When you miss Lebanon on a daily basis, when you feel like living in the past, when nostalgia haunts you, when talking about Lebanon brings tears to your eyes and when you live in Dubai... It's Filful, an authentic Lebanese restaurant open in Box Park and serving a Lebanese cuisine surrounded with details from our childhood.
Old Lebanese tiles, Jalloul sparkling soft drinks, Pepsi in glass bottles and signboard brought from old Beirut. Wooden tables topped with metal from "2ahwet el ezez", marble top, a Kaak vendor's poster with every little detail that comes with it.
Plates of enamel, stainless serving plates, a can of Cortas for the cutlery, traditional coffee cups and much more.
My favorite is the menu, which is printed on a newspaper. Pages of colors and life, beautiful plates and old stories. Breakfast, sandwiches, Kaak, salads, cold mezza, hot mezza, barbecue, sweets, drinks and fruit cocktails.
They have a manakish oven, Kaak with picon, foul and hummus, Labneh with black olives, grilled halloumi with cherry tomatoes and fresh juices. At Filful you also find the thin flat bread and some fresh vegetables specially imported from the land of the cedars.
Eggs with kawarma mixed with pine nuts or sunny side up followed by a plate of jams. Don't forget to order Kaak with picon and the jams at the end are to die for. I could literally do a review about the selection of jam at Filful. Walnut jam, eggplant jam, pumpkin, dates and bitter orange. Balanced sweetness and amazing crunch and taste.
The next day, it was Lebanese lunch in Dubai. A Lebanese Mezze table, falafel, the fried vegetable plate, loubiyeh, chicken liver with coriander and pomegranate molasses, the green Zaatar and tomato salad, kebbeh with fried onions, stuffed grapevine leaves, the unique watermelon and cheese salad and my favorite, the eggplant Moutabbal with fried eggplant marinated in pomegranate molasses.
After lunch take the stairs up to the terrace where Burj Khalifa appears in the back. Try their Lebanese desserts nd cocktails while moking the shisha.
You won't understand the feeling before trying it. It's a certain nostalgia and pride triggered as soon as you experience the real flavors of our country. It's about the details that tell a story. The Gandour biscuit box reminds me of something, Pepsi bottles of something else, Fayrouz, MEA airlines or simply those fresh Lebanese tomatoes, it's all about home.
Filful: My Lebanese breakfast and lunch spot in Dubai.
