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| - While looking for a lunch place in Mesa on Yelp, I came across Dooby's. So I met my wife there. They could have used someone with an eye for design, as the decor could be classified as thrift-store-restaurant-chic.
We started out with a hummus appetizer, which also came with kalamata olives, salted pickles, pepperchinis and shug (which is something new I've never had, a mixture of olive oil, cilantro, garlic and chili flake ground together). The shug was fabulous! The hummus was tasty, albeit a little chunky. I prefer a smoother puree.
My wife ordered the shwarma/gyro combo, while I went with the shwarma plate with 2 side falafel. The lunch combos came with an Israeli salad, which never arrived at our table. Hmmm.
My wife found the chicken shwarma and gyro meat to be overcooked and dry. She also though either the chicken or the mayo-based garlic sauce drizzled over it tasted funny.
I got used to the garlic sauce after a couple of bites, and cleaned my plate. The falafel looked almost like little muffins, and were pretty good.
We ordered the baklava. How to describe it in one word? Dry. They must have found this bad boy in the Gobi Desert. Baklava is supposed to be moist with a honey simple syrup, which they must have been short of.
I had to temper my first reaction, which was to call out the kitchen staff and have each of them take a bite while berating them, a-la Gordon Ramsey. I love that Hell's Kitchen.
The owner visited our table, and was very welcoming, very friendly. However, I just cannot recommend this establishment with so many other great Mediterranean restaurants out there, such as Phoenicia Grill and Haji-Baba.
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