Steve A.
Yelp
Yelp: "Here are some places you might like"
Me: "Not a big diner person, don't live near Rahway, Iraqi place with 5 stars, already have enough Indian places nearby... Wait, back up."
Added to the list. Today, removed from the list, as I finally made my way to the dingy industrial trackside of Paterson for the most surprising diamond you'll ever find in the rough. I came in, read the menu, and figured Iraqi food is mostly like Afghan with a bit of Mediterranean influence. Well, it is, sorta, but not even close to what you'd envision. It's way, way better.
* Kuba (Kibbeh): I've had this before at Afghan places, and it's typically a mix of dough and meat fried with spices, kinda crispy and OK. Not here. Here it's a heart of ground beef and seasoning in a warm cocoon of corn, almost masa. I've finally found kibbeh I'd order again!
* Hummus: Thrown in complimentarily. That was really nice! It is blended smoothly and has some extra chickpeas and oil thrown in. It tasted heavier on the tahini than I'm used to, but it paired nicely with the...
* Delicious warm soft amazing fresh pita that you need to order dozens of and revise your life goals to incorporate more pita.
* No, seriously, that is the best bread of any kind from any place I have ever experienced. It's gigantic, doughy, chewy, fresh, cooked perfectly, flavored perfectly, perfection.
* I can't stop talking about the bread. Fortunately, my Iraqi kabab entree came wrapped in one itself! I mixed it up with the pickled veggies and went to town on the combo. A giant pillowy sandwich. And it was good and fine but now that I'm thinking about the bread I can't really recall anything else.
* My friend had the chicken tika, which is NOT AT ALL LIKE INDIAN TIKKA. It's a dry rub, more like Afghan style, but cooked so perfectly and seasoned just right, over a bed of delicious yellow rice.
* I wonder if you could substitute... nah, just get extra bread. The rice is good, but you need more bread.
I'm way off track now. That's 5 stars for the appetizers, 5 stars for the main dishes, 5 stars for the homemade atmosphere, and around 700 stars for the bread. I will drive to Paterson every time I want pita from now on. This is not even a joke. Between Almazaq, the neighboring grocery, and the dessert place all in the same building, Iraqi paradise is tucked away in a barely visited corner of Paterson and you simply must go. Bring me back some pita when you do.