Beirut Sur Mer

Seafood held to the Levantine line

Before the mezze fills the table, Executive Chef Georges Zgheib and an open-kitchen team work the grill at Beirut Sur Mer in Abu Dhabi. The kitchen works by the Arabian Gulf, where the craft is less about novelty than about keeping the plate coherent when the sea enters the program. The name means Beirut by the Sea, and the room takes that literally: a Levantine table set within sight of the water, near the Louvre Abu Dhabi and the cultural district. High-quality produce is the stated premise, and the grammar is fixed before any single hand touches it: mezze, kebbeh, salads, shawarma, grilled meats, flatbread, and seafood prepared in a Lebanese register. What can be read from the pass is the same demand placed on the whole team: crab, shrimp, octopus, lamb, and tenderloin must sit comfortably within a table built for sharing, not perform as separate arguments.

The grill, the bread, the shared plate

The method at Beirut Sur Mer depends on sequence. Flatbread arrives fresh and keeps returning to the table, doing the quiet work of a Lebanese meal: lifting labneh, catching juices, softening the salt and char of the grill. The menu moves through mezze and small plates before the heavier work begins, which is why the dining format matters to the cooking. Plates are not composed as solitary courses. They are built to be taken apart by the hand. Kreydes, the jumbo prawns, are griddled with za’atar and molasses, a combination that asks for heat, acidity, and sweetness to hold in one bite. Lahm mechwi brings tenderloin together with walnuts and tomatoes. Grilled lamb lands over herb-topped Lebanese bread, so the bread takes the fat rather than sitting beside it. The seafood is not treated as a separate coastal insert; crab, octopus, and shrimp move through the same pantry and the same social rhythm as the mezze. Michelin awarded the restaurant a Bib Gourmand in 2022, recognition tied to good cooking at good value, and the table itself carries the rest: abundance without clutter, freshness without stripping away generosity.

The room against the water

The room carries color before the first plate arrives. Beirut Sur Mer sits on Mamsha Al Saadiyat, near the cultural district and the Louvre Abu Dhabi, with the beach and the Arabian Gulf close enough to shape the mood of the meal. The decor is bold and contemporary, an eclectic coastal setting rather than a hushed dining room, and the sound level stays conversational. That matters for this kind of food. Mezze needs talk around it; grilled meats and shared seafood need reach, exchange, and a table with enough ease for plates to gather. The open kitchen gives the craft a visible edge, with baking, grilling, and some tableside preparations turning the meal back toward the hands. A millefuille Beiruty, with whispy pastry, muhalabiyeh ice cream, nuts, and orange blossom, extends that gesture into dessert. The room stays lively, but the work is still legible from the counter and the pass.

A coastal Lebanese grammar

Beirut Sur Mer’s place in Abu Dhabi rests on a clear decision: to keep Lebanese hospitality expansive while letting the beachfront location alter the ingredients. The kitchen does not have to abandon the old forms to make room for the sea. It folds the Gulf-facing setting into the grill, the mezze, and the bread service, then lets the table do the rest. Kreydes with za’atar and molasses is served at Beirut Sur Mer.