This is not a story about the Lebanon, but rather the visit of a Lebanese restaurant in Vienna. Despite its name Li Beirut, the restaurant only offers a handful of dishes from the Lebanon. The rest are Spanish tapas and Italian starters. I am not really sure if I can see a thread going through the menu here. But never mind, we wanted to eat some Lebanese food on that evening. The restaurant was still in its soft-opening period and therefore empty when we arrived.
indoor seating @Li Beirut
The menu is actually quite short when it comes to Lebanese dishes, which was a bit of a disappointment. With such a name one would expect something different. In the end we decided on a Fattoush salad, Labneh with mint, some kind of beans with cumin, and pimientos de padron.
Fattoush salad, Labneh, and beans @Li Beirut
pimientos de padron @Li Beirut
Everything tasted fresh, if a little bit boring. Best of all was the Labneh, which was creamy and very delicious with the mint on top. We scooped it all up with the hard bread that came with it (the same one as in the salad). I didn’t enjoy the beans unfortunately. They had a strong lemony flavor in which the cumin got lost. Also they were a bit too al dente for my taste.
Funnily enough the Fattoush salad also tasted mostly of lemon, with a strong flavor of the fresh mint. But not much more. Which was a total shame, because I loved Fattoush salad when I was in Beirut and it has usually a lot going for it. So this version wasn’t really my thing. But even the pimientos were not the best. They would have needed a tad longer in the pan.
Service was friendly and attentive. But honestly if you pour my bottled beer, please make sure that there is at least a hit of foam. Li Beirut definitely needs more time to up its game. Yours, Pollybert
Li Beirut
1090 Wien, Garnisongasse 5
Tel: + 43 1 3460210
Email: office@libeirut.at
Mon-Sat: 10:00-22:00, Sun: 10:00-15:00
https://www.libeirut.at/
