February 29, 2012 Metn Mount Lebanon Lebanon Middle East

The Jasmine Room: An Asian Masterpiece (Restaurant Closed)

Phone Number: +961 4 721521

Address: Zalka main road, Jal El Dib, Metn, Lebanon

Website: http://www.the-jasmineroom.com/

Price Range: 0-0 $

RATING:72/100

Welcoming: 4/5

Food Temperature: 8/10

Ambiance / Music: 8/10

Menu Choice: 4/5

Food Taste: 24/30

Architecture / Interior: 8/10

Food presentation: 8/10

Service: 8/10

Value for money: Soon

This Asian kitchen house serves good food that I would be happy to eat again if I didn’t have to visit the venue in order to do so. The Jasmine Room is an Asian restaurant located off Zalka highway, offering everything from famous Chinese dishes everyone knows to a variety of sushi and sashimi platters.

As an overall experience, the Jasmine Room is one of the best Asian restaurants in town, offering the same quality of sushi offered at Le Sushi Bar, yet at a lower price - since the owners are the same.  In my opinion, Le Sushi Bar is one of the best Japanese restaurants in town. This is my third visit to The Jasmine Room, and I’ve always had a very positive impression about the food.  Today, for lunch, we had:  Edamame, Sesame Prawn Toast, Prawn Wantons, Chicken BBQ Bun, Scallop Dumplings, Sweet Chilli Mango Salad, Seared Beef Salad, Crispy Aromatic Duck with Pancakes, Vegetable Noodles, Sesame Chicken and Prawns and Mango. We tasted some sushi and maki assortments that were very tasty especially their specialty club sushi plates.  I have nothing negative to say about the food.  It’s very tasty, correct and well presented with a perfect taste assortment and mixture. That being said, allow me to point out a few negative aspects of the place itself.

This is my third visit, as I already mentioned, and every time I come here, there’s a smoke issue coming from the kitchen.  Yes, the ambiance is always smoky, smelly with a white haze hovering over our tables, making our eyes red and watery and our clothes smelling.  It’s defiantly not unnoticeable, especially that the restaurant’s manager came the times before to apologize, explaining that they are facing a small technical issue and they are working on fixing it.  So how come the problem has not been fixed yet and the same problem still exist today?  You can have great food, but in order for any restaurant to succeed, the complete set of ingredients should be there and well orchestrated to bring out the best in a place. Another thing that I must point out is the music.  This is a crucial issue as well.  I can accept bad sound quality, that usually only a few will notice, but having the music on high volume with a lot of base is truly unbearable.  We asked 7 times, yes 7 times, for the volume to be lowered or the music to be changed, but to our dismay we were out of luck.  This detail was so annoying that no matter how well or how much I enjoyed the food, I will think twice before coming back.  The management should seriously take this point into consideration – as the choice of music must be suitable to the restaurant.  The choice chosen at The Jasmine Room is unacceptable in any venue.

The total bill was $60/person, very good for what we ate.




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