In a collective act of solidarity, bloggers have decided today to collectively republish the "Post" that got one Blogger in Kuwait sued..
(Intro courtesy of BeirutSpring.com)
My Benihana Experience, By Mark Makhoul
A few days back I posted about Benihana opening up at the Avenues and yesterday night I decided to pass by with Nat and try it out. The service wasn’t too bad for a restaurant that’s just been open for a few days and the staff were really friendly. The restaurant itself is made up of islands and bars with a grill in the middle of each one. You sit around the grill and the chef will come to your table and prepare the food right in front of you which makes things entertaining. It’s actually why I prefer sitting at the bar in Japanese restaurants in general, since you can talk to the chef and watch them put your dish together. The problem with my experience last night though was with the food, it was disappointing to say the least.
We ordered beef negimayaki for starters followed by an Orange Blossom maki and a Hibachi Chicken. The negimaki arrived looking good and was probably the best thing we had there even though I prefer Maki’s negimaki which has a richer teriyaki sauce. The Orange Blossom was very ordinary, wouldn’t order it again. Now the Hibachi chicken which is basically grilled chicken, that was the worst. The chicken was very chewy (I could swear it was undercooked if not raw) and tasted terrible. Even after I had the chef add some more teriyaki sauce in hopes of improving the taste it didn’t work. I tried to dip it into the sauces that came with the chicken but it was hard to figure out if they were actually making things worse or not. Nat only ate one piece of chicken and left the rest while I needed my protein since I’m on a strict diet and forced myself to eat my whole plate (I can do that) but the after taste was really bad. Even the rice and the veggies that came with it tasted bad AND were under cooked. Once we left I considered picking up a frozen yogurt from Pinkberry even though I hate frozen yogurts but I just needed something to get rid of the aftertaste. A few moments later we ended up at Chocolate Bar ordering the gooey chocolate cake (bye bye diet).
I shot the two videos above of the chef preparing our meal. Benihana are known for the live shows they perform when preparing your dish so I was expecting to see [This] but ended up with the above . Would I go back to Benihana? No I wouldn’t. Their sashimi and maki’s are pretty cheap (KD1.5 for 5 pieces of Salmon sashimi for example) but there are two other Japanese restaurants at the Avenues, Wasabi and Maki, and I would prefer either one of those to Benihana.
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Beirut is once again a hotspot for tourists. Focal to this is Beirut’s hotel district, home to many 4 and 5 star hotels. These hotels have indeed raised the standard for excellence. As is always the case with Lebanon, there’s another part of this story. During the heydays of the 1960’s, this same hotel district was the playground of the rich and famous. Beirut became known as the “Paris of the Middle East” during this time. The high stakes game of the hotel industry took a turn for the worst during Lebanon’s bloody civil war. Hotels not only suffered a loss of revenue but became an actual battle ground. The infamous “Battle of the Hotels” was waged. The InterContinental Phoenicia Hotel is in the foreground of the photo with the still damaged Holiday Inn behind, casting its ominous shadow over the city. Just a stone’s throw from the Holiday Inn are newly built hotels and residential towers. Some of the newest structures feature a glass facade. Who would suggest such a fragile facade in plain view of Beirut’s violent history? Could the architect be Lebanese? Of course! Only a Lebanese would tempt the Gods of War with such a delicate structure but then tempting fate is part of being Lebanese. 
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