While I usually kind of dread dinning out by myself preferring take out in these occasions, one of the advantages of traveling with someone is that eating out becomes a cool proposition. Since Rod and I share a liking for good food and good wine (Rod being better at wine appreciation than me actually!), we decided to try one of the best restaurant of Beirut yesterday evening.

The restaurant we chose is named Al Mijana and was highly recommended by the guide as the best place to splurge in Beirut. Good because it is what we were looking for! We walked the 20 minutes from our hotel to the district where the restaurant is located and started looking for it. It actually was not that easy because the street names are most of the time not indicated in Beirut, in place, you find something like “Rue 52” (for street number 52). We walked around for quite some time trying to guess in which street we were and could not find the restaurant. As often in this case, it was only when we had decided to give up thinking the place did not exist anymore that we finally ran into it.

The first thing that was clear was that even if I had put on my best t-shirt, I was not dressed for the part and we got a chilled reception by the Maitre d’O. We were not asked to leave though as it can happen in some places in France so a good point for the Lebanese. Still, the Maitre d’O did not seem to want to seat us outdoor close to the rest of the patrons at first and it is only when I insisted a bit talking in French that he found us a table there :).

As a side note, as I have noticed since I am here, speaking French does help in Lebanon in general as it is associated with luxury and the elite. For example, menus in fancy restaurants are only provided in Arabic and in French. Also, it is not rare to meet people that only speak French or that speak French and English but that prefer to speak in French. Sorry Rod but this was a good training for you ;).

The rest of the evening went very well with a great service, great Middle-Eastern food, a very good bottle of Chateau Ksara and very yummy fruits at the end. Price was actually OK for the experience.