Mandaloun - Roma

Disappointing one, this. Sometimes you pay excessively for a location, but you don't really mind. Other times the extra cost just sours what has already been a mediocre experience. This was the latter case. Mandaloun is located in a pretty street just off Via Veneto, Rome's luxury hotel district. In fact, I think we were the only locals dining here, managing to bag a pretty outside table on the quiet street. Specialising in Lebanese food, we were offered bread with olives and sour cream while waiting for our order. Starting with an absolutely fine but standard mixed mezze, featuring hummus, babba ganoush and tabbouleh, the drinks took ages to arrive, and in my case, was a fairly average industrial 33cl beer which had been advertised as a specialist beer from Lebanon. The mixed mezze costs around 22 euros in two, which is a lot considering the cost of the ingredients, but the taste was good so it wasn't a problem. For my main course, I selected a lamb shank with rice combined with pine-nuts that cost €18. This was pretty disappointing. The lamb was well cooked and to my taste, although slightly subtle in flavour for another member of our party. The rice was seriously overcooked with that unpleasant, crumbly texture and no taste at all. I decided not to order anything else after this disappointing meal, but other diners in my party ordered mint tea to complete the meal. This turned out to be a cheap, ceramic pot containing Lipton black tea bags with a few straggles of fresh mint. For those of you who have spent any time in Italy, you'll know that finding good tea can be tricky but not impossible. A restaurant like this should be serving genuine mint infusions, if not entirely made from fresh mint, then sourcing quality dried tea-bags. Sorry, but this was an absolute disgrace. Lipton is the cheapest and poorest supermarket brand of tea, and I would have been livid if I'd ordered this as there's no way I would want to be drinking black tea in any case at midnight. Just totally wrong and a symbol of the cheapness of this place which pretends five star prices for careless cooking and essentially basic ingredients. The bill? €40 per head. Wow. Just wow.

Worst sisha place; it was empty when we got there, the waiters are disrespectful and were trying to get lucky with people in the restaurant. They were very touchy and it was disgusting watching them disrespect the women in the restaurant.

Found this restaurant a bit by accident as we were not specifically looking for a Lebanese establishment. Glad we noticed the street sign across from our hotel. Went without expectations and were very pleasantly surprised. Very nice decor inside. Main dining room on lower level from street level. Good selection of authentic Lebanese/Turkish items. Dining with another couple so we had a variety of menu items. All had very nice taste profiles. I particularly liked the Spicy Salad. Our server was very nice and helpful to us in explaining several menu items. Would recommend them if your in the mood for this type of food.

We came after two failed trying to eat in two other restaurants (they were both closed, although Google cards said they were not) in the hope to find good vegan options. we were cautiously optimistic on the basis of the polarizing reviews, but were pleasantly surprised and happy with any dish we got. we ordered the hummus, the Baba-Ganoush, the falafel, the foul-mas and an salate. the server was very attentive during a slow, 2pm midday hour and was very sweet. of the directed we ordered is the only real complaining that the salat was a bit salty, but it had still good taste. this was a good recitation of days and days only Italian food would come back!

Good Lebanese food in rom! I had already believed one because after hummus, and that definitely meets the point. not sure what is the negative assessments, but if they like the middle east tariff, they will enjoy this place.