+961

A Lebanese Blog

Month: June 2011

  • Sushi Lounge Hamra – Sushi on a budget

    I was passing by Hamra a while ago an noticed a new place called Sushi Lounge right next to Banque du Liban offering take-away orders of 50 pieces for 50,000L.L. Being a kind of sushi junkie, I decided to try it out with a couple of friends.

    The excessive use of crab sticks was a bit disappointing as well as the size of the salmon sashimi, but all in all it tasted fine. And although Oceanus Achrafieh ramains my favorite sushi place in Beirut, I recommend take-away orders from Sushi Lounge on those last few days of the month, when you start to watch your spendings!

    Note that for dine-in, the price of the same order increases to 75,000L.L.

  • Noor Holding nothing but a scam

    Remember the construction company that made a media buzz  back in 2009 with the Cedar Island project it was promoting?

    Call me naive, but this company, Noor Holding, had everything needed to let you think they’re doing legitimate business. A prestigious office in downtown Beirut, excessive advertising, claims about hundreds of household units being built, a good looking website, a “golden” phone number (01-999999), and a TV station. And at the end it turned out that the whole thing was nothing but a scam with the founder Mohammad Saleh (the man in the above photo) escaping with 5 million dollars! You can read everything about the issue in this article from Al-Akhbar.

    I definitely don’t want to be in the shoes of those who have paid down payments for booking apartments with Noor Holding. These people will probably get nothing but news about Mr. Saleh moving from one country to another with their money…

  • MTV Lebanon releases an iOS application

    Via Beirut Spring

    mtv is the only Lebanese TV station that really understands the internet. As a Lebanese expat abroad, I am very grateful for their online news bulletins and how all their video content is logically organized.

    Now they have an iOS app. Great for when stuck in traffic…

    I haven’t tried it yet, but the screenshots show that the interface looks nice and appealing. Now wait for all other TV stations to follow. LBC, New TV, OTV, AlManar… but definitely not Tele Liban!

    Update:
    On a second thought, I think it’ll be entertaining to see if the Apple App Store will approve a similar application for AlManar TV by Hezbollah!

  • Monster Garage comes to Beirut?

    Not really, someone just ripped off the name and logo.

    Seen in Ras El Nabeh.

  • Group buying websites in Lebanon

    Have you noticed the rise of group buying websites in Lebanon?

    In case you don’t know what group buying is, it’s getting good deals at discounted prices on condition that a specific minimum number of people would make the purchase. For example, one of these websites can offer a discounted dinner at some restaurant (say $20 instead of $40) on condition that a minimum of 20 people purchase the deal. And usually you won’t be charged unless the minmum number of buyers is attained.

    You might also be wondering how do these websites make money. To my knowledge, it works like referral programs, which means they get a small amount of money for each customer they refer to the deal.

    While not all the discounts might seem tempting, but some deals are really good, I personally bought two entrance tickets to Laguava resort for $22 instead of $44 from one of these websites!

    Here’s a list of the websites that get deals in Lebanon:

    Any other one I forgot to mention?

    By the way I’ve noticed that you don’t necessarily have to use a credit card on websites that use Bank Audi’s payment gateway, you can actually input a debit card number on condition that it is issued from Bank Audi. It worked for me on goSawa.

  • On abuse of power and ISF

    Nice catch by Salim Al Lawzi.

    Salim spotted two members from the ISF washing the Mercedes of some Lebanese official in Achrafiyeh. Think of it, if for the simplest things, in this case a car wash, this official is abusing his power, can you imagine what he does when dealing with other more important issues?

    On the other hand, that most probably explains why ISF members act like douchebags with people, they get abused by their supperiors and they eventually have to let it out at others, us! (Although they do have some fun sometimes)

  • … and I’m back!

    Thanks to a “technical difficulty” my host was facing, you might have noticed that +961 was down for the past two days. Needless to say, I’m now searching for a new host. Any suggestions?