Burj el Hamam: After Lunch, Came Dinner

It took me three years to visit Burj El Hamam for a review, and when I did I was back in less than a week. Lunch was good, so how about we discover diner together?

We were 17 that night, a large group of foodies coming to enjoy a fine Lebanese experience. Organized by LG to mark the launch of their new LGG3 phone, the challenge was to take the best photographs of food with the camera on their latest innovation. All the pictures can be found at #MeetLGG3 on Instagram and Twitter.

Dinner was just great, service as exceptional as expected, food as good as ever and, happily, the dinner ended with a selection of local fruits.

Sitting inside, the experience was as good as the one I had the week before, when I sat on the pleasant terrace. We arrived at 8pm and were welcomed by an army of waiters ready to start their shift. It was not long until food started landing in front of us.

The food was good:

• The Batnjen or eggplant purée: Perfectly seasoned, surely freshly made, and decorated with bits of pomegranate. The tabbouleh was fresh. Homemade white goat cheese enjoyed with some mint leaves, a moist, yet not watery, cheese that takes you up the mountains to where shepherds once produced fine creations.
• The stuffed vine leaves were just great: A juicy and tender portion of stuffed vine leaves filled with a perfectly cooked mix and seasoned with lemon juice. They melted under my teeth like butter. A plate of hummus topped with warm meat that's so tender that you won't even feel it sliding under your teeth. With that, some pine nuts and the oil they’re fried in add a fine taste, and fat, but who cares? Excellent! Thin, crunchy, fully loaded sambousik with minced meat and pine nuts, those bites were excellent.
• The kebbe was as good, and had an overdose of berghol, which I found interesting. I know, many of you find it inhumane to eat the small, fried birds but, for me, the quality of those little bites tells you a lot about a restaurant. Cleaned, fried, seasoned and ready to put a smile on your face, they were so tender, crunching smoothly and erupting with flavor.
• Chards or sele2 leaves: Stuffed with the same mix as the vine leaves. A generous plate of chicken liver chunks perfectly seasoned with lemon juice, that gives them a tender, soft feel. Fried cheese rolls: Love in every bite. 
• The shrimps could have been better. They are soacked in their marination elliminatiing the original taste of shrimps. Such a fine product should be handled with finesse.

So, the conclusion was that Burj El Hamam is surely in the Top10 list of the finest Lebanese restaurants in town, with a sustainable service and food quality. I’ll come back for more.