Since I travel a lot for my job as an Export Manager, I’m always eating at restaurants around Europe.
The first restaurant review for my new blog is Restaurant Saidoun in Bucharest.

I had my lunch here on Friday the 6th of july 2012.

To be honest, I was positivelyy surprised about this restaurant. Since it’s Lebanese cuisine, I did not know what to expect. The restaurant is placed at the Phoenicia grand hotel in Bucharest on the 2nd floor.

I ordered a mixed lunch platter and asked for a combination of traditional Lebanese food. The very nice lady said she would make me a perfect platter with different cold and warm starters. For drinks she suggested a nice and refreshing lemonade made of fresh lemons, mint, mineral water and honey. Just perfect for such a warm day.
Within 3 minutes she came along with a big tray filled with raw vegetables containing cabbage, tomatoes, cucumbers, pickles and green peppers, all on the house. Just 5 minutes after that there came some cold starters such as baba ganoush, Humus, yoghurt and aubergine paste and freshly baked Pita bread, all very strong tasting products and a great starter. After about 20 minutes she followed with some warm starters. Just 2 I want to highlight; a traditional beef stew with caramelized onions in vinegar. Very nice in a sweet and sour way, just a delight in combination with the fresch yoghurt and the Pita bread. But the number one dish were the chicken fingers. Real nice and tender strips of chicken in a light batter, combined with a heavenly dressing of garlic, red peppers, onion, oil and vinegar. It will make you smell for a few hours, but it’s totally worth it…!!!
Afterwards I asked if they had any Lebanese wines, and they did. I could choose out of 2 white wines, an oak barrel rested Chardonnay of 2008 or a “blend” of sauvignon blanc with pinot blanc and some others from 2010. While the girl recommended the “blend” I followed my gut feeling and took the Chardonnay, and I’m very glad I did so! This St. Thomas wine was of perfect age, nice dark yellow with taste of ripe fruits and and grass and a strong oak taste. A pretty strong wine with 14,3% of alcohol but I can recommend this for sure.

So a perfect lunch with a score of 7.5 out of 10