Kim G.
Yelp
If you love Lebanese food, Al-Amir is your place! The food is clearly made with love and they provide excellent service! Came with a group of 10 for a family style dinner. Portions were large and plentiful, more than enough to go around and then some!
For starters, platters of creamy hummus topped with a pool of olive oil, baba ganoush (made from roasted eggplant), tabbouleh, dolmades and falafel were served along with fresh baskets of pita. This could easily have been the dinner! After a good sized sampling of each, I could have left completely satisfied! If I had to pick favorites, it would be the Baba ganoush, the smoky flavor of roasted eggplant purred into a texture similar to hummus, was divine. And the falafel was light and crisp. The pita was not what I expected, it just didn't have the chew homemade pita usually has.
For the mains, huge platters chicken kabobs which they took off the skewers and plated Along with the onion and peppers, grilled lemony shrimp, roasted lamb, and a platter of roasted veggies topped with a yogurt sauce. The shrimp was definitely the star of the meal, cooked perfectly so that the taste of shrimp was not overpowered by the lemon. Enough on the platter for everyone to have a hefty portion and still several left over. When is there ever leftover shrimp?
Usually lamb is my favorite and what I order at Lebanese and any Mediterranean style restaurant. The lamb was good, just not as flavorful as I expected. Needed more lemon. Chicken was delicious, it had been cooked on skewers along with onions and peppers giving it nice flavor. The veggies were good; I didn't think the yogurt sauce was needed.
We were all stuffed and satisfied! As we were digesting, we enjoyed the belly dancer who is there on Friday nights and definitely adds to the atmosphere and experience. Several from our group were inspired to get up and join the dancing. For the record, I was not one of them!
Baklava was served as the finishing touch, the honey, nut and filo (they use shredded filo), the perfect bite.
Service was friendly and efficient. Was amazed that they were able to handle such a large group with ease and get everyone's drink orders correct. They even let us pay individually on a credit card, which many restaurants do not allow, preferring one or two credit cards max. Huge kudos for that nice touch!