ZAKI KABOB HOUSE

Ok, as stated in my previous post, I have a bit of a backlog of restaurants to work through, so the Ecuador posts will have to wait a bit. I've learned that some of the best restaurant recommendations come from friends, and this has certainly been true of our friends Paul and Armando. They've lived in the East Bay for quite sometime, and have been very helpful in introducing us to some of our favorite restaurants like Sabuy Sabuy and Vanessa's. This was also true of Zaki Kabob House, a restaurant located just 3 blocks from their home, and one that I had never even noticed.

The first time we went to Zaki, we had tried to go on a Monday, but the restaurant ended up being closed. So we went back a different night. Our friends had given us some suggested dishes to order. First I started off with an order of the hummus.I gotta say, their hummus is pretty damn awesome. It's really smooth and I think they put a ton of tahini in it, but it's also really tasty.

I ended up getting the half chicken for dinner.And it was delicious. It's covered in spices and roasted until it falls off the bone. The rice it comes with is also very tasty. It's obviously a large portion, and I didn't end up finishing the whole thing. Best of all, it's a great deal - I think it's around $8.

Meanwhile, Tom ordered a lamb burger, which our friends had also suggested. It was contained lots of different herbs, and I think he liked it quite a bit. The only problem was that it was so juicy, it kinda fell apart, and was impossible to set down.One of the best things that Tom discovered was this mint lemonade. It's like a whole lemon pureed with a ton of mint and ice and it's soooooo tasty. We totally loved it.

Since this post is a bit delayed, I've actually been to Zaki quite a few times. Like 5 times in a span of 3 weeks - which is when I stoppped going, I kinda OD-ed on it. I've learned that the rotisserie chicken is much better when you have it there. By the time you get it home, it's less juicy (though still yummy). Also, I've learned that you should order the chicken kabobs - I found them quite dry the time I ordered them. As for the service, it's super friendly since it's run by a family, but it can also be kinda slow and sometimes spotty. They make up for it with the super friendliness, though. Also, though the offer a few vegan and veggie options, I think the meat dishes tend to be the more outstanding items on the menu. I took my vegetarian cousin, and she liked it a lot, but I'm not sure my other vegetarian friends liked it as much.

At any rate, I think it's a great place, and it's definitely become one of our regular eat out spots. I hope the restaurant does well. I always like to see small family owned business succeed - especially when they're serving great food.

DATE NITE IN COOLIDGE CORNER

Tom and I decided have a date night last Wednesday. Mainly because we still hadn't seen Little Miss Sunshine and both the Kendall and Coolidge Corner Theatres were going to stop showing it as of Friday. (And if it's still playing around you, and you still haven't seen it, you just gotta. It is hilarious). So we also decided to check out Rami's, which I'd been wanting to do for some time; Katie kept telling me about how great Rami's is- she and Dustin eat there frequently since they just live a few blocks away.

When we arrived at Rami's, the place was already packed. And there was a line. And all the tables were taken (we ended up sitting at a little bar area towards the back of the restaurant). The menu board wasn't very helpful in describing what each item actually is. So if you don't know what a boureka is (Puffed Pastry Dough Topped with Hundreds of Sesame Seeds filled with An Assortment of Scrumptious Delights- that's according to menupages) then you're kinda screwed. And the people there aren't gonna be so helpful. Their objective is to keep the line moving. Luckily, we had both checked out the menu on menupages prior to arriving. I had considered ordering the shwarma (since it's made from turkey), but all the people kept whispering around us "they're out of shwarma". So instead, we ordered the Rami's special with an extra side of hummus (which was totally unnecessary).

Here's my extra side of hummus. it was nice and smooth, with lots of tahini, but i don't know, i just feel like i can make a better hummus than all the places i've visited. I just like it with more garlic.
And here's our Rami's special. It came with Lamb Kebabs, Grilled Chicken, Houmos and Falafel
Along with a salad
And two pieces of pita.
It was a ton of food. Maybe if I hadn't ordered that extra side of hummus, we would've had a better shot of actually finishing it all, but that didn't happen. And it's a great deal. Just $12.95 for the Rami's Special. Acutally, everything there is reasonably priced. You can definitely have a very filling meal for under $10. It's also a cool place to go people watching. It's certainly a local hang out for lots of Jewish kids and adults. And maybe even a Jewish gangster? (On my way out, I saw an older man having dinner. His shirt was unbuttoned to his stomach and around his neck he wore an enormous diamond encrusted Star of David on a gold chain. You don't see that very often in Brookline). At any rate, check out Rami's for quick cheap and very decent Middle Eastern food. 

A MOROCCAN OASIS IN THE SOUTH END

On Friday night, Leah, Jayna and I decided to have dinner at the Red Fez in the South End. I was excited to try out this Moroccan restaurant which has been a part of the South End dining scene even before the area became gentrified and famous as a dining destination. And I was hoping for the Moroccan dining experience that I had had in college at the Moroccan restaurants in Philadelphia- with the darkened rooms, seating on cushions, eating with your hands and experiencing amazing food. (Sadly, I haven't been able to find the same thing anywhere else.)

Upon driving up to the Red Fez (and yes, the awning on the restaurant is supposed to be a red fez), I was happy to find free parking in the South End, in the parking lot behind the restaurant. When we entered the restaurant, the bar area was totally packed. Perhaps because there was a Red Sox game on or because this place just has a bar scene. But it was quite lively and noisy. We put in our names for a table and told it'd be a 20 minute wait, so we decided to wander outside and take a look at some of the neighboring stores. I finally got a look at Brix, the wine store on Washington St. that opened last year. And it was very pretty. Then we walked over to Seven Eleven where we bought ourselves a bag of chips to share cause we were all pretty hungry.

When we walked back to the restaurant, our table was ready, so we got seated in the dining room. The cool thing about the Red Fez is that it is a stand alone building, so it has lots of space. The entire place is divided in two sides by a curtain- the left side is the dining area and the right is the bar. The restaurant part is actually quite spacious with really nice 20 foot ceilings, but of course, this increases the volume level of the restaurant immensely and it's hard to have a quiet conversation. They really could have fitted more tables in, but it was kinda nice that they didn't.
Our waitress showed up quickly to take our drink orders, but upon discovering that we weren't about to order drinks, as Leah put it, the light in her eyes went out. And we would see her very little for the rest of the night. It's suprising considering the number of people they actually have working that service would be so poor, but it was. Not hostile and terrible, but very neglectful. She did take our orders, though. I got chicken kabobs, while Leah and Jayna both ordered lamb kabobs.

As an appetizer, we share the humus with crudite. I found it very yummy, though a little oily. But it was a generous portion and even the three of us couldn't finish it all.They also give each table a giant bread basket which is great! And a little white bean dipping sauce on the side, which i also found very yummy.

Then our entrees arrived. Here's my chicken kabob. I got a side of couscous with it, and was surprised that they used the big couscous. However, it was drenched in butter and tasted great. And everything else was very tasty.

Here's Jayna's lamb kabob. She got a side of potatoes. Both Jayna and Leah enjoyed their entrees. And we all had food left over to take home. Was the food fantastic and amazing? No, but it was very good. And I think it was pretty reasonably priced for dinner in the South End. All our entrees were in the mid-hi teens. So you won't break the bank eating here.We perused the dessert menu, but didn't find anything particularly desirable. So we decided to get ice cream elsewhere. We ended up at Toscanini's in Central Square were we all order micro-sundaes (unfortunately I forgot to photograph them, but they were googy and great).