TRANSCRIPT
Rosie Hello, Frank. What’s going on?
Frank Hi, Rosie. Things are great. Fantastic. How are you?
Rosie I’m good, too. Frank, you went to a restaurant called Le Beyrouth. Please, can you answer me some questions about this experience?
Frank Sure. Fire away.
Rosie Okay. Where is this restaurant?
Frank All right. This restaurant is in the city of Strasbourg, which is about 65 kilometers south of where I live. It is in the southern part of Strasbourg, in a suburb called Neudorf. It’s not close to home.
Rosie Oh, my God. Why do people like going there?
Frank I don’t really know. Probably, they like Lebanese food. It is a Lebanese restaurant. So, people would like to go there if they want to eat Lebanese food.
Rosie Okay. So, what motivates people to drive all the way to eat there?
Frank In my case, it is a little bit different. We had met some friends whom we haven’t seen for a long, long time, many years. They were on a little holiday even further south of Strasbourg. We decided we would meet and have lunch together. So, I wanted to find a restaurant which was halfway. They drove 60 kilometers, we drove 65 kilometers, and we met in the middle. That was why we went there. I had been to the restaurant many, many years ago, but I didn’t really remember it. There are so many restaurants in Strasbourg, and I didn’t want to try anything unknown. So, I said, “Okay, I know the restaurant. I’ve been there once. Let’s try it again.” That’s why we drove this distance.
Rosie Oh, okay. Interesting. And what are their opening hours?
Frank So, the restaurant is open for lunch from about 11:30, 12 o’clock until 2. Then again for dinner, 6, 6:30 until, I think, something like 9 o’clock in the evening. If I remember rightly, the restaurant is closed on Tuesdays.
Rosie Okay. Very nice. Can you describe the ambiance of the history, the decoration, the atmosphere, please?
Frank Yeah. So, the restaurant is, in my opinion, a little old and a little tired. It could do with some fresh painting. It could do with a little refreshing in general. The decorations, the colors on the walls are warm. There are yellows and a little bit of white. But nothing really special on the tables, just a bunch of flowers in the middle. The atmosphere—I didn’t really notice the atmosphere because we were so busy talking with each other, catching up on all the stories of the past few years. I was more focused on that than on looking at what the atmosphere is like. But I do also remember that the toilets, you have to go through a long, narrow corridor. There’s a very dark room at the back of the restaurant. There are very small toilets. So, the back is very dark. But like I said, the restaurant looks tired. It needs some money spent to make it look fresher.
Rosie Okay. Oh, God. And what kind of food do they cook and serve?
Frank So, it is a Lebanese restaurant. My wife and I, we love this kind of food. They offer a mezze. It’s called a mezze, and there you have a selection of different hot and cold food. For example, you can have tabouleh, which is mashed wheat, tomatoes, parsley, and lemon all mixed together like a salad. You can have labneh, which is white cheese, hardened white cheese with some lemon. Of course, every Lebanese restaurant should have some hummus, which is pureed chickpeas, which is absolutely delicious. We eat that all the time. Sometimes you have some vegetables or some meat wrapped in wine leaves. Mutabal, also very important, which are pureed aubergines. Or you can have some warm starters or some warm mezze: falafel, which are, again, meatballs with chickpeas; some grilled chicken; and then a lot of grilled meat—chicken, lamb, beef, minced meat—all grilled with lots of spices and sauces. It’s very, very delicious. It comes in several plates. And you just, like in a Chinese restaurant, share with each other. You have a little bit of this and a little bit of that. That’s what they do. It’s Lebanese cuisine. That is their cooking.
Rosie Oh, my God. Looks delicious, right?
Frank I’m getting hungry talking about it.
Rosie Yes. And who would like to go to this restaurant?
Frank So, I think anybody who likes Lebanese cuisine or anything from that region—from the Mediterranean, North African region—they would like to go to this restaurant. But I also think that it is a restaurant—it has a neighbourhood feel to it. People who live close by and who don’t want to cook or want to have something for lunch or go for dinner, they would be people who would like to go to this restaurant. So, Lebanese food, it’s a local-style restaurant. Certainly, people like me, who live a long way away, wouldn’t be the sort of people who go there unless you know it and you really like their way of cooking. But it’s a local restaurant, really.
Rosie Oh, very nice. And I think people that want to try this kind of food too, right?
Frank Exactly. Yeah. It is certainly something to, if you have never eaten Lebanese, go to a restaurant and say, “Look, we’ve never had it. What do you recommend?” They will say, “You should try this, you should try that,” and they will give you a mixed platter of different foods or different dishes. Then you just eat your way through. It’s delicious.
Rosie Yeah, pretty good. Yes. And do you need to make a reservation at the weekends or during the week?
Frank So, what we did, I chose the restaurant and I told our friends that we should meet there at that time, Saturday 12 noon. When we walked in, the restaurant was not full. But I did notice that during lunchtime on a Saturday afternoon, the restaurant was full. Every table was taken, maybe except at the back where it’s so dark. So, I would recommend making a reservation. It’s always the safest way anyway because it seems to be a popular restaurant. If on a Saturday afternoon the restaurant is full, I think that’s a sign that it is a popular restaurant. So, make a reservation. It can’t harm. Rather safe than sorry.
Rosie Okay. And what about the value? Do you think you got value for money eating at this restaurant?
Frank Yeah, that’s a difficult one. So, we were two couples and together we paid 140 euros. That’s including some drinks. The only alcohol we drank was during our aperitif. We had some crémant, some sparkling wine. We didn’t drink any other alcohol. Then we had these platters, and it came to 140 euros. So times six is about 720 reais for you in Brazil. I have to say, and then we split the bill and it was 70 euros for us and 70 euros for our friends. I have to say this is pretty much normal, what you can expect to pay in a restaurant. But I was a little underwhelmed. I was a little disappointed. It was okay, but it was nothing special. It wasn’t a real experience. But I also have to say that we spent so much time talking and catching up on the news, etc., that I also didn’t always notice the food I was eating. I was eating and talking and concentrating more on the talking and less on the eating. So, the food was okay. It was nothing special. You have to expect to pay 35 euros per person. That’s pretty normal. But I cannot say if I got value for money. It was an okay experience. Nothing special.
Rosie Okay, good. So the experience, meeting your friends, it was great, right? It was a nice time.
Frank We hadn’t seen each other. The last time we saw each other was a few years before Covid. So that’s a good five, six, seven years ago. We hadn’t seen each other. So it was an opportunity. That was more important than the rest.
Rosie Yes. So it was a great time together with your friends, right?
Frank It was. It was good to catch up.
Rosie Oh, pretty nice. Okay, Mr. Frank, thanks so much for the information about this restaurant. Bye.
Frank Not a problem, Rosie. Pleasure to share this restaurant, and the website. I will share the website as well.