Chris S.
Yelp
I stumbled across this place purely by accident - I had a meeting somewhere nearby, and I saw the name of this restaurant on the map when looking up directions. Reviews seemed pretty positive and I love Middle Eastern food, so I figured I'd give them a shot.
I came in at an off-peak time, and it was fairly quiet except for the regional music that was playing softly overhead. I took a look at the menu and had a hard time deciding on just one thing to order, but I eventually settled for the lamb shawarma pita.
Now, there's two things I want to mention about this dish in general. One, there are a lot of places that serve it in such a way that you can barely even tell that it's lamb. Two, the flip side of this, is that there are some places that do a very poor job with this particular meat, and it comes out so gamey that it's hard to eat.
These guys knocked it out of the park. The warm, soft pita was stuffed with shredded lamb that was seasoned perfectly - countering the meat's natural gamey flavor without completely hiding it. The spice blend they use is clearly different from any other Middle Eastern restaurant I've been to in town and that's probably due to the fact that the owner is from a country that is grossly under-represented in Rochester. The veggies inside tasted fresh and crisp, and the pita wasn't some horrible mixture of 90% veggies and 10% meat. And as an added bonus, they serve Moussy - a non-alcoholic beer that I rarely ever see in the US, let alone here.
We finished up with an order of znood for dessert. If you've never had it - or even heard of it - think baklava, but rolled up and filled with a semi-firm custard. I'd never heard of it myself, but who can say no to something that looks so good? It had a sweet taste on the outside, with just a slight hint of citrus, which was a perfect complement to the custard.
It's a counter-service restaurant: order at the front, seat yourself, and they bring you the food when it's ready / clear your place when you're finished. The gentleman who took our order and served us was very friendly and happy to answer questions. We'll be back again...and again....and again....