Garage Beirut — Restaurant in Montreal

My sisters and I came here for dinner and unfortunately, we left extremely disappointed. We ordered a side of kibbeh, rice, the mixed grill platter, and a fattoush salad. To start with the positive, the fattoush was quite good. However, things quickly went downhill.

While eating the kibbeh, I noticed what looked like a hair, although it didn’t seem like a typical hair. It resembled a thread or fiber, possibly from clothing. We politely brought this to our waitress’s attention, but it seemed like she didn’t give it enough importance. While unpleasant, we decided to move on and not let it ruin the evening.

However, after that, we waited over 40 minutes for the mixed grill platter, which seemed excessive for a dish with five skewers. When it finally arrived, we tried to enjoy it regardless. As someone of Middle Eastern background, I found the food just okay - not impressive, especially given the price point. The hummus served with the platter was barely a spoonful and felt more like a dip than a proper side, which was disappointing given the $65 price tag.

Then, things took a turn for the worse. As my sister bit into her kebab, we found what appeared to be an eyelash. It clearly wasn’t ours, the skewers had been covered under bread when served. At that point, our patience had run out. We again notified our waitress and emphasized several times that we wanted the chef or manager to be informed before we left.

She apologized and offered a free dessert, but after everything, we simply didn’t want anything else. When the bill arrived, we were surprised to see we were charged the full amount with no gesture of compensation or discount, despite the issues we encountered. When we asked if something could be done, the waitress said, “If you didn’t eat the food, we could’ve given a discount.” That left us even more confused. We only noticed the hair/eyelash after eating part of the dish, what were we supposed to do? As if this could have been served to another group of guests had we not eaten it?

We ended up paying $105 (~35$ each) for a deeply unsatisfactory experience. It felt like our concerns were brushed aside, and I suspect the waitress never relayed anything to the kitchen or management. Before leaving, I made sure to speak with another staff member, who was more understanding and provided me with the manager’s contact information.

I sincerely hope this feedback reaches the management team. We came here for a clean, respectful, and enjoyable meal. I wouldn’t want any other guest to go through what we...

As a person who grew up in Lebanon and had authentic Lebanese food for many many years, I can say the food at this place is good.

Now the caveats. While it is one of the few places you can get some authentic Lebanese food in Montreal, it is not the absolute best. Please don't get me wrong; it is very very good. Just not the best. Moreover, it is quite overpriced. I know that preparing good food comes at a cost, but even factoring in the quality, I can not help but think that the prices are boosted by the lack of serious competition to this restaurant in this area. Very few places in Montreal can give this restaurant a run for it's money. As a matter of fact, I could count them on one hand, and that is what you get when you have a near monopoly.

All that being said, this is a very good place, and I would certainly recommend it to anyone who wants to have taste of authentic Lebanese food.

Side note: Please stop calling the other fast food, "Lebanese" restaurants that serve you shawarma plates with rice and potatoes, Lebanese food. I won't name any of these places, but I am sure you know which ones they are. They are okay, and I have had them on many occasions myself; nevertheless, I can assure you, I have lived in Lebanon for over 10 years, and I have never seen a "shawarma plate combo" of the likes these places serve. I don't think any restaurant would do that to you in Lebanon. So if you want authentic Lebanese food, this is one of the few places in Montreal that has you covered, for a healthy price of course ;)

With that being said, I wish you all the best and hope you have an excellent...

Atmosphere:

The place itself is tiny. Tried to get a reservation on same day via website, and it was apparently fully booked... decided to go anyway hoping we may be able to sit if we waited a little bit; Lo and behold, the place was completely empty??? So no wait time for us (yay!)

Service:

Service was quick and courteous without more... exchanged maybe 15 words with the waitress from start to finish.

Food:

We ordered Fattouch salad Cold mezzes tasting plater (hummus, baba ganouj, labneh and muhamara for 22$) Hot mezze tasting plater (patries - for 24$) kibbeh neye (raw beef with bulgur)

The kibbeh neye was good; its price,quality and quantity in line with other good libanese/syrian restaurants.

The fattoush salad was a mess: For 18$ I expect more salad than the size of my hand or at the very least a good quality salad. The salad was extremely bland; aside from the fresh mint and overly generous pomegranate molasses drizzle on top there was no identifiable dressing. There were giant chunks of tomatoes (1 1/2” thick), and about 3 large pieces of libanese cucumber.

The cold mezze were VERY expensive for their price and the quality was frankly not there. This was the worst baba banouj we've ever tasted (doubtful they even put salt in there), the muhamara was... okay, the labneh was a complete bust (plain, store-bought quality labneh decorated with dried mint. There was about 2 table spoons' worth of dip in every tiny bowl.

The hot mezzes were really good - again, too expensive for the size.

Overall I do not...