Jonathan W.
Yelp
Absolutely loved it. I was first introduced to North African/Middle Eastern brunch about a decade ago and fell in love. Oddly however, it feels like it took some time it to catch on, but it looks as though more places are popping up now.
One thing to be aware of is that the food at Parallel is plated and intended for family-style dinning. Perhaps they may offer a couple things you could go alone with later in the day, but the brunch menu was very much served with platters intended to share. However, even a group of two would manage well and my group of three had lots to choose from.
It very much has a warehouse feel to the place. In fact it is still a functioning warehouse in some respects as they have an upper level which has various equipment, including a massive mill - which according to their website, creates their sesame butter, which they say is the heart of their dishes.
Prices are a little on the higher side, but the value is apparent even upon just seeing the presentation. The portions are very large too and even 3 of us had a hard time finishing the 'parallel salad' which consisted of: kale, sweet potato, lentils, walnuts, goat cheese, beet, tahini, and a mint lemon vinaigrette. If the ingredients sound great, I'd also go back and state just how well they do presentation as well.
Next was the hummus. I absolutely love hummus to the point that I've never even disliked any hummus I've ever eaten - it's just a question of how much I'll like or even love it. Now I've never been to the Middle East so I can't claim to be an expert, but I'll only say that for my experience, their Sabich Hummus (which included a boiled egg and fried eggplant) was perhaps the best I've had. The menu indicated it was made with fermented lemon and perhaps that was part of the extra taste that really made it stand out. I also loved the texture mix between the smooth hummus and lots of full sized chick peas left in. And the eggplant, it was so crunchy and savoury that it could make you forget about any want of meat.
We ordered their falafels which were also fantastic and of course flatbread to go with everything. Finally, we ordered Merguez Shakshuka. This, along with the hummus, would very much be an example of how the dishes are intended to share as it is a large bowl of Shakshuka, with several pieces of flavourful merguez sausage and a couple poached eggs. I could go on about how wonderful this one is too, but suffice to say is I loved it as well.
I'll return when I can - provided I make reservations as this place is understandably busy. But I don't expect them to be going anytime soon as they really stand out. Now if there was a just some way of getting a few bites of that fried eggplant to hold me over, that would be nice...