riled me. Basically, it was a collection of little leather cubes arranged in a supposed ‘random’ way. And the sign read ‘er, yah, it’s like a metaphor for the banality of existence and the arbitrariness of prejudice’. Yeah, ok. Just looks like leather cubes to me.
The reason I’m telling you this is that horrible memory came back to me in Beirut. My main course was Lebanese lamb with chips. I swear they stole that installation from Tate and served it to me. It was so overcooked it was almost impossible to eat. My dining partner had basically the same, but with beef (which was equally overdone). The pickles we shared for starter were from a jar. In fact, the only good point was the sausages which were nicely spiced, if a little salty.
It’s a real shame, because they’ve made an effort with this place. The staff were friendly, if a little inefficient (the guy next to us got his main at the same time as his starter), and it’s nicely done out. It’s just the food was awful. Maybe I had a bad experience, but I don’t want to risk going back.