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| - We tried Mijana first because the Middle Eastern man working at the Honda dealership where we bought our Fit said it was the best Middle Eastern restaurant in Phoenix and he'd tried them all. When we saw the Groupon coupon offer, pay $15 for a $30 coupon, we jumped. Cost of gasoline for the round trip from Apache Junction was $8 that we included in our expenses.
Though the online menu said that there were two for one drinks and half-off cold appetizers during 5-7 pm Happy Hour M-F, that had been eliminated, along with the buffet I'd hoped to try from reading Yelp reviews. So that dented our budget from the start.
I'd decided on the lamb shank from the online menu, largely because it said there was a hamburger sauce for the rice, and every Greek and Middle Eastern restaurant where I've had lamb shank, the tomato-based meaty sauce, often with peas, carrots and onions, is the best part of the dish. No sauce of any kind. I asked the waitress, who checked the menu and saw it said a hamburger sauce, and she went to the cook to get some.
He told her that customers didn't like it so they discontinued the sauce. The menus should be updated to delete references to Happy Hour deals and the sauce. The smallish lamb shank was fine but average without a sauce. Rice was very good--moist and well seasoned. Accompanying salad on the plate had a yogurt and cucumber cup of dressing on the side, pretty bland.
The babba ghanouj appetizer at $7 was excellent and plentiful, and the freshly baked pita bread is outstanding while warm. The wait staff were pleasant and quick to respond, and the owner or manager came over to personally check on our satisfaction.
We were the only customers there at 5 pm when they opened, and by 7 when the belly dancer show was to start, there were two other tables of 2 and 4, and two tables of 14 or so that seemed to be of students and perhaps university staff. They seemed enthusiastic about what was to come, and they were eating heartily and having a great time.
So it was perhaps us, and our expectations of Lebanese food that we've enjoyed elsewhere through the past 50 years, including the Middle Eastern food at Haji Baba's nearby, a small restaurant tucked inside a grocery market. That remains our Middle Eastern favorite in the Phoenix area. Pita Jungle is pretty good, as we remember.
We'll still be on the lookout for new Middle Eastern restaurants, hopefully with the sauces and tastes we've enjoyed through the years. Good service, other than the waitress bringing my partner's Greek salad entrée a good ten minutes before my lamb shank came out.
I'm sure Mijana's is a swinging place once the dancing starts! Total bill, with only the one Margarita and one appetizer and no other drinks or desserts, including tax and tip, was $56. So we paid $41 plus $8 in gasoline. Remember, the pita, rice, and babba ghanouj are outstanding. Three stars overall.
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