I have a question for you and please tell me if I am wrong? Is it acceptable to bring in an American concept and add Shisha to the menu...? Let me be more specific, do you see cinnamon rolls and shisha together?
While driving along the Achrafieh road, I was happy to discover that Cinnzeo has opened again. My favorite place since childhood is now back, the perfect place to have fun and enjoy some mouthwatering rolls. At least that was what I remembered...
And I wish I had never stopped.
Instead of being welcomed by the yummy smell of freshly baked cinnamon rolls, I was welcomed by long glass arguiles... heavy shisha smoke haunting the place... while a TV screen broadcasting sports on low quality feed...
My bubble was definitely burst... and my memory of the place was shattered in a second.
The Cinnaroll experience: Served hot from the oven within 30 minutes. Melt in your mouth dough, cinnamon and brown sugar oozing between the tender wraps of dough, then completed with g Philly Cream Cheese frosting.
Here it is:
- The first impression was not the best. I was waiting to be taken away by the smell of the rolls… It was neutral.
- The dough, like old French bread, chewy and lacking consistency
- The cinnamon taste is there, yet too fade
- The borders on the rolls were too chewy. They stick on the plate and your teeth afterwards
- Shisha smells and smoke again, that's the final flavor you’re left with
Cinnabon rolls I've had last week at the Beirut City Centre were surely much better.
Despite its good service an welcoming staff, Cinnabon was surely a better experience; at least it offered edible cinnamon rolls. I'm sorry to have experienced that... I would stop by again, in the weeks to come and check on the updates, hoping that Shisha would be allowed only outside -if they insist on having it- and that the rolls would be tastier and more enjoyable.
