Al Basha Lebanese restaurant, at the Metropolitan Resort and Beach Club, Dubai
The choice of cuisine available in Dubai means that you could satisfy your hunger with food from a different part of the globe every night for months. You could be in India for breakfast, Germany for lunch and Polynesia for dinner, all in one day. But as different kinds of food become trendy, and fads come and go, Lebanese food has been a mainstay of the Dubai restaurant scene for years. Lebanese food is often loosely classed as 'Arabic' food, yet this term is misleading. Most Arabic food eaten in Dubai, and through most of the Gulf, is based on Lebanese-style cuisine. It is the most popular of Arabic foodstyles. We had lunch at Al Basha Lebanese restaurant at the Metropolitan Resort and Beach Club in Jumeirah and left satisfied.
Situated on a terrace overlooking the Arabian gulf, Al Basha is enclosed by large windows during the summer to keep in the a/c and open-air during the winter. We had a choice of hot and cold starters and grilled, fresh seafood, all of which were extremely tasty. The bread at Al Basha is cooked fresh on a traditional Lebanese oven (which looks like a big, upside-down wok mounted on bricks) while two Lebanese musicians get down on the tableh and oud. The atmosphere is relaxed and you don't have to go there for a meal. You can stand at the bar and enjoy the live music, or just order coffee and shisha. All in all, a pleasant place in which to while away a few hours.