TASTE: Mediterranean

Two more eateries covering the popular region

It seems that everywhere one looks these days, up springs a new kebab place, or a restaurant that advertises itself as Mediterranean, attempting to cash in on that region's popularity. It's a result of the cachet it gets from a liberal use of healthy ingredients like olive oil, tomatoes and green herbs, and more and more people are flocking to it.

The irony, though, is that a large number of these so-called Mediterranean restaurants tend to be either Middle Eastern disguised as Mediterranean or some obscure nationality with close proximity to it.

The excellent little Hummus Mediterranean Grill belongs to a Lebanese-Armenian family, and since Lebanon has a Mediterranean coastline, the name seems appropriate enough. King Kabob, which replaced Links Barbecue on South Eastern Avenue, is actually owned by Bulgarian Renata Ivanova, and though her native land isn't Mediterranean per se, her cooking often stands up to the label.

Hummus takes its name from the pasty garbanzo-bean-and-sesame dip that was virtually unknown in this country 20 years ago but is available today in any supermarket. The hummus here is fine, as is the smoky eggplant dip called baba ghannoush and the oily but delicious stuffed grape leaves, filled with smashed rice and walnuts, but they are not why you are going to come back here again and again.

The real draw here is what might be the best rotisserie chicken in town, served with an addictive, pureed garlic sauce. This crisp-skinned bird comes with the best French fries around, and I'll be dreaming about this lunch for weeks to come.

That doesn't scratch the surface of this imposing menu, despite the fact that this is nothing more than a storefront with a few tables for sit-down customers. Felafel is terrific and perfectly cooked—crunchy, gold, ball-sized orbs composed of spiced garbanzo thrown into a deep fryer and then stuffed into pita sandwiches with various salads and sauces.

An innovation called pitzza, flatbreads topped pizza-style with items such as grilled shrimp or soujok (garlicky Armenian beef sausage also delicious as a pita sandwich), can be equally compelling, and that goes double for either chicken or beef shawarma, layered, spit-roasted meats that are sliced from a contraption called an autogyro, as are gyros.

Hummus also makes fine kebabs, shrimp, lamb, beef or lule kebab, sort of a hamburger shaped like a torpedo, and the side dishes, such as a fragrant rice pilaf or a Mediterranean salad composed of tomatoes, onions and cucumbers, are dependable. Desserts such as the tiramisu and chocolate pyramid are fine, but if you prefer something more Mediterranean, try the house-made baklava, crisp, buttery and redolent of cinnamon and walnuts.


The homey King Kabob, decorated with burgundy walls hung with mall-quality art, is still sort of a secret. It recently replaced the Links Barbecue, and people regularly peek in expecting to see ribs and potato salad. The menu is actually so extensive that it offers baby back ribs, but I recommend that you come here for what owner Ivanova really knows how to do, the Balkan stuff. Suit yourself.

This couldn't be called a Bulgarian restaurant (Vegas does have one, called Magura, on Vegas Valley Drive), but there are a few Bulgarian dishes here. One is a cool summer soup called tarator, made from yogurt, cucumbers, dill and other ingredients, and it's a delicious way to start any meal here. The one hot soup I tasted, chicken noodle, was uniquely spiced and hard to stop eating. I suspect Ivanova is a mild soup genius.

Her "simply the best gyro" might have lived up to the billing if the meat had been a tad crunchier, but you can tell it isn't a commercially bought meatloaf, and her tzatziki sauce, the tangy yogurt and cucumber sauce she pours into it, is wonderful. Kyopolu is found on the specials board, a Bulgarian take on the baba ghannoush described above, which I'd call a milder version of the storied eggplant dip, and also different in that it is served warm.

Mediterranean entrees include a nice kofta plate, spicy meat patties on top of rice and salad; a nice chicken kebab; and a meaty, gamy lamb kebab that would have been better had it been pounded or tenderized.

Appetizers to try are grape leaves with a touch of meat in the rice-based stuffing (that's the way it is done in Bulgaria), surprisingly good onion rings and a few things you'd get at TGI Friday's, such as fried zucchini or mozzarella sticks. I'd wince if someone were to refer to Friday's as a Mediterranean joint, so, logically, I'd pass on the zucchini sticks if I could.

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