The Mid-Eastern wave had come and gone in Chennai, or so I thought. While a few years ago, almost every restaurant started installing shawarma machines with varying degrees of success, the in thing now seems to be varying versions of Asian. So a new mid eastern restaurant popping up was rather refreshing.
The facade is unmistakably souk like. The interiors are not fancy and the wait staff certainly need more training. And some empathy. And some more knowledge about the menu. But yeah, this place is all about the food and nothing else.
The menu is vibrant and has dishes from a variety of places and not limited to pita, hummus and falafel. Besides the staples like the Tahini and Spanakopitas, there is a large choice of breads. The Turkish Pide and the Jibneh with stuffed cheese adorn the menus. Turn the pages and things like Sambusak stare at you, complete with photos making it easy for those for whom these names are Syrian and Turkish and Arabic! And Greek and Latin! My eyes were searching for the Aish Baladi, the Egyptian bread to relive some memories of Egypt, but that wasn't there.
Once you look past the slow and incompetent service with waiters bringing dessert before main courses, the food is largely very good. The kapsa may not be to everyone's liking, but the owners of the restaurant have decided to not tweak the original versions by too much. So this is not trying to be a biriyani and sticks to the originals.
The breads are among the best in the city. The pide and the pitas are all equally good. The starters definitely stand out. The sambusaks, the falafels and the spanakopitas and the lamb rolls are all worth a try. The hummus was definitely missing something. The Kapsa and the Doner were both let downs.
I certainly want to go back and get a few more of their kebabs and try a few breads, so I guess I'll wait till they settle down and give it another shot.
The facade is unmistakably souk like. The interiors are not fancy and the wait staff certainly need more training. And some empathy. And some more knowledge about the menu. But yeah, this place is all about the food and nothing else.
The menu is vibrant and has dishes from a variety of places and not limited to pita, hummus and falafel. Besides the staples like the Tahini and Spanakopitas, there is a large choice of breads. The Turkish Pide and the Jibneh with stuffed cheese adorn the menus. Turn the pages and things like Sambusak stare at you, complete with photos making it easy for those for whom these names are Syrian and Turkish and Arabic! And Greek and Latin! My eyes were searching for the Aish Baladi, the Egyptian bread to relive some memories of Egypt, but that wasn't there.
Once you look past the slow and incompetent service with waiters bringing dessert before main courses, the food is largely very good. The kapsa may not be to everyone's liking, but the owners of the restaurant have decided to not tweak the original versions by too much. So this is not trying to be a biriyani and sticks to the originals.
The breads are among the best in the city. The pide and the pitas are all equally good. The starters definitely stand out. The sambusaks, the falafels and the spanakopitas and the lamb rolls are all worth a try. The hummus was definitely missing something. The Kapsa and the Doner were both let downs.
I certainly want to go back and get a few more of their kebabs and try a few breads, so I guess I'll wait till they settle down and give it another shot.
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