Oh My God! I’ve been writing reviews for the last seven years, discovered thousands of restaurants in Lebanon but never imagined that we have an authentic Chinese restaurant in Beirut. Little China is one of Beirut’s iconic restaurants open on Monot street. It’s where real Chinese food is served by a Chinese family; come to meat Mingo who takes the order, cooks and makes sure you are treated right.
Chinese like you see it in the movies; yellow decor, Chinese lanterns, white table covers, Chinese wallpapers, and Chinese art creates a traditional ambiance. I was happy and astonished when I first walked in; I shouted “wow”! Mingo has been in Lebanon since 1996, a wife and two children; his kids speak French, Arabic, Chinese, and English. I was surprised to know that we have such a big Chinese community in Lebanon.
Appetizers, soups, noodles, rice, stir-fried vegetables, salads, chicken, sizzling dishes, beef, shrimp, fish, crab, duck, and desserts.
Start with the vegetable spring rolls: deeply fried and rolled the same day, the spring rolls are super crunchy and fresh — the crab salad made of cherry tomatoes, shredded iceberg lettuce, purple cabbage, and crab sticks. Dumplings followed, steamed and lightly sticky.
I loved the noodles so much that I ordered two plates. Eggs fried rice, shrimp sweet and sour, fish sweet and sour, chicken cashew nuts among many other plates. Food food, simple and uncomplicated.
