E Café Sursok

Being used to the E Café in Jbeil, I thought that the new restaurant from Roger Edde, in Sursok, would be mixing together good grilled cuisine with a typical Sursok green garden villa for a charming and cozy dinner out in Beirut. Unfortunatly, we don’t think the same.

In a Word:
A Disaster


Location:

The restaurant is located on the end of Sursok Street in a tiny place down a building, not really the place that I was expected. If you don’t like giving your car to a Valet, well you don’t have a choice! To find a place near the restaurant is nearly impossible, unless you have a Smart or a bicycle / motor bike. Moreover, the restaurant is not indicated so good luck in finding the place!

Notation: 3/10


Decoration:

As described above, I expected a very warm and cozy restaurant located in the intimacy of one of the Sursok’s palaces in Beirut with “rustique” wood tables on an elegant green grass freshly mowed as well as fer forgé pergolas… You have the choice to eat outside or inside.

Inside: I was really disappointed by the cheap modern decoration of the restaurant that does not give you the push for eating! It really has this very white cold atmosphere which reminded me of these white clean hospitals morgues with a chef in the background cutting the cadavers to pieces before serving them to you in a poorly decorated dish.

Outside: The tables are really Parisian! Very small round table designed to take a coffee or an aperitif before dinner. You do not have enough space to lay your knife and fork on the table or even to display two plates on the same table.

Notation: 2/10


Ambience:

The people working on the audio, really try to make you feel like you’re having dinner in France but largely failed to succeed! The waiters and waitresses are unfortunately too Lebanese to look like French people but have the same sense of humor as a polish diplomat.

Notation: 3/10


Service:

Well what can I say after all… the service of the E Café Sursok is worse than the E Café in Jbeil! We should really create a Waiter’s School to teach them how to manage a conversation with clients and especially be more reactive to client’s complaints and demands.

E Café wants to be positioned into the classy restaurants of Beirut, but before they should really make an effort on their service. Imagine that the waitress, by mistake, filled my white wine glass with water without bothering herself getting me a new one! The waitress ignores completely what is served in the plate! You don’t understand nothing.

E Café is mainly a grilled meat restaurant, PLEASE instruct your waiters before serving the client. They don’t know the difference between a Medium Rare and Medium Well cooking! Shocking!

Notation: 1/10


Food:

What a torture… from the food portions to the meat tender and finally to the meat cooking! It was a real disaster! Personnaly I have ordered a beef carpaccio and a beef fillet (Twice). Why twice? Because my first fillet was served to me well done instead of medium rare…Pathetic

Please don’t serve carpaccio when you don’t even know what it is. My beef slices were as thick as my fillet! The taste of the raw meat in my mouth was not very pleasant.

Important: Please take your bread with you before entering the restaurant as it is given to you piece by piece on demand. And you have to smile to the waitress to give you the bread otherwise … forget about it! The plates are poorly presented and the portions are very small.

To Taste: The bread as it is very rare and given as a privilege, the meat but check on it every while.

To Avoid: The Magret de canard, salade de chevre chaud ( too Small), salade farfellue and the Glass of Wine! You won’t believe the quantity given to you!!

Notation: 4/10



Price:

To expensive compared to the small portions and bad service proposed.

Notation: 4/10


Kitchens:

The chef is behind a big transparent glass in the inside eatery room, looks clean! But again nothing new!


Toilets:

Ca va!

Notation: 5/10



TOTAL: 3/10



Conclusion: E Café is enjoying the Jbeil E Café reputation but really don’t deserve it at all. The service is very poor, the service is obviously under experienced and the food quality is not as expected. Moreover, the location and deco of the place are not in the image of the food served in the restaurant.