A Must Try: Sunday Brunch at St. Elmo’s Seaside Brasserie

Rating: 75/100

Welcoming:8/10

Menu Choices: 8/10

Food Presentation: 9/10

Food Temperature: 10/10

Food Taste: 18/20

Service: 6/10

Ambiance/Music: 7/10

Architecture/Interior: 8/10

Air Quality: 1/10

Total: 75/100

More about: St. Elmo'sAn escape from Beirut’s dreary restaurant grind, St. Elmo’s serves elevated pub grub in a retro-urban seaside setting. Named after the patron saint of sailors, St. Elmo’s is packed with crowd pleasing New England fare like the Boston clam chowder, the Nova Scotia lobster roll, the classic Fish & Chips, the rich and gooey mac-and-cheese and the soft center chocolate chip cookie.

A Must Try: Sunday Brunch at St. Elmo’s Seaside Brasserie

On Sundays, head down to Zaitunay Bay to experience St. Elmo’s special brunch. A cocktail of delicious food, funky ambiance and soft tunes transporting you into another dimension. A great experience that I urge you to try.Pay attention sailor, three signs will help you throughout your journey:

A star for new items
A heart for light dishes
A martini glass for items included in the happy hour

“St.Elmo’s has two menus. One for the week days and another special for the Sunday Brunch”

Good morning
Breakfast sides
Hangover cocktails
For starters
Mains
Garden party
He drinks
Cold drinks
Soft drinks
Puddings & Sweets
Ice cream parlor (your choice of Oslo ice creams & Sorbets)
Draft beer
Shooting gallery
Sangrias
Frozen cocktails
Punch bowl
Mojito bar
Beers
House elixirs
Bloody Marias
Wines by the glass
Champagnes and sparklings
White wines
Rose wines
Red wines

Ali, the waiter took the order in a very professional and appetizing manner, making us want to taste all the specialties.I love the Decoration:

Reminding you of a ship, a sailor’s heaven
Blue and white floor with navigation stars
Metallic rusted chairs of different shapes that are not too comfortable. It will make you want to leave quickly
A long light brown leather sofa covers the main wall from side to side
Two long mirrors make the place look bigger
The kitchen bar
The drinks bar where people can enjoy lunch and drinks
Rustic wooden tables that’s a bit too small to host six persons
A nice ceiling covered with wooden beams
I like the sailing boat next to the entrance
The white wooden finish of the walls relaxes the eyes while enjoying the sea view

We ordered:

Nachos and 5 layers dip (multigrain nachos, served with a dip consisting of mushy black beans, lime guacamole, sour cream, shredded
Cheddar and pico de gallo.
Salmon tartare (served on a bed of home-made tarama, topped with wild oregano and salmon rice)
Our famous Fish&Chips (180g of beer-battered Mediterranean bass served with mushy peas, our home-made tartar sauce & Parmesan fries)
Mac & Cheese (warm and cheesy macaroni with a crispy garlic bread crust)
Soft center chocolate chip cookie (fresh baked ‘deep pan ‘cookie topped with vanilla bran ice cream

Pay attention guys, details are very important to focus on:

Remove the cables from under the stairs
Send the plastic cups box back to the kitchen. It doesn’t fit in the restaurant
Pay attention while moving around the tables and avoid colliding with each others
Mr Manager, calm down. Relax! Lower your voice… You don’t have to be so stressed – it stresses your customers

The food:

The homemade nachos are very tasty and non oily served in a paper bag next to a glass bowl. Inside it is the signature five layer dip of sour cream, guacamole, cheddar cheese, and black beans. A unique idea never seen before in Lebanon.
Salmon tartare is unique as well, specially with its thyme fresh leaves, capers and lemon cubes served on a bed of smooth tarama full of flavors. Presented next to two slices of sun dried tomato crunchy bread. The salmon’s quality is high-end, non oily and very tasty. Bravo!
Fish and chips comes in a metallic iron casserole with thick French fries covered with shredded cheese and accompanied with tartar sauce and green delicious Maury peas on the side. I like it and most importantly its not oily but the external cover is chewy, not crusty and honestly I didn’t know what’s so special about it. “Our famous”? Not sure about that. Needs some fine-tuning.
Mac and cheese served into a little iron hot casserole should be named : “Our famous…” It’s better than the fish and chips with its crusty layer, melting cheese and flavours.

The desert deserves an applause! It is extraordinary good. Bravo! Adequately cooked, thin giant cookie in an iron pan topped with a cold thick Oslo ice-cream. Yummy.

The pluses:

Thank you for serving Coke.
I loved your frozen marguerittas. Enjoyed them
The ambiance is very nice and enjoyable on a sunny Sunday
Toilets are impeccable
I like the decoration with the tiny green trees on every tabls and the wooden salt and pepper mills
I love your logo and banding: I’m a big fan!

The minuses:

Tables are very small specially that they are made to host six guests each: Sharing appetixers in the middle is impossible.
Smoking inside is not allowed and not accepted
Music is a bit too loud to have lunch even though its a Sunday party
Too many waiters! They’re a bit chaotic with a lack of experience specially the younger ones
Tables are too tight one to the other. Everyone been bumping into my chair for the last two hours

I really loved this place… Should have been here long time ago.PS: The unacceptable! Smoking is not allowed indoor. This is the law! I was offered an ashtray that I refused even though I was craving for a cigar but others around were smoking. You want to make St.Elmo’s a smoking place to please the minority, know that the majority is not happy. We are not obliged to smell their shit! Many guests won’t ever visit again. Sorry.