MIDDLE EAST FEAST
Definitively decide on the best Middle Eastern restaurant in metro Detroit. At first, I leaped at the chance. It soon became clear, however, that the way was fraught with peril. I couldn’t visit them all in a reasonable time.
Should I try the well-known places or look for that storefront gem that only locals know about? When I called ACCESS, the Arab community center, to ask for recommendations, they faxed a list of 20 restaurants just in Dearborn. “Which is best?” I pleaded.
“No way,” said one staffer. “Whatever you say, you’ll have someone mad at you.”
No problem there, but what goes into defining “best”?
Should you look just at the tried-and-true dishes everyone orders, such as hummus, or test how well the restaurant branches out? Go purely on flavor, or should value-per-dollar or excellence of service come into play?
In the end, I stuck mostly with the usual suspects, mostly in Dearborn. Prices are pretty similar everywhere, with sandwiches always a bargain.
I don’t usually root for the big guys, and La Shish is certainly the 800-pound gorilla, with a half-dozen locations (counting Talal’s (22041 Michigan, Dearborn, 313-565-5500), which shares a building with La Shish West (313-562-7200). But the food is undeniably tasty, and the warm and puffy pita alone, baked on an open hearth in the middle of the premises, is worth a visit. Even the desserts are sterling.
The food at Pita Cafe (25282 Greenfield, Oak Park, 248-968-2225) is just as good, and there’s more variety. Try arayis (lamb, pine nuts, tahini), chicken ghallaba, Caesar salad tawook, creme caramel, or whole lentil soup. There’s a Pita Cafe in Birmingham too (239 N. Woodward, 248-645-6999).
Most of the restaurants have similar menus. The exceptions are Talal’s and Khan Merjan (6431 Miller Rd., Dearborn, 313-581-8585), which is Iraqi.
If a liquor license is your priority, you’ll have to go to Talal’s, an upscale version of La Shish. It offers a range of seafood, from smoked salmon to calamari and crab patties. Attention is paid to each detail of the sausages, cheese pastries and goat- and sheep-cheese mellee, the Middle Eastern version of pizza. Talal’s is considerably more expensive than the other restaurants, with entrees averaging $14.95.
At Khan Merjan, you can sit on the floor at a low table, lean back on red cushions, and have any number of unfamiliar dishes explained to you.
Other findings (all addresses are in Dearborn): Hummus tastes the same everywhere, and could use more garlic. The one place I found it too dry was at Country Chicken (5131 Schaefer, 313-582-6677), a small and basic storefront. On the other hand, Country Chicken serves excellent baba ghannouj and a nutty tahini sauce, sandwiches of lamb brains or tongue, and several meat dishes made with coriander. Huge portions, but no juices, no desserts.
Cedarland (1307 W. Warren, 313-582-4849) has the best garlic sauce, which is a lovely creamy ivory, not as biting as some. Cedarland’s falafel is also good, and it must be the only Middle East restaurant with drive-through.
—Jane Slaughter
TREATS
Basketballs and Girl Scout cookies? Just dunk ’em. The Detroit Shock is offering discount tickets to Girl Scout cookie buyers. Call 313-972-4475, ext. 239, for order forms. … Get healthy at vegetarian cooking classes offered by Lenore’s Natural Cuisine, 22899 Inkster Rd., Farmington Hills. Upcoming classes include “Marvelous Mexican” and “Intro to Macrobiotic Principles.” Call 248-478-4455 for more.
This article appears in Mar 17-23, 1999.
