| rev:text
| - Another day, another Middle Eastern restaurant. Seems to be my m.o. these days. Working late one evening last week, I was driving home, hungry and delirious. I was thinking what was in my fridge...peanut butter and 6 kinds of mustard. Yeah, no. Nothing but something vile could come out of that combination.
So I thought of stopping somewhere on the way...and then I remembered Fattoush, a little piece of the Middle East I remember driving past a number of times, smack dab in the middle of Vietexico-ville.
Walking inside, I realized immediately in this casual eaterie with the Iraq-map-shaped clock and the Iraq-shaped tricolored poster that this was the third Iraqi-owned restaurant I've been to so far in Phoenix. Who knew there were so many? Not me, anyway. Other paintings depecting Middle Eastern life adorned the walls. Traditional Iraqi music played from the soundsystem.
I sat down and noticed a "Best Of Phoenix" award poster on the wall. However, this wasn't a "New Times Best Of Phoenix" award, which to me after initially giving it much credence when I first moved here means absolutely nothing ("India Delhi Palace the best Indian food in Phoenix"....are you f-ing kidding me?). Fattoush's "Best of Phoenix" award was given by the local Valley Arabic newspaper, which I'm going to take a shot in the dark and guess carries just a tad more credibility. But for those folks who do live and die by the New Times' "Best Of Phoenix" awards, Fattoush won for "Best Mediterranean Food, 2005", so there you go.
The Arabic newspaper award was given for Phoenix's "Best Mixed Kebab". Best Mixed Kebab? Now that's a random award if I ever heard of one. But hey, you know what, when in Rome, eat their mixed kebabs. So that's what I ordered ($9.25). An order of soup or salad comes along with the entree - and I chose the soup.
The soup was a hearty rice and yellow lentil soup, not spicy hot but still flavorful and rich - reminiscent of a kind of "daal" dish my mom would make. In any case, I enjoyed it.
My main entree was a hearty platter with rice, pita, humus, baba ghanoush, garlic dip, a pickle slice, and two skewers: one of ground lamb and the other of chicken pieces. I thought the chicken kebab skewer was interesting. It was marinated in a red sauce that I hadn't seen used in any of the other local Middle Eastern restaurants. It was still tasty, though. The lamb kebab was also tasty and juicy - not overly done where it ends up being too dry. As for the other items:
Rice: 3 Hookahs
Pita: Standard, not homemade - 2.5 Hookahs
Humus: 4 Hookahs
Baba Ghanoush: 4.5 Hookahs
All in all, I was really satisfied with my meal and thought it was a great value for the money. I'm glad I finally came in to check this place out. The service was friendly, and it was apparent that this place was popular with local to-go orders, as I saw people coming in time and time again to pick up their dinner for the evening.
Will definitely be back.
4 stars.
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