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| - I had eggs this morning: 2, over medium with a touch of chili powder. I like eggs a lot. They're full of protein and fats, and when your on a low carb diet, those are you're end all be all of comfort.
The reason I preface my review of lunch with what I had for breakfast is I want you to appreciate how hungry I was. When you cut bread and sugar from your diet, staying satiated for longer than the run time of a long movie is pretty much out the window. The plus side is you can eat more without gaining weight on account of your body not being able to rely on that sweet sweet sugar for energy.
The negative? When you do wait, like I did, for a traditional meal to eat (to be fair, I fell asleep watching lectures on YouTube. Don't judge my Saturday) you get super hungies. So I'm yelping, and I find this well reviewed kebab place about a 15 minute drive down 74, or in charlotte terms, down the street. I could really go for some lamb at this point, so I throw on some clothes and hit the door.
I pull into Sycamore Commons, a shopping area I frequent, so imagine my surprise when the Google box directs me to this secluded little alcove behind the Best Buy, replete with shops and a massage envy, and a sweet frog. Amongst them is the kebab place.
The hostess seats me outside facing the fountain. The set up of the main dining room is slick, because no matter where they seat you, you walk by a deli style display case featuring ready to cook skewers of beef, of chicken, of salmon to whet your appetite. The outdoor seating area has nice stylish large umbrellas to keep the sun at bay.
The menu is classic Mediterranean, all lamb and mint and tsaziki. I ordered minced lamb - which comes in a kebab and is served with basmati rice, a tabouleh salad and hot tea. If you recall the opening paragraph, you'll remember the low carb thing, and wonder why I didn't sub out the rice for, like, a chicken wing or something. Well i, in fact, did sub it out for the Spicy Lebanese salad.
Then the spiral downward started. My order came out, and boy howdy was it wrong. The first transgression: no tabouleh. I love tabouleh. It'd been over a year since I had it, and my excitement to have it again was severely dampened by the distinct lack of it on my plate. I did get rice, though. Rice I didn't want because of the low carb thing. I tasted it. It was good. Exceptional even. Especially the carrot slaw they had on top. But still, low carb is in effect, so I couldn't actually enjoy the rice.
Second transgression: the Spicy Lebanese salad, which came out as a side was fine. But it was out as a side and not the rice substitute that I wanted it to be. I ate it. It was pretty good, not quiet what I wanted it to be, but solid enough.
Third transgression: as I approach the bottom of my salad i have decided not to complain (because God clearly wanted me to have that rice and not tabouleh, otherwise he wouldn't have put the rice and not the tabouleh in front of me). I look again at the fountain. It's very nice, calming. Relaxing. Three spires in white plaster or stucco, can't really tell from where I am, with water cascading down the bronze or tiled (again, can't tell) centers. It's a good fountain. I bite down on my salad, and to my horror, there's a crunch that matches no other crunch in the salad to that point. And the crunch has a bitterness, and a dryness. I spat that bite out to reveal splinters of charred black something. I was now upset.
No tabouleh? Forgivable. Rice when I can't eat it? Cruel, but I can look past that. But burned splinters in the salad? A bridge too far.
Now you're probably thinking that this is a 1 star, no recommendation review. You'd be only half right. I'm not going to recommend kebab-je because they made a Slack first impression. However they should thank the server, because no sooner than I brought the various transgressions to his attention, did he not only comp my burnt splinter salad, but he did also bring me to-go tabouleh, which is second only to during the meal tabouleh on the tabouleh depth chart.
Plus the kebab was tasty (could've used a dipping sauce, but I liked it). And until it was burnt, the salad was good. And the rice was delicious. And my water cup wasn't empty until I left.
I probably won't be back for a while, though.
*P.S., the owner has apologized and invited me back. Adding a half star to My review for the consideration. Also the tabouleh was among the best tabouleh I've had. Easily one of the 3 best salads in Charlotte. Adding another half star for the tabouleh alone.
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