Beirut Sur Mer is a fun, local restaurant set right off Abu Dhabi’s famous Saadiyat Beach. Dan and I dined here on our last night in Abu Dhabi before flying to the Seychelles. We choose Beirut Sur Mer because (1) we looove Lebanese food(!) and (2) I saw it on a IG influencer’s page and it looked delicious! The pictures ended up holding true – this was a great dinner.
This is the proximity to Saadiyat Beach. I’m sure its much better during the day!
Beirut Sur Mer is decorated in a very fun and Instagram-able theme, with a brightly colored bar and chandeliers made to look like bunches of grapes (if only they served better wine!). We loved the vibe. While there is lots of outdoor seating, we sat inside with air conditioning. And, we were surprised to see that most of the guests were locals. Always a good sign.
The interior of Beirut sur Mer. Adorable!
Outdoor seating at Beirut sur Mer.
In traditional Lebanese restaurant fashion, we ordered A LOT of food at Beirut sur Mer, starting with cocktails, which ended up being my least favorite thing that we ordered. While very pretty, the cocktails tasted more like mocktails and I’m still not sure there was any alcohol in them (and they were not cheap). At least they looked nice. I would have preferred this for dessert.
My cocktail (possibly a mocktail!).
In terms of food, which was much, much better than the cocktails, we started our meal with a traditional Lebanese spread of olives, an olive oil paste, some crispy bread bits and fresh, hot Lebanese flat bread. All of this was fantastic, and the Lebanese flat bread kept coming out. I had far too much of this!
Traditional Lebanese starters. The Lebanese flat bread was my favorite.
Next up, we ordered the Zatar crusted Halloumi Cheese. This was also great. While a bit basic/touristy with the “Zatar crust,” one can never go wrong with a form of fried cheese. We also split some sort of fritters that were stuffed with meat. These were tasty, but I much preferred the Halloumi.
Zatar crusted Halloumi.
The stuffed croquette thingys.
Finally, for the “main” portion of our meal, we split the grilled lamb plate. The lamb was cooked very well and was served over more Lebanese bread topped with some herbs. All in all, excellent!
In sum, we enjoyed our dinner at Beirut Sur Mer and would definitely recommend it to those visiting Abu Dhabi. The restaurant is open all day, and lunch will definitely offer better beach views than dinner.
STEAL OUR DINNER
Beirut Sur Mer: Open daily 9 AM – 12 AM, until 1 AM on Friday and Saturday. Reservations required on busy nights. One caveat, you can make a reservation online but the restaurant requires a local number to secure the reservation. They do call the day-of to confirm, in addition to confirming via email. If your local number does not work, you will need to call to confirm the reservation in order not to lose it. We used our hotel’s phone and confirmed online, but our reservation was then cancelled because of the phone number. We called and it was reinstated.