My wife and I decided it was time we made a big effort to dine at the great restaurant again. We used to have lunch here almost once a month when we lived much closer because the food was so delicious. Shame on us because we have not been here in over 5 years since we moved house from University Heights in San Diego to much further away in Solana Beach in 2015. What a lousy excuse for not enjoying some of the best Mediterranean cuisine we have ever experienced !
Hopefully our incredible lunch here on Saturday will redeem us to some degree. After driving around 25 miles from home we walked in the front door soon after midday and I asked the sweet young server Kseniya at the cashier desk to fetch Samia the co-owner for us. When Samia came out we were so happy that she remembered us. We had a lovely catch-up chat with Samia. After sitting at a nice table backing onto the kitchen we waited for a server to take our lunch order.
It was very busy we could see and that was fine because it gave us time to study the expanded menu. We couldn’t help admiring the new decor in the now much larger. . . virtually double the size of the restaurant we remembered about 5 years ago. That’s great because it means that the owners have been doing well. After a few minutes George the co-owner stopped at our table to take our order . . . we knew of him as the head chef but had never met him before.
We had a funny chit chat and he helped us with our lunch order. I decided on a fresh made Lemonade with Mint and of course waters for us both. A serve of Soujouk Flatbread and an entree of Kafta B’Tahini was just what we needed. Our meals came out in a fairly short time and looked just wonderful . . and tasted even better than we remembered. We couldn’t eat anything more and enquired about dessert with Kseniya. My wife wanted some Lebanese Coffee but they were so busy.
It requires some attention to prepare but to our rescue Samia brought some out. Soon after George delivered our Aaysh Essaraya “LOVE DESSERT” which tasted just as good as years ago. I tried some of my wife’s rich Lebanese Coffee and it revived me. We packed our delicious leftovers in take out containers and congratulated ourselves for making the long overdue effort to eat here. Please forgive us ! If you are looking for the best prepared and presented Mediterranean style cuisine this is it ! We thanked George & Samia the co-owners and our helpful server Kseniya for our wonderful lunch experience. This is probably one of the top Mediterranean restaurants in the USA !
