Beirut Café — Restaurant in Stockholm

Booked this spot for my birthday thinking it is a refined Lebanese restaurant with a beautiful atmosphere given that it’s the first Lebanese restaurant in Scandinavia and the A-list stars who have visited. I had explicitly stated it’s my birthday on the reservation with nothing even brought up or even asking what is the occasion of our visit. The location of the restaurant is very cool and historical, yet very deceiving based on the photos posted online. Service was very mediocre and no proper attention was given. It seemed some more important guests were present that they even took their jackets and hung them up for them and had a long chat while we felt neglected. The drink was nice we ordered the Beirut Collin’s and it was very refreshing. The food on the other hand… not authentic Lebanese at all. The hummus felt stale, the sambousek and rakakat were very oily and tasted old, the batata harra was drenched in oil and even sour with lemon juice (since when is batata harra made like this), the tabbouli was not chopped properly with crippled parsley, the muhammara was very pasty and had so much harissa in it that it didn’t even taste Lebanese. The list goes on. But the most horrendous non Lebanese dish item was the main from the vegetarian menu option. Why on Earth is the main an Indian curry ??? With lots of spices and also sticky rice ? I’m sorry, but as a Lebanese this is just appalling and truly disgusting. We could not even finish it from how horrid it was and the presentation was super lacking of it too. It seemed as though they dropped all the leftover vegetables and put them in a curry sauce and served it with a sauce. Just gnarly. To pay over 600 pp and receive such disgusting food and lack of service, where none of the servers bothered to check up and did the bare minimum possible, just further puts this Lebanese restaurant as the worst Lebanese restaurant I’ve ever been to and that is a first for me. You should be ashamed presenting the fine Mediterranean cuisine of Lebanon in such a manner and creating this “concept”. I would never recommend this restaurant to anyone and as the A-list stars came and gave the restaurant recognition, that fame has faded away rather quickly. I’ll have to say this was a surprise for sure, but do yourself a favour and enjoy fine Lebanese cuisine across the street and the other Lebanese places in Stockholm. And, one last thing, the ambiance is not present whatsoever even given the fact it’s in an old market hall. Only plus is they serve Lebanese wine. To sum it up, avoid at all costs and spend your money...

The food was good but that doesn't compensate for the extremely terrible service that we received. First of all, the waitress left our company mid-order to greet another guest she recognised and when she came back 5 min later, she didn't even apologize. Secondly, it was recommended that we ordered as soon as possible to get our food before larger companies came, so we did. Our food didn't arrive until 1 hour later, even though we ordered earlier than others (who got their food before us) and we ordered the regular tasting menue, nothing out of the ordinary. This made it clear that they prioritise regulars, people they know and influencers/celebs. Thirdly, when ordering the food, we asked to change the pita bread (which isn't the typical bread to serve in Lebanese cuisine) to Liba bread, and were told they couldn't change it due to heavy workload in the kitchen, even though staff had previously said that was possible. This conversation also happened after a company nearby got to change tables in a fully-booked restaurant on a Saturday night, on a salary weekend. The customer service has gotten a lot worse and you notice a clear clientele prioritisation since the move to Östermalms Saluhall. We will not be returning and I would not recommend this restaurant. There are plenty of other great tasting Lebanese restaurants...

First of all, the food quality is below average. Our grilled halloumi and fried chicken wings were cold when they were served, and after we asked them to be heated up, they got burnt black. The beef hummus was such a disappointment, the beef was pretty dry and flavorless while the hummus tasted only super oily. Even the bread was dry and not soft enough. However the chicken liver was pretty good, and that’s what my stars are for. Also please awarded that this place has a mandatory minimum order for Meze, and this rule is not very clearly written on the website. The website makes the 3 Meze per person sounds more like a suggestion rather than a mandatory rule. This makes people who do not have a big appetite hard to order. My friend asked if there is a minimum spending, and said in that case she could order more drinks to compensate the money spent not enough on food, but got rejected. Yes, you MUST order at least 3 Meze per person at this place, drinks...