Beirut Grill [Invited Tasting]

Walking along Arab Street, you will be spoilt for choices if you are looking for some Mediterrean or Middle Eastern Cuisine.

Beirut Grill

The Fine Lebanaese Cuisine restaurant is housed in a 2 storey high shophouse whereby patrons get to enjoy both Alfresco as well as indoor seating.

Ambience

Entering up into the upper level of the restaurant, I was amazed and as such enchanted by the environment. Settings boast a change in the atmosphere completely with Lebanese decor setting the mood. Ambiance was romantic with attractive drapes and plushy cushion seating. Not mentioning that the placing of mirrors reflecting the lights had also enhanced the surroundings.

Environment on Level 2

For Muslim Pals who may enquire about the food. Do note that the food they served is certified Halal and their chefs are Muslim Arabs. However, they do serve alcohol too.

Coster

Welcoming our dinner with Beirut Mezza Platter to pair along with their home made pita breads & Falafel. Served in a plate where by each quarter carries its kind of unique tastes, I was pretty amazed by the eye pleasing platter.

Beirut Mezza Platter - $22

Texture of the Chickpea puree with sesame paste was rather creamy and smooth with extra virgin olive oil added. It was slightly lemony but this spread goes well on the plain Pita bread.

Hummus

Pack of cheese fragrance, initially I thought these little deep fried rolls tasted close to our localized spring rolls stuffed with vegetables. These Lebanese Pastry were crispy and appetizing, stuffed with feta cheese, a hit for cheese lovers. :)

Cheese Borek

Enjoy another well prepared spread, Baba Ghanoush to go with the Pita Bread. Baba Ghanoush is made up of Char-grilled eggplant with mixed capsicum topped with olive oil.

Baba Ghanoush

Last but not least, aubergine puree topped with extra olive oil.

Moutabal

Pita bread was warm and awesome. Made from wheat flour, they were simply soft and fresh from oven. Place some of the above mentioned spread on them and enjoy the simplicity of Middle Eastern Cuisine.

Home Made Pita Bread

Love these Falafel best among the food items in Beirut Mezza Platter. Usually served together with Pita Bread too,wrapped. Falafel is made up of fava beans, deep-fried into croquettes and served with tahina sauce. It's a must try as they were not too oily, crunchy and soft in the inside.

Falafel

Mixed Grilled Kebab Platter that serves at least 2 pax portion is a good choice to start with if you are unsure of what to order. It consists of Shish Taouk which refers to chicken cubes in orange. The chicken had a unique flavour whereby overnight marination had permeated the flesh with Lebanese herbs & spice.

Lamb Kebab Kofta, the char-grilled minced lamb was done up with Arabic herbs & spices with a special taste too.

Tikka Kebab was the Char-grilled beef cubes marinated by their Chef special spices.

Mixed Grilled Kebab Platter - $36

Perhaps the scene stealer would be Beirut Lamb Chops. It is the Chef's special dish, very well done up, with meat being fork-tender & juicy, giving me a total different perspective of a lamb meat.

Lamb Chops

Lamb chops were slightly in red, marinated in Arabic herbs and spices too.

Lamb Chops

Lamb Chops

Rice

One of the highlights while dining will be the Belly Dancing Session organised by Beirut Grill.

Belly Dancing

Be enlightened during your meals every Friday from 8-10pm with Belly Dancing.

Belly Dancing

And be mermerized by performance.

Belly Dancing

Here's some part of the belly dancing for the night.

Marinated Fish cubes were rather decent in Arabic herbs and spices. The fish tasted abit salty in my opinion.

Samak Meshwi - $18

Fish Cubes

Rating this dish as the best of the night, the egg plants based dish were simply inviting and I couldn't resist myself for another helpings. Similar to the creation of Lasagne but in the style of Middle Eastern Cuisine and served in hot plate. Heartily and deliciously done up with char-grilled eggplants cooked with chickpeas & onions, the tangy flavours from the tomato sauce had permeated the mushy soft egg plant. Definitely Memorable! Remember not leave the dish alone without having the vermicelli rice that was served together.

Mousakaa - $16

Rice was fluffy with hints of herbs and topped with fried onions. Under the orange lightings, one of my friends had actually pointed out there was "Bee Hoon" (Vermicelli) in the rice which I found was an interesting combination.

Vermicelli Rice

 The dinner has a sweet ending as we were served with Baklava. With characteristics of the cuisine former ottoman empire, it is not surprising that these pastry are rich and sweet. The charm about the pastry was that it was made from a layers of filo filled with crashed nuts lavished with honey & rose water. Presentation was up one level with beautiful swirls of whipped cream that stood out in the middle of the plate topped with a red cherry.

Baklava - $12

Ambiance was great especially on the second level in Beirut. Besides that, it's hard to find some exotic tastes like this in Singapore as well as being Middle Eastern Authentic. Beirut gave me a better experience and knowledge of the cuisine itself. Furthermore, service was hospitable with friendly servers around that top up our water so frequently.


To dine making money worth, you can simply download the Singapore Entertainer Application on your mobile devices and enjoy a "buy one main course and get another free". Let your Authentic Middle Eastern Fare begin at Beirut Grill now.

Entertainer App

Recently, the app has been updated with 2 additional useful features that will enhance users' experience.

1) It offers to ping your friends by tapping on the paper airplane icon. When you open up an offer and input the e-mail address of the friend you want to gift a voucher to, he/she will have 10 days to accept the offer, and after accepting the offer, all he/she would need to do is download the Entertainer Singapore app and the offer would show up on their phone. They have until the voucher expires at the end of the year to use it. No more tearing up vouchers from the book and passing them around!

2) The in built Uber function allow them to drive you to the Entertainer merchant you wish to visit, with rates stated on the screen. (Shown above)

The Entertainer Singapore offers more than 800 Buy One Get One Free offers for Singapore’s hottest restaurants, bars, informal dining, spas, activities, attractions and more. This year’s product includes the Entertainer Travel 2015, which features over 250 free night offers at leading 4 and 5* hotels across Asia and beyond. 

They have also partnered with tripadvisor so that users can view ratings as well as reviews for hotels, attractions and restaurants in the Entertainer or even write your own.

App can be purchased at S$60 and available on multiple platforms like Andriod, IOS, Windows, Samsung Apps or even BlackBerry World. If you like to have deals in hard copy form, The Entertainer Singapore book, which contains the same coupons in paper format, is priced at S$75 and is also available for purchase at their website or selected bookstores. The promo code "2015ALVIN" will entitle one to a 10% discount upon checkout on the website.  

Rating: 3.5 / 5

Beirut
Location: 72 Bussorah St Singapore 199485

Casual Fine Dining

Coriander Leaf features an exciting Pan-Asian menu and is quite popular among the Clarke Quay district for its well-established fine dining scene. It is one of the popular dining stylish and relaxing bistro that is highly recommended by TripAdvisor as well as my visitor's tourist guidebook. Upon hearing my visitor's request to have a dinner in Coriander Leaf, I immediately took the number from her Guidebook and punched onto my handphone, thus our reservation was made day before.

Strict dinner timing was seen and practiced as their Business Hours starts officially at 6.30pm on the day of visit. We were led into Coriander Leaf at 6.30pm sharp and was greeted by a long flight of stairs with a well crafted wooden coriander leaf on its glass door handle.

Stairways & Facade

The ending point of the stairs leads us to their bar. The coriander theme did fit well into the ambiance as the bar counters were even highlighted with coriander leafs patterns. We were then handed over to another friendly staff and he guided the way to our reserved seatings. The dining room granted a mixture of rich cultures of Greater Asia in a modern settings. The style of having ceiling plastered with assorted red wallpapers in kinds of patterns had boast an elegant interior. Doors and glass frames were well set with walnut color that blends in perfectly to the entire ambiance with its cement screed flooring.Enjoy a picturesque view through the building's glass windows with a perfect skyline where glimpse of sun rays could be seen. How beautiful! The moments of good feelings were further elaborated with a fresh red rose floating on a glass of water. How romantic!Our unique culinary journey was well begin with the Mezze (platter for 2) as the appetizers. The server had did his professional service by introducing each item on the platter and the way of consumption with his broad accent. The way how he presented had stirred up our interests in every aspect of food on that platter.

Bar Counter

The dining room granted a mixture of rich cultures of Greater Asia in a modern settings. The style of having ceiling plastered with assorted red wallpapers in kinds of patterns had boast an elegant interior. Doors and glass frames were well set with walnut color that blends in perfectly to the entire ambiance with its cement screed flooring.Enjoy a picturesque view through the building's glass windows with a perfect skyline where glimpse of sun rays could be seen. How beautiful!

Dining Interior

The moments of good feelings were further elaborated with a fresh red rose floating on a glass of water. How romantic!Our unique culinary journey was well begin with the Mezze (platter for 2) as the appetizers. The server had did his professional service by introducing each item on the platter and the way of consumption with his broad accent. The way how he presented had stirred up our interests in every aspect of food on that platter.

Beautiful Rose

From the top of the platter in clockwise, Coriander Leaf had presented Harira (a mixture of chickpea & lentil soup), a popular traditional soup originated from Morocco. To its right, the Tabouleh Salad, a traditional Arab Salad that made up of bulgar, tomatoes, parsley, mint and lemon juice. Tomatoes cubes were served chilled and the salad mixture tastes appetizing!

Mezze

Next we have another Middle East bite size Falafel on the platter. In layman terms, it looks like cookies topped off with some cream cheese to be but the fact is that Falafel is actually made up of chickpea and fava bean rissoles. Simply loves it unique taste! Ever wonder what are those 4 different balls on the platter? They are no quail eggs! In fact these are rich cheese balls that comes in Herbs - Za'artar (dried herbs with sesame seeds & others), sumac (some purple spice that add a tangy flavour), fresh mint and fresh coriander. Interesting right?Next we have 2 big bowls of dips, the Muhammara (roasted red pepper & walnut dip) & tahini (yoghurt dip) that goes well with a plate of plain Naan.What an adventuours platter we had! Our dirty plates were cleared up promptly with an exchange of new plates and we were ready for our main dishes.

Top: Tabouleh Salad, Bottom: 4 Types of Cheese Balls with Falafel

Plain Naan

Oven Baked Coriander-Miso Gratinated Cod was indeed fresh with additional crisp on its skin. Matched with sesame-togarashi onigiri and sugar snap peas lined up nicely on the plate and summed up by line decorations drawn with miso emulsion.
Cost: S$36.00

Oven Baked Cod Fish

During ordering, the professional server had actually checked with us the level of spiciness that we can handle and this dish was specially prepared based on the level. The Frontier Chicken was stirred fried with coriander seeds & minimal amount of chili flakes that sat in well in the middle of the plate in a pool of yoghurt cream topped with mizuna(a kind of japanese mastard). The dish was also accompanied by a plate of crispy plain Naan.
Cost: S$30.00

Frontier Chicken

Lamb Kerbab comes with barbecued cubes of lamb with onion relish and fresh herbs accompanied by butter naan. The cubes are fork tender with not much of lamb's smell. One can dipped the button naan or cubes into the special cooling mint sauce.
Cost: S$35.00

Lamb Kerbab

Although the causal fine dining portions may seems small, it was actually stomach filling and we had no room for any desserts.

Fish Tanks in Toilet

Let's visit Coriander's Toilet! The toilet was shared by both genders and as we swing opened the door, we were greeted by two brightly lited fish tanks by the side of the washing basins.

In conclusion, this will be one of the perfect choices with excellent service if you want to enjoy a unique mixtures of Cuisine with good scenery. Total worth what we are paying for! I bet that the entire experience will be many gastronomic thumbs up.

Total Cost: S$157.72

Coriander Leaf
Location: 3A River Valley Road, #02-03, 179020