Achrafieh

Chef MireiIle Hayek has opened some of the city’s most popular restaurants (La Parrilla, Yasmina), and her prix fixe menu at this locals-packed traditional Lebanese restaurant includes favorites like fattoush salad and hummus, alongside more unusual dishes like kibbeh nayeh (raw lamb mixed with wheat and spices) and sawda djej (chicken liver topped with pomegranate seeds). The ice cream with caramelized pistachios and spun sugar is just…there are no words.

Inside this bullet-riddled, semi-decrepit, since-1949 building is arguably the best ice cream in Beirut.