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| - Had a Groupon and decided it was time to use it before it expired. Besides, the hubs and I had just returned from vacay and looking forward to some mid-Eastern comfort food.
We arrived about 6 pm on a Friday night and the place was pretty much empty. Too early for belly-dancing so not many customers but it did fill up a bit by the time we left.
Service - okay, you know that is always a beef with me. Bad food is attributable to a bad night for the chef but bad service is management not taking time to educate their staff. It wasn't bad, it wasn't good. It was just kind of okay. We did watch our meals get set down at another table but they never touched them so it was easy to get them back.
We started with an order of Borek. I have always had it made pie-style but this was rolled cigar-style. Very hot and fresh, nice mixed, crispy, not oily. I never had a mix of mozzarella and feta but it was tasty. Four to an order for $7.95. A bit pricey I think, especially with them being cut with mozzarella.
They bring you an order of fresh bread with za-atar mixed with olive oil. I enjoy za-atar on cheesy pita or on yogurt, but this just didn't do anything for me. On top of it, while the bread was freshly baked, it was very flat in flavor, as though they left the salt out.
Dinners come with side salad and rice. DH ordered Chicken Shawarma and I order Lamb Kebab. Start with salad. It is a simple salad (lettuce, cukes, tomatoes) with a dressing and a side of turnips and pickles. Nice size for a side salad. It wasn't a bad salad although I would have liked to have some of the dry za-atar mixed into the dressing to add a little pizazz to it. But here is the thing that really got to me. I am ordering an $18 dinner. Please bring my salad out on a separate plate so it is cold and doesn't have hot meat and rice warming it up. I get that it fills the plate up but, seriously, I now either need to eat my salad first (which I did so everything else was cold till I got to it) or eat the hot stuff first and let it wilt more. Dilemma, dilemma. DH tried to eat them at the same time and wound up with everything just lukewarm - salad, rice, and meat.
His Chicken Shawarma was nicely spiced and piled on top of the rice. Good size portion. The lamb perhaps was not so spectacular. I am not sure why mid-Eastern restaurants in Phoenix insist on cooking lamb till it is well done, no matter what you ask for but they do. They insist they cannot serve it any other way - and yet they offer raw kibbee. Go figure. Anyway, it was spiced with allspice as expected - a little different from what I am used to from other Lebanese restaurants. Honestly - it was dry and tough. If they used a shoulder, it might be a little tougher so maybe they didn't use leg of lamb. would be a shame to waste a leg by overcooking it.
The last part of the meal was the rice. Every mid-Eastern restaurant has its own trademark rice - chicken broth, pignolia nuts, almonds, raisins, maybe some herbs, maybe plain rice or maybe basmati, etc. I can only liken this rice to Rice-a-Roni without the spice packet. There was no discernible flavor. No spice. It was just yellow. That's all i can say about it, it was not remarkable at all.
Borek, two dinners, and two sodas - $48 plus tip before Groupon.
All in all, it was okay. I think that I have found more flavorful alternatives here in the Valley - although they do have a larger menu than many places.
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