Kabobeesh

4201 Chestnut Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104
(215) 386-8081
Website

If you like Middle Eastern food, you can do a lot worse than ending up in West Philly. I wanted to try Kabobeesh, but it is one of those places I would see, think about, and then forget to make time to visit. I finally closed that loop, and made it over to see what this diner-turned-ethnic grill had to offer.

This place is popular with taxi drivers, for both eating, and socializing. Don't be surprised if you see them sitting at a table, shooting the breeze, and watching the news for the duration of your visit.

The ordering process is broken into two components. You can order from the hot buffet, or go with a grilled to order protein out of the side cooler. Made to order meats are accompanied by your choice of 2 vegetable sides. Not a bad way to go.

See below for some of the meat choices.

I decided to try a Resham beef platter, with chickpeas and mixed veggies (at the owner's suggestion) on the side. The bread is fantastic, hot, cooked to order, and a perfect vessel for breaking off morsels of meat or sopping up flavorful sides.

The beef, while still being slightly chewy, was bursting with flavor, and housed the perfect amount of char on the outside, making it an authentic meat-on-a-stick delight.

The chickpeas were perfectly rich and flavored with a variety of spices that blended well, with a bit of a kick. I could eat these all day.

The mixed vegetables were also delicious, with a similar spice laden kick.

This naan was so addictive. I ripped it apart like a civilized savage, piece by piece, with each torn fragment being engulfed in the flavorful dipping components.

I could not skip the chicken kebob roll, as my favorite thing in the world is anything in sandwich form. This was my favorite part of the meal. The spicy green cilantro sauce on the side was fantastic. The plastic container it came in was licked clean.

The chicken was flavored tandoori style, and came with a variety of ingredients, including various chopped veggies all wrapped in a char-grilled naan/pita.

This is what a wrap should look like. Chunks of tender, well seasoned, slightly charred chicken surrounded with, but not overwhelmed by, a cast of supporting stars. Green sauce, nice bread, smoky grilled flavor, perfection.

This place was originally an old diner, probably some mediocre, drab American place. Anyone have any idea what it was called?

Also, the owner alone is worth the trip. He is an enthusiastic, good natured, and funny guy. He had no problem posing for a picture.

Bottom line, you will be hard pressed to find a better wrap in the city. Don't shy away from the platters, and experiment with some of the different combos. They also have daily specials in the hot bar, so feel free to order on a whim.

Desert Rose

305 West State St.
Media, PA 19063
484-442-8012
Website

This was my first visit to Media, PA and I'd heard some really great things about a quaint little cafe right in the heart of town. Obviously a visit was in order.

Desert Rose is a "Mediterranean cafe and market," although it's (a lot) less of a market and more of a sit-down-and-enjoy-a-leisurely-meal sort of place.

Advertising their fresh baked pita and some other house-made offerings, they didn't offer any additional daily specials. I think they consider every menu item to be 'special' here, and with right.

The kitchen is quite small and it's the first thing you notice when you walk through the door. There are only 2 employees, chef and server (husband and wife), so they don't need too much room. The shawarma can be seen slowly rotating in all its clean and beautiful glory. Their methods are all very traditional, where only copper pots and one enameled cast-iron Dutch oven are seen in use on the stove-top. Not even a deep fryer for added convenience...

Here's where the magic happens. A little oven of pita delights.

Soup of the day was potato leek and it was fantastic. Sometimes the consistency of a potato puree soup can be too thick, like baby food, or otherwise too watery - this one hit the nail on the head with its perfect viscosity. The addition of fresh parsley and high-quality olive oil gave every few bites an added punch that was certainly appreciated.

After the starter of soup, the feasting began.

First up was the warm hummus, mushroom, onion and sumac platter. Served with choice of one side salad - they have a number of marinated veggie options, we went with traditional cucumber-tomato - and two freshly baked pita breads. Hot out of the tiny oven.

I don't know how they do it, but this pita was split to perfection right down the center. Perfect for the upcoming sandwich...

It was soft, pliable and cooked to perfection. Perhaps a bit thick for the hummus dipping application, but its freshness outdid its weight and made for a great scooping mechanism. Check out this hummus presentation:

Absolutely gorgeous. The mushrooms and onions were sauteed to a rich caramelization, they were smoky and charred in all the right places. Cut into fairly thick slices, there was a nice, meaty texture with each well-seasoned bite. The hummus left a little something to be desired, with the tahini being the most notable flavor - I like a deep garlic or spice undertone that just wasn't there. But, when it all mixed together, it won me over nonetheless.

Perhaps one of the more interesting (and more delicious) aspects of the meal were the falafel balls. you can add a side to any platter for only a few extra bucks.

Prepared in the traditional method, the chef uses a falafel scoop to shape these little muffin-topped gems. As I mentioned above, there's no automatic deep fryer to aid in the ease of production. Oil is kept at just the right temperature in a copper stock pot over a burner, no short cuts here!

And does it ever pay off. The care and authenticity that goes into the preparation is beyond compare. Bursting with parsley and chick pea flavor, cooked to the most perfect of golden browns, this falafel is crunchy outside, moist inside and is definitely some of the best around. As if that wasn't enough, I had to end with a shawarma sandwich.

Served with cucumbers, tomato, hummus, fresh herbs and topped with their cabbage and citrus salad, the pita was a sturdy vessel for the overflowing ingredients. Spicy and delicious. The meat was tender, bursting with flavor and was gilded with bits of rotisserie-fired crispness on every fine edge.

Chef Owner Jason McHugh and his wife, Natali Shiri, a native of Petach-Tikva Israeli, make Desert Rose a most enjoyable experience for certain. Their love and dedication to serving authentic cuisine in such a comfortable and laid-back manner (but also very well-informed) is a welcome change from the fast-paced hustle of the city. Take a trip to Media and see for yourself.

Mr. Gyros

10901 North Military Trail
Palm Beach Gardens, FL 33418
(561) 627-3979
Website

In my travels, I am always looking for a good hole-in-the-wall that has interesting food and that doesn't break the bank. When in the West Palm beach area of Florida, this can be quite a task. Luckily I got lost and ended up at Mr. Gyros.

I don't think they get many people taking pictures.

I would usually go with a lamb gyro, but the chicken on the spit was so crispy and delicious looking, I passed over the recently shorn gray variety for the poultry version. This gyro comes LOADED, has feta on it as a standard (not noted on the menu), and has tzatziki on the side. Big fan of the manual application of yogurt sauce, as it allows for controlling the slop factor when you get down to the foil parts. The Greek side salad was pretty great as well. Especially with the house dressing.

Probably my favorite part of the meal was that they have and sell their own hot sauce, which is basically the Mediterranean version of the hot pepper hoagie spread I love so much around here. One gripe is that the peppers themselves are tough to get out of the squirt bottle. Other than that, it added a nice vinegary zip to the sandwich (and salad). For the ritzy food and lifestyle synonymous with this area, Mr. Gyros was a great find for some reasonably priced "ethnic" food .

Nova Grill

817 West Lancaster Ave.
Bryn Mawr, PA 19010
(610) 525-4745
Website

Nova Grill is the Chipotle of Mediterranean food. Which I think is something that would be a welcome addition to the current landscape of walk-up counter service for fresh, reasonably priced meals.

The setup is basically the same, pick a salad, sandwich, or platter and customize it however you like.

They offer gyro meat from the spit (shawarma) as well as skewered and grilled chicken, though I couldn’t shake the feeling that the they were lying when they told me that the chicken they were tonging out of a chafing tray was actually from the rotating spit in the background. Something about not seeing them actually do it is questionable.

The five free toppings stack up quickly, but there is a pretty decent variety of fresh ingredients and colorful salads/reslishes from which to choose.

I tried the chicken sandwich first. The meat was well seasoned, and placed on top of the ingredients, a departure from the standard meat-on-the-bottom.

I went for the cabbage slaw, seasoned feta, kalamata olives, pickled onions, and harissa. It was a solid sandwich, and definitely one I would likely eat on the regular if I were to find myself in or around Villanova for an extended period of time. The pita is served warm, and wrapped up right, tucking in all of the generous components.

As you can see, there was quite a bit going on with this sandwich, and it was more like eating a big Mediteranean-style salad with chicken than a standard chicken gyro, which I was okay with.

The vegetarian platter came with an abundance of sides, including chickpea salad, baba ghanoush, hummus, cucumber salad, rice, and cylindrical, torpedo-like falafel. Everything was pretty tasty, with nothing being mind-blowing, but a solid rendition of a veggie platter.

The falafel was also good, though not as crispy and hot as I would have wished, but not too bad either.

There was a healthy smattering of parsley in there to keep the flavor fresh.

The spreads and the salads were all about par for the course - hummus on the left and baba on the right. Even with all of the combined ingredients, there wasn't any bold stand-out flavor in any of the components, they all sort of ran together. Save for the hot sauces on the side (see below).

Speaking of hot sauce, their green harissa was insanely hot. I couldn’t get enough.

They also offer a bowl version of most items on the menu, which I (well, someone in the group) also ordered. Alas, as anticipated, I was not thrilled. It was all of the same ingredients, in a lackluster bowl format. You know what it was missing? Pita. I guess if you're still on Atkins, then this is the choice for you. Definitely not for me.

Props for doing their part in considering the environment.

The NOVA Grill is a pretty good place to great a healthy(ish) quick meal for a reasonable price. The variety of options they offer are greatly appreciated and I feel it is a quality meal for what it is. It was basically exactly what I was expecting, and there is comfort to be had in that.