When a restaurant has a really talented Chef, you find out at first bite.

That’s the heart of a restaurant – the food must catch your tongue with its deeply layered complexity of flavors, and that is what Villa Beirut offered with exceptional results.

Every dish was delivered with a fantastic, maybe even old-school, countryside feel, like Grandma used to make back in the village, kind of flavors that I have found very rarely in modern restaurants – absolutely lip-smacking delicious.

But let us see the venue first, as the location is also marvelous, directly overlooking the RAK Creek, part of Al Naeem Mall.

And the interior is elegantly decorated as a country villa from Lebanon…

The care to detail and the sophistication of the tableware presented a higher class restaurant than one expects as a shopping mall outlet, but at Villa Beirut the pride of proposing a top-notch dining experience was powerfully present – in fact, Villa Beirut would also serve as an excellent venue to celebrate parties for important events in your life, with family and friends.

An old world charm, representing cultured Beirut, and its fortunate location as the bridge from the Arab world to the Mediterranean, rich in arts, music, poetry and all manners of human distinction, most certainly the cuisine, was represented at Villa Beirut in a modest yet sincere way.

And the first bite will highlight the feeling that the whole ambience has predicted from the moment you walked in – simply explained, Villa Beirut serves extremely delicious dishes, truly exceptional Lebanese culinary culture.

Simple dishes, with histories of thousands of years – in fact the menu presents Lebanon’s most popular and favorites dishes; but do not be fooled, because the traditions hold root exactly because they are so fantastically delicious.

And that is why they are both popular and favorites!

It is as if the good Chef and his kitchen team at Villa Beirut took a clear decision and direction: forget fancy innovations and experimentation: we will instead focus our energy and efforts on maximizing the tastes of our time-honored favorites.

And that is exactly what arrived at our table – masterpieces of traditional, historical Lebanese cuisine. Superb!

The humble falafel – exceptionally crunchy, still warm inside – freshly prepared for us! – and the inside soft and friable: perfect examples. But then the flavors take over from the textures, and they are deep and complex – this is not a dry mix that anyone can pour into a bowl… these were flavors elevated to a mastery level that is very rare to find.

Not too salty – the intense taste was not simply mixing in more salt or powdered soup or whatever artificial flavoring cheap-quality cooks use nowadays; at Villa Beirut these falafels had depth to the flavors, layers of complementing flavors that worked together, and bounced off each other, dancing on your palate – just like the Lebanese do when they are happy.

I can’t describe it any better – the falafel were alive with real taste. I can’t tell you why or how, other than the Chef is a darned excellent cook! I also can’t show you the flavors in the photos, so you will have to visit and try for yourself.

And that was our first bite at Villa Beirut – but we quickly found out that every dish had this exceptional quality of taste.

Simple, traditional dishes, but exalted by excellent taste – the tabbouleh and fattoush salads dressed to perfection…

… the blended dips: hummus, muttabel, and the beetroot muttabel – the muttabel shahandar – all outstanding.

We were enchanted even before the main course arrived!

And there again, the meat flavors were fantastic.

And all the while you are at the seafront, enjoying the decor and terrace breeze, also a delightful location for shisha in the evening.

Overall, from starter to coffee, the best flavors of traditional Lebanese cuisine made for a memorable dinner at Villa Beirut – one that will remain as a benchmark, and which will serve to compare all future meals from that culinary culture – and given my 21 years of sampling Lebanese cuisine in UAE, I very much doubt to find a tastier selection of dishes than those I deliciously devoured at Villa Beirut in Ras al Khaimah.