A good Tabbouleh salad tells the heart and soul of whose in the kitchen. Today it was not the owner(s), and if it was gees too bad. The salad was presented on a bed of romaine leaves, which is okay and acts as a filler from plate up. The salad was by no means how they pictured it on the Mezza pictures.
There was hardly a breath of crack wheat used, a fine grind can make it hard to find in a salad, and tomatoes were finely chopped but covered by what looked liked grass clippings(parsley). The dressing had just a hint of lemon. They serve sliced lemon with the plate to kick up the lemon flavoring if you like. The bread served, was not fresh and already began drying out.
I took the olive oil and zartar spice for dipping the bread and poured it over the tabbouleh which helped with some well needed table salt made it far more enjoyable. (Hedary's down the street does a way better tabbouleh that comes out ready flavored and does have cracked wheat that can be seen. I think they use a medium grind.).
Khoury's recipe is certainly unique in that I found no mint nor cucumber nor green onion. The cost for this bowl, was $9.95 a little pricey for what's not in it. I have made Tabbouleh a zillion times and can state for $9.95 you can make a HUGE bowl to feed a lot of people. Today I just did not want to make a Huge bowl and left the work to some where else and can say it was a disappointing adventure.
There is a lot of staff working there and I think probably a big overhead shifted to the food costs is why something so inexpensive to make is pricey...I overheard a waiter tell some guests that a shot of Vodka for their drink was $8.00 and I'm thinking well vodka for $8.00 a bit much???...Oh well...The life of Lebanese food in this town will one day fall into the right hands and we will have a champion that will offer value,flavor and hope in this desert town! I will go back one day, but not in the near future.