Al Sultan Brahim — Restaurant in Kfar Yassine

Not the same Sultan Ibrahim of Jounieh that I used to frequent and love before Lebanon's politicians destroyed the country's economy.

The hummos was good, but the hummos with fish kawarma was not up to standard as the kawarma was cold. The grilled octopus was a disaster as it arrived cold and was tough as nails and super chewy (and the accompanying potatos were cold); we told the waiter that the octopus was cold and tough and he just took it away and told another waiter to heat it up (I thought I was dreaming when I heard him say that). The octopus came back warmer with the same cold potatos and was now tougher than nails to chew (it is obvious that it had been precooked and just heated up and was not fresh nor freshly grilled). I told the waiter that this is not acceptable Sultan Ibrahim food standards and he just replied "inta bto2mor istez", and I thought to myself "obviously he's not properly trained to handle food issue complaints". Although we did not touch the octopus and told him to take it away and repeated that it was not edible, we still got charged for it (I don't care about the amount, but it was a matter of principle!). The calamari was tender but more sauteed than grilled like we ordered it, as it had no char or smoky taste to it. The fish kibbeh was miniscule in size. The fries were good but the fattoush had some cucumbers that were chewy and soggy. The grilled fish was a bit tough and most of the le2os ramleh fish from the fish display table we chose from had grayish hazy eyes which clearly indicated they were not that fresh. Overall, very disappointed that this favorite spot did not live up to it's name and heritage (I used to swear by the food at Sultan near beirit...

HOW THE MIGHTY HAVE FALLEN! Story time, brace yourselves for this disaster. We had a reservation outside but it was too hot and humid because they have fans that do absolutely nothing, so we asked to sit inside, the lady kindly obliged. The waiters, who are clearly tired, underpaid and overworked came to clean the table. They did a poor job but we accepted our fate and sat down. We ordered some mezza and fish. The fries came cold and limp, the octopus provençal tasted like death, the salads had absolutely no dressing on them, the grilled octopus was cold and so fishy. We asked them to remedy the situation. They kindly did. They got us fries that were limp, inedible but hot, they got us the EXACT same octopus tentacles but changed the arrangement to make it look new, the salads still had no dressing on them. I personally was infuriated and asked for the manager which wasn't there. Imagine he wasn't there... so some gentleman in a white shirt came. We told him that we wanted our bill so that we can go have a nice meal in another restaurant. He started lying about how he saw the chef frying the fries and changing the octopus tentacles when they brought us the exact same plate of octopus. Then he said you won't pay the bill just dont leave upset. He gets on the phone with the manager that wasn't there and the manager instructed him to make us pay. So we did, and we are happy we did. We went to another place and had an incredible meal. If you are looking for a good meal this IS...

The food is wonderful at this place. The only reason I'm giving them 3 stars is because of the service.

We walked in here at about 8.30 pm. Place was virtually empty except the terrace. Apparently they had a certain function of no more than 30 people all seated on the terrace together. We waited for a waiter to show up with a menu, some glasses, water, or anything of the sort but to our disappointment 20 minutes went by until I finally was able to get a water's attention. This guy was great, but according to him this wasn't his section so he would tell the person in charge of our table to hurry up and service us.

To be very clear other than the party of 30 on the terrace. There were 10 other people in the whole place. There were at least 15 staff members on the floor. So, another 15 minutes pass by, the waiter shows up for the first time with our Arak, water, and glasses (forgot the menu!!!!). So I asked bluntly why the hell is your service so slow?

Unfortunately this was the big bang... Sorry sir we have a private function on the terrace and we're too busy.

Let's do the math:

Party of 30 people (roughly) Around 15 staff members on the floor

Basically every staff member was serving 2 people only in a group of 30 on the same table.

Damn shame such a place doesn't invest in training...