My mom likes Middle Eastern food because of all of its exotic flavors and spices, so when it came time to celebrate Mother’s Day (along with 3 other people’s birthdays) we went to Café Munir as we had heard great reviews about it.  It’s a nice family restaurant in a non-descript neighborhood and no sign above the store.  The sign is in the window.  We had 4 people at our table and our order was just the perfect amount of food.  The pastries are on the small side, but you’ll fill up on the hummus and baba ghanoush. The entrees are fairly generous.

lamb hummus – they poured the sizzling lamb with au jus into the center of the hummus, giving it a rich flavor balanced by the pine nuts

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Mamnoon has been on all of the restaurant critic’s best restaurant lists, inluding Seattle Magazine and Metropolitan Magazine, so Salumi suggested that we give it a try for our next dinner.  Mamnoon is Syrian and Lebenese food, which seems similar to middle eastern food in general.  Lots of yogart, hummus, and flatbread type breads on the menu.

There’s a walk-up window for kulage sandwiches and mana’eesh (similar to pita/flatbread) and the restaurant itself is large with a very modern design.  We were lucky enough to be seated in a small corner in the back of the restaurant, but it was still very loud.  After some research on what other people said were must try items on the menu, we ordered:

fatteh hummus – fresh chickpeas with tahini and fried pita; while we were expecting green hummus, this was definitely different as I have never had fresh chickpeas. They are in my mind, like spring, what the chickpeas should taste like before they get turned into the tan garbanzo beans at the salad bar; a nice mix of textures, this is difficult to get eat with the bread as everything tends to want to escape.

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