Mays El-Reem is a small village in Lebanon surrounded by mountains and beautiful greenery. Here, the village folk lead a simple but culturally rich life, practicing old customs, traditions and authentic homemade cooking. A play was created about Mays El-Reem, which tells the story of a young couple deeply in love, but caught between their feuding families - a tale made popular by the famous Fayrouz, a Lebanese singer and performer of high repute who plays the role of Zeyoun.

And, it is here that I came to experience some of the best Lebanese food on offer in Dubai. Our own version of Mays El-Reem is situated within the JW Marriott Hotel in Deira (only twenty minutes by car from Umm Suqeim on a week night!); the restaurant mimics the village in its décor and whilst large is very welcoming with soft areas for smoking shisha in addition to the tables near to the stage.

Entertainment is provided by a four piece band that both play and sing Arabic melodies and halfway through dinner they were joined by the waiting staff who performed some fabulous dancing, all great fun!

But, back to the important stuff i.e. the food. The test in my opinion of a good Lebanese is in the lentil soup, one of my personal favourites, so I started with that; it was superb, the texture and flavour was spot on and once I had added lots of lemon juice and croutons it was perfect. My friends decided to wait for the Beirut Set Menu and in hindsight I should have done the same but......

The Head Waiter recommended that we choose one of the set menus as this would provide us with a taste of everything and fulfilled the notion that Lebanese food is for sharing. There are two options one being the Beirut and the other the Mays El-Reem signature but given the amount of food on the latter we went for the Beirut and even then struggled to even come close to finishing.

Before you go to Mays El-Reem make sure you are very hungry! The cold Mezzeh arrived and consisted of 17 dishes, ahhhhhhhhhh! But in the interests of providing a fair review we set about with gusto and managed to try everything from the obvious houmous, fattoush and moutabel to the more exotic lamb tongue, makdous, shanklish and basterma. All were excellent but mindful of the fact we had another three courses to come we didn’t demolish everything. With the exception of the fried potatoes as they were truly moreish.

Next up was the Raw Meat section which I sat out leaving my carnivore friends to do the honours. Apparently the kebbeh and frakeh were outstanding and not much was left so I guess that says it all.

Thankfully, we were then back on food I could and would eat i.e. non meat! The spinach fatayer and cheese rolls were excellent as was the falafel and haloumi. My meat eating mates tucked into the soujuk sausage, kebbeh and sautéed meat cubes with relish and we were soon groaning that possibly we had consumed too much!

At this stage we requested a break in the proceedings as there was more food to come and enjoyed watching the entertainment, some brave members of the audience were by now up dancing with the band so that was good fun.

Mays El-Reem is licensed with a good range of Lebanese wine and Arak but I stuck with my favourite drink of lemon and mint which was superb.

So, finally onto the last leg of our culinary journey, the Mixed Grill, we had asked for a smaller portion and so managed to consume most of the lamb skewers, kofta, shish taouk and lamb chops. If you are planning on a visit be sure to take along some men who have large appetites for meat and that way you won’t feel guilty about waste.

By this point I can honestly say I was full to bursting so finished my meal with a cup of Turkish coffee (medium) and some fresh fruit although there were some lovely Lebanese desserts on offer.

Mays El-Reem is a fantastic place to go with a large group of people be that friends or families and I would recommend taking visitors as the ambience is super and they will leave feeling they have truly been to Arabia. The staff was charming and attentive without being intrusive and explained all the dishes.