Does Popular = Good?

It is often easy to assume that an ethnic restaurant that is packed with people of the food’s decent is going to be good but it does not hold true 100% of the time.   Beirut Restaurant on the other hand seems to be filled with 80-90% of capacity every time I walk by.

In on the basement floor of the Phloen Chit center which is in between the Phloen Chit BTS station and Sukhumvit Soi 2 most restaurants are very slow.  There are Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Italian and Thai restaurants in the Phloen Chit center including one of 3 (that I know of) locations for Lee Cafe and I’ve never seen any of these restaurants even close to full.

I figured Beirut Restaurant would be good but I didn’t know for sure.  With the huge Middle-eastern, Mediterranean and African population at Soi 3 or “Soi Arab” as it’s known by the Thais I wondered if the restaurant just had the right location.  I was hungry and I had to try it just to see if the place was as good as it appeared to be.

Finally Give Beirut Restaurant a Try

Since I’m usually on the way to pick up a salad at Villa Market I pass the packed  Bombay Restaurant.   I have thought numerous times that I would have tried it if it wasn’t so packed and I finally had my chance when I saw only 1 or 2 tables at the restaurant on a Thursday night around 7:15pm after Thai class.  I was sat down and given a menu and I happened to sit in a corner of the restaurant looking out the window.

Bombay has quite the extensive menu but one of the combo plates caught my eye.  You can choose between a dozen or so choices in combinations of 2, 3, 4 or 5 if I remember correctly.  I think these combo plates are for more than a single person but I tend to eat like a pig so I figured why not.

I ordered a combination plate with beef and chicken shawarma, salad and falafel and a strawberry lassi which is a sweet yogurt based drink that I routinely used to order in San Francisco Indian restaurants.  The combination plate came with 2 pieces of pita bread.

Beirut Restaurant’s Food

I got my giant plate of food and I realized that I chose 4 items which came with pita bread but it didn’t come with hummus.  My strawberry lassi was so delicious I finished it in around 30 seconds and ordered a mango lassi when I ordered a side order of hummus.

I must say the food was delicious.  By no means am I a falafel connoisseur but the falafel at BierutRestaurant was the best I have ever had.  Both the beef and chicken shawarma were perfect.  They had the perfect amount of spice.  The hummus was good (as all hummus ever) and the pita bread was standard as well.

Overall Impression

A packed restaurant in the midst of a bunch of dead ones turned out to be as (indirectly) advertised.  I only ate there because it was less crowded than usual but by the time I finished my meal around 8ish and turned around, the place was packed almost to capacity again.  My bill was 600 baht ($18USD) which was mostly due to ordering too much and two 100baht ($3) lassi drinks.  You could get in and out without spending 500 baht but most likely (especially if you’re with someone) will spend over 500 baht hence the price rating.  It really depends on what you order.

Although most of the time I eat Mediterranean food it’s a falafel or kebab sandwich off the street Beirut Restaurant had the best Mediterranean food I have had.

Last 5 posts by Mike Behnken

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