Lebanan Chef Arabic Food — Restaurant in Colombo

The entrance/welcome The FOH staff from the door to the table were quite welcoming. We were received with a wide grin and it was very comfortable. The staff behind the POS counter were also attentive to our entrance and weren't ignorant of who's coming in regardless of the restaurant being fairly occupied. And the biggest plus is that they park your car for you in a secure location. But being on the Galle Road, I feel like this must be a limited facility.

Atmosphere The entire place has a nice aroma of Arabic spices steamed, crushed, and seasoned. The smell itself felt like an appetizer and we were immediately hungry. The seating arrangement was spacious and not at all cramped. With ample space to walk through, it was zero claustrophobic. However, being beach-facing but having just one glass pane to see the Indian ocean was sad. The TV was on but wasn't paying anything. However it was blocked by the column. The artistic appeal was completely Lebanese. From the ceiling to the furniture there was a comfortable touch of reflective and matt gold. The temperature was very mild. I'm guessing it was somewhere around 24C.

Table Setting The cushioned seats were very comfortable. Some seating arrangements were diner-type while the others were proper sit-down type. We had to combine both because were a pack of a dozen people. Nobody felt a slight discomfort. The only problem with the diner seats were that they were all sealed to a wall on one side but that's not avoidable. Not a complaint at all. The crockery were super clean and fresh. Not a single scratch on them (because they are new?) so far. And the table was pre-set with well aligned steel utensils.

Menu and Menu Assistance It was an extensive menu. There were some guidance on the menu with some images of SOME dishes but there is no way to understand what they are without you knowing their language. So please always ask them what they are. The servers and the waiters are Sri Lankan as far as I understood. They speak to you in English and they are good in assisting their diners with what dishes meant, because what in the world is a Chicken Khilab? I mean I know a Khalid and we have one habibi in the office! LOL.

The staff will also suggest what's better and what's recommended if you ask them. So don't be shy. The staff uniforms are elegant and representing the Lebanese culture, and it's definitely a first for Colombo's restaurant goers. They are also very polite.

At the time of serving us our food, there was a slight mishap when the server did not know which dish he was serving. But this server seemed relatively new and it must be hard to memorize what is which in their specific Lebanese terms.

Food and Prices We spent close to 35K LKR (108USD) for all 12 of us. We tried 4 varieties of rice including that Khilab, and some saffron rice, and shawarmas, hummus, and then fresh juices (try kiwi for 800LKR) as well as 3 types of deserts. The juices has very minimal sugar and was thick, which meant they really did use a good quantity of fruits to make the juices. The rice I had was this Khilab and it cost me 1,800LKR. The meat on the serving was very nicely cooked to the point that the bone automatically disintegrated from the flesh. It was perfect and the salt to meat ratio was also well-balanced. There were high amounts of condiments and spices to the meat and it was very well seasoned. The only con about the rice portions was that there was no gravy to it. There were SOME gravy just covering 2 layers of rice of a mountain of rice. The rice was very dry for some reason and because of that it was very hard to push them down the throat. I kind of wished it was a little more oily, because this needed to go down.

Over all it was nice but maybe its my fault that I tried rice at a Lebanese...

Went there for a late lunch around 2.30pm with a friend and there was a massive load of people waiting to be seated. Given the restaurant is new I’d give them that but the management took a blind eye to the waiting customers as no one attended to them nether stated there is a waiting time when you walk in. There were people just standing near the people who were dining like a busy food court to grab the seat the moment they are done with their meal. We tried approaching staff to know if the place is full, but non seem to care. Just that only one steward was nice to admit the restaurant is full and try the patio. The patio area was very nice but it was flooded due to rain and no one troubled themselves to clean it up and arrange for the waiting customers. Let alone there was left over food that lying on the tables which people had finished dining. Apparently, they have a VIP area that is only reserved and the crowds waiting cannot access that. The stewards only attended to a designated area they were assigned and declined to attend to any guests who were out of their scope. Had to go behind the staff to order and hardly anyone was bothered. We had to go to the counter and get us our menu and go to the manager and asked to take the order. Once you get to the point of ordering, half the things in the menu are not available. We only tried rice given we love the Arabian rice dishes. So we ordered a chicken Kabsa which was LKR 1800 and a mutton Yemeni Mandi of LKR 2500 with two Pepsi. A Pepsi costs LKR 700 for a glass bottle. The order was brought in without the drinks and once the food was served they remembered the cutlery. The cutlery that was provided to us was picked up from here and there and literally they gave only one fork for two of us. Finally, when we started to dig into the food we realized that both the rice types was the same. We were seated right in front of the kitchen in the high table and it was noticed that they served one type of rice to all of the rice dishes ordered during our stay in the restaurant. But definitely it gave all the fancy names of the Arabian rice dishes. Further, the rice we ordered was not even close to an authentic Mandi or a Kabsa severed in the Arabian region. Simply, a local small joint does mandi rice better than these Lebanese cooks. The portions are quite big with a generous portion of meat. However, the overall rice dishes took was an utter flop. We had to ask a separate steward for our drinks and wait and wait forever for the bill. Finally similar to finding someone to order we had to get up and go and ask the manger for the bill. They were struggling to find our order where the cashier claimed there was no order recorded neither our table. Finally, the manager went through what he jot down to finalize the bill. The food served is not worth their pricing and tastes way below ordinary. The management is not organized and customer friendly. The service is beyond poor. Definitely I’m not gonna visit this place for any Arabian rice and not...

I ordered Hummus Shawarma, for the main course Maqlooba, Grilled Wings & Baklaava for dessert along with Pepsi. Wanted to have Kunafa but the lady waiter said the ingredients need to be imported from Lebanon so it won’t be there for a while.

The Grilled Wings I give 10/10. The platter was only 1500, comes with a small portion of complimentary rice and more than 6 chicken pieces grilled well with perfect marination. I highly recommend anyone to try this first and you won’t be disappointed. It was so good so I ordered one more for takeaway.

Pistachio Baklaava I give 9.5/10. I take 0.5 due to its weird orange artificial colouring. Perfect, crispy, well soaked in sugar syrup. I could eat maximum only 2 in one go as it’s very sweet. 5 pieces are 900 , which is absolutely worth it. But the menu indicated Baklaava as 1800, without mentioning the number of pieces (maybe it’s the price of 10 for takeaway sweet box)

As for the Maqlooba, I give 6.5/10, as I felt it was a bit salty & it wasn’t authentic Maqlooba taste. But tastewise it is a good meal, but definitely has to improve if it needs to taste like Maqlooba. Portionwise, 2 can eat it and therefore the price is fine. Presentation of the rice was really unique.

For beverages, most of them are above 700. The soft drinks are 700, but the small water bottles were 200 although the menu said 500.

I realized that I don like Hummus much— and I don’t really know how to review it as I haven’t eaten any Hummus before to compare. But the Hummus also had generous portions of chicken. Hummus comes with 3 complimentary pita bread portions.

Although some things are overpriced in the menu, if you scan it well you will find some good deals.

The ambience as a Middle Eastern vibe and the chandeliers make it look even...