Lebanese Food at Its Best

Our favourite restaurant in Lebanon is Mehanna in Antelias. The location is somewhat off and their clientel is not the tourists. They serve a traditional Lebanese menu with the most attentive and professional service a restaurant can offer. Every dish that leaves there kitchen is made to perfection, and even though most restaurants have their blind spots, I have still to find something less positive about them. Once we went straight to the restaurant from the airport, with bags and everyting, just because we didn't want to waste time before we could have the perfect Lebanese meal.

This year, Mehanna opened a branch in Byblos (called Jbeil in Arabic) 35 kilometres north of Beirut. We wanted to try it, so we went up the coast. The traffic is dense and it can easily take an hour to go there. But we hoped it would be worth the trip.

The restaurant is situated on a cliff, overlooking the sea. It was beautiful. We ordered a dozen dishes, such as Lebanese meat balls, fattouch sallad, filo rolls with cheese, stuffed wine leaves, hummous. I drank the Lebanese Ksara white wine and my husband took his annual arrak and argile. It was all delicious. We'll go back again after New Year's, we don't care it it takes an hour or more on the highway.

The traditional dessert table consists of fruits. But who can eat all that?
Our waiter even suggested that he could bring the fruits to the car for us.