It’s by Turkish / Armenians, so I was able to put aside my obvious sentiments and feelings and finally try some things from that pesky neighbor country from my past life.
We had a nice dinner here and it was good to try somethings I never had. It’s laid out perfectly for any size group and big parties would have a lot of fun there.
The place is newish and clean, the staff and owner are as nice as you like and you’d feel at home here. You can boyb/w/l to your liver’s content.
We had a spread of traditional Arab or whatever dips and the yogurt and babaganoush stood out to me more than tabouli or hummus… i’m not well versed on these things though
the one app that did stand out is their Muhammara (sp?) slightly spicy and deep in flavor.
I think my favorite was their chi kofte, for both taste and the faces on my Armenian parents who apparently don’t know that our people eat raw meat… I honestly think this came from our Arabic / persian neighbors as well so we didn’t grow up with it behind the Iron Curtain
the manti was fairly basic and i liked it… they’re soulfood i suppose, liked both the fried and boiled kind with their basic tomato sauce. i dont know what’s authentic or what’s not but i was kind of craving for some spicing in the meat blend.
their beef liver was probably my second favorite… crumbed and deepfried lightly with heavy cumin flavor and presented in a salad form with cubed potato… winner
had to of course try their doner … which for some reason also comes in a lot of basic tomato sauce. .not much going on in the meat but that’s also likely classic… yogurt helped… this version comes over top of bread.
dessert was amazing, i’m sure some of you know what this is … it’s popular in arab countries i think… came soaked in lovely orange blossom sauce
Nothing is going to blow any minds here but it’s very easy to have a birthday with fresh, clean, inexpensive and interesting food and i’d definitely recommend taking your immigrant parents there. Even if they’re Armenians. It’s cathartic and therapeutic to put away your past for a night and embrace what should be good neighbors… despite what they’re currently up to again…