Earlier last week I was invited to the opening of Hotdog & Beyond‘s new branch in Hamra. For those of you who don’t know about it yet, Hotdog & Beyond is a new restaurant that opened back in August 2012 at Le Mall Dbayeh, obviously specialized in serving frankfurters as well as burgers. They opened second branch in Hamra just last week, and I was informed a third branch is set to open in Zalka sometime soon.

When I first heard about it, I personally thought Hotdog & Beyond’s items will be close to what we’re used to eat at places like Charlie’s or Freddy’s, but I was wrong, Hotdog & Beyond offers a totally different taste and experience.

The restaurant interior is catchy and makes you feel like you’re walking into one of New York’s small restaurants. Seats are comfy, and there’s enough space between the tables. And what grabs your attention at first is probably the complimentary bucket of peanuts offered to you before making your order.

Hotdog & Beyond’s menu has around 20 selections of frankfurters ranging between 9,750L.L and 16,000L.L, along with 10 selections of burgers starting 13,000L.L and up to 18,750L.L. The owners were generous enough and served us an item from each category including the appetizers and desserts!

The appetizers are mainly platters of fries with different topping on them. We tried the Four Cheese Fries and Con Carne Fries, I personally preferred the latter which has spicy minced meat (tastes a bit like Soujouk) with cheddar cheese on top.

For the hotdog, I decided to try their signature sandwich, the HD&B, wich is made of fried hotdog, red pepper, mushrooms, onions, 4cheese & pesto mayo sauce. To my surprise, the hotdog was cut into pieces, unlike the other varieties that had the hotdog in one piece. Anyway, the sandwich tasted really good and seriously different than any other frankfurter I had elsewhere. Every bite I had was full of taste, and the bread was just perfect, fresh and soft.

As for the burger, I tried what I usually order at other places, the Swiss Mushroom Burger, which was mouthwatering and great as well! It can easily make Hotdog & Beyond one of the restaurant you will be considering when you want to have a good burger.

Finally, and although I was full, the owners still insisted that I try 2 selections of their desserts, the strawberry cheescake, and a waffle with chocolate sauce, Nestle condensed milk, and scoop of vanilla ice cream on top. Both tasted good too, but I personally would have preffered the soft waffle to be crispier on the outside.

My overall experience was great, and I’m not saying that just because I got invited, but because Hotdog & Beyond are really bringing something new to town, and therefore it is totally recommended. Moreover, if they succeed at maintaining their good taste and service, I believe they will be serious competitors to big names in the market, especially that their prices are quite affordable when compared to other diners in Beirut.