La Chaîne des Rôtisseurs Dinner at The Grill Room

Four times a year, members of La Chaîne des Rôtisseurs Association meet up at one of Beirut's finest restaurants to discover and rate their food and service. This time, we chose The Grill Room located at the Four Season's Hotel. Before the appreciation dinner starts and discover what the chosen establishment has to offer, members meet to enjoy a welcoming glass of champagne...

On the second floor of one of Beirut's most luxurious hotels is The Grill Room, a restaurant featuring prime steak cuts including real USDA beef, French Charolais, Australian Wagyu and Black Angus, lamb entrecôte, bunless US Prime beef burger, grilled grouper and fin tuna for sea food lovers. The welcoming atmosphere and smart décor of The Grill Room are complemented by stunning view of Beirut's Marina that we enjoyed on the terrace around glasses of Moët & Chandon champagne accompanying different canapés. You can't but pull yourself away from the crowd for a moment to enjoy the great decoration this place has to offer: Simple and clear, very classy and elegant. You’ll enjoy the smooth carpet, comfortable chairs, leather table top, high sealing and happy, welcoming waiters. The wine glasses are large and thin making you enjoy your drink, while soft drinks are served in special jars, which I found interesting and unique. Two thumbs up for this non-smoking restaurant.

A perfect first impression:

• Moët & Chandon champagne
• Asian delights from the roof: Spring rolls
• Fried chicken dumplings
• Salmon bagels with cream cheese

Sitting down for dinner, the tables are perfectly managed with standards competing with fine dining restaurants. Bread was served and we started our appreciation journey. The bread is so special, with its crunchy envelop and hot core, served with salt and pepper grains, fleur de sel and salted butter on the side, allows you to prepare yourself for the start of an outstanding culinary experience.

The place's little details:

• You enter a long room with a private bar on the right, a terrace on the left can host up to 40 seated guests and the main dining area in the middle
• At the end is a circular room with its circular table giving breathtaking views of the sea and Zaitunay bay
• High ceiling gives the space a relaxing feel
• In the middle, on the wooden wall, four cow heads remind you that you are in a grill restaurant
• Wood separators are decorated with arabic calligraphy
• Relaxing brown carpet with squares make walking around feel like floating on cotton
• Round and square tables depending on the customer's preference
• The chairs are so relaxing with their arm rests, you'll feel like you're enjoying coffee in at the Versailles palace.
• A large glass facade separates the space from the kitchen. Behind it are the wine coolers with their choice of 200 different European bottles
• Dim lights makes your dinner cozier

The details at the table:

• Paderno branded professional meat knives which helps cut your pieces with style.
• Two forks on the left and two knives on the right
• The bread wood platter with its knife add the required style
• The tables have two levels. The center part is higher hosting the bread basket and its side  bowls
• Leather covers cover all the tables, protecting the wood while adding a more relaxed feeling for the hands
• Burgundy color is everywhere

Tonight's menu:

• Hamour Ceviche: Mango, Avocado, Sesame, Lime Marinade
• American USDA Prime 250g Tenderloin: Batroun farm foie gras, sautéed spinach, fondant potato
• Chocolate Croustillant: Roasted Hazelnuts, Piemonte Dacquoise, 66% Valrhona Chocolate

The Culinary Experience:

• Ceviche is a seafood dish popular in the coastal regions of the Americas, especially Central and South America. The dish is typically made from fresh raw fish marinated in citrus juices, and spiced with chili peppers. Additional seasonings, such as chopped onions, salt, and coriander, are also added. Tonight's Hamour Ceviche was served on a large plate, accompanied with white and green onions, cut cherry tomatoes, avocado sauce and orange quarters, all deposited majestically on a bed of sliced crunchy mango.
• The Ceviche plate was just perfect. Simple, beautifully presented and tasty, it was appreciated by all even though the use of two kinds of onions was a bit too much for such a small plate.
• The Beef Tenderloin, The Grill Room offers is indeed from a perfect quality as we ate it well done without being chewy. The large white plate contained a bed of sautéed spinach with the 250g tenderloin on top, a soft potato cylinder with a foie gras cream on top, raspberry couli, a garlic clove and a piece of broccoli. Serving a group of fine dining gourmet connoisseurs, the meat should be medium rare and surely not well done even though it was tasty. The plate was tasty with this little detail of cooking time. Five minutes less would have been appreciated.

The mouthwatering fine desserts:

• Full of emotions and passions, this dessert has been prepared with love. Crunchy nuts, chocolate mousse, two chocolate strips, raspberry couli, chocolate chip ice cream and feuillantine on a bed of pate d'amande. It was simply awesome. Charles Azar is my favorite pastry chef in Lebanon. Congratulations on your great work chef.
• Valrhona is a French luxury chocolate manufacturer based in the small town of Tain-l'Hermitage, a wine-growing district near Lyon.The company was founded in 1922 by a French pastry chef, Albéric Guironnet, from the Rhône valley and has five subsidiaries and 60 local distributors across the globe. It is one of the leading producers of gastronomic chocolate in the world. The company also maintains the École du Grand Chocolat, a school for professional chefs with a focus on chocolate-based dishes and pastries. Valrhona focuses mainly on high-grade luxury chocolate marketed for commercial use by chefs. Though considered one of the foremost chocolate makers in the world, Valrhona is in roughly the same price range as Godiva and Neuhaus.
• A dacquoise is a dessert cake made with layers of almond and hazelnut meringue and whipped cream or butter-cream. It takes its name from the feminine form of the French word dacquois, meaning 'of Dax', a town in southwestern France.

The wines that accompanied our dinner:

• White: Bourgogne, Saint-Veran, Joseph Drouhin, 2007
• Red: Cotes du Rhone, Parallele 45, Paul Jaboulet Aine, 2010

The Pluses: 

• Their bread is a story by itself. So tasty, so crunchy and so fresh. It's extraordinary
• All the waiters are wearing black overalls, complementing the decorations as they pass smoothly around the tables without attracting too much attention
• The manager, Mark kept touring around the tables and taking care of the little details. I appreciate your professionalism.
• I love the wine glasses: Thin and light
• The water glasses are even special. They do not use the simple wine ones but thick water cups that go along with the table setup
• The professional cutlery used makes your dinner even more enjoyable
• The dessert is simply extravagant
• Only three waiters served us all and with no delay
• St Pelligrino and Aqua Panna are always used at The Grill Room and nothing less

The minuses:

• Waiters served the plates by who's "closer to the kitchen policy". WRONG! Women should be served first, followed by elder guests and the others the last. This detail should not be overlooked in a fine dining restaurant part, especially that's part of a five stars hotel
• Plates are served on the left and removed from the right: A ritual not respected
• The meat was well done in plates and less in others: Cooking time should be homogeneously controlled
• The lighting is way too dimmed. We barely saw each other

When dinner finished, the chefs came out of the kitchen to present themselves. A group of professionals which I had the honor to take a picture with. A gala dinner which we all appreciated, handled by some of Beirut's most professional chefs. Like always, during coffee, a sheet of paper was distributed, where we rate the place and hand in our comments... (Qualite de la nourriture, Deroulement du menu, Qualite du service, Tenue des serveurs, Presentation des plats, Vin, Cuisson, Decor, Ambiance generale, Animation musicale) Good luck!