Khoury’s is like almost any mom-and-pop restaurant, if mom and pop happen to be from Lebanon and Jordan. Owners Mariz and Issa Khoury have plastered their walls with pictures of their kids and other family members. And the food is downright homey, by Middle Eastern standards, generally made from scratch, delicious across the board.
It’s located in the boom area of Southern Hills, but if you aren’t familiar with the lay of the land around here, it isn’t easy figuring out where to exit the 215 Beltway (Russell Road is best). Soon I spotted an array of colorful umbrellas outside the restaurant, and in minutes I was seated at my table, listening to pulsating Lebanese music and contemplating the bottle of Chateau Kefray, a red wine from Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, on my table. (Just under $30, the wine is perfectly fine, thank you.)
For once, the word Mediterranean is an accurate reflection of the cooking. Too many restaurants use this word to create a buzz, but serve food that misses that glorious sea by thousands of miles. Lebanon, however, perched on the Mediterranean’s eastern end, has a cuisine that relies heavily on those components of the Mediterranean diet that we revere, such as olive oil, tomatoes, herbs and fresh seafood.
Lebanese cooking is all about mezza, small plates of dips, purees, pickles, homemade sausages and almost anything else you can think of. These dishes make an ideal foil for the puffy house pita, a whole-wheat and white-flour bread no one can stop eating. If you come with a large group, as I did, then it is an absolute must to order house mezza, a $25 feast that includes a dozen small dishes ideal for sharing.
Here’s what the house mezza brings, in no special order: creamy hummus, the garbanzo bean and olive oil dip; m’tabbal, a dip made from smoked, pureed eggplant; and tabbouleh salad, which needs no introduction, an excellent version redolent of fresh parsley, lemon juice and chopped tomato. This is a mind-blowing vegetarian feast, although the menu offers a variety of meat mezza that can be ordered separately.
Two huge falafel patties, deep-fried orbs of spiced, ground chickpeas, come sitting in a pool of sesame sauce. Labni, a thickened yogurt topped with olive oil, and haloum cheese on a plate, are next, along with a dish of Lebanese pickles.
Yes, there are rice-stuffed grape leaves, and wonderful versions of both stewed green beans and okra, both delicately framed in a rich tomato sauce flavored with onions and garlic. Finally there is fouhi, a thick paste made from beans, to be smeared onto hunks of pita bread and downed with thimbles of sweet, muddy coffee.
But though Lebanese cuisine is vegetarian-friendly, I personally think of it as a meat-lover’s cuisine. There are, for instance, various types of homemade sausages, like sujuk, a spicy beef sausage blackened on a grill, and maanik, which Lebanese Christians eat, pork sausage strongly flavored with clove and other aromatics.
Perhaps the defining dish in this cuisine is kibbi, a crust of bulgur wheat and chopped meat, stuffed with spiced ground beef and the crowning touch, a sprinkle of pine nuts.
Main courses here are largely kabobs, but the choices aren’t limited to them. There is, for instance, a nice red snapper, broiled and served whole, with a thick sesame sauce, and farooj, baked chicken served with potatoes in a sizzling iron dish, hot from an oven and almost completely dominated by a surfeit of lemon juice.
There is also kibbi nayya, the Lebanese version of steak tartare, made with seasoned, ground lamb, bulgur wheat and various condiments, although no Worcestershire or Dijon mustard, as it happens. Beef, lamb, chicken and shrimp are available en brochette if you wish, and all of them are meaty and tasty, served with fragrant Lebanese-style rice.
I’d also consider, as a side dish, one of what the menu calls pizzas, really flatbreads that have toppings such as thyme and sesame, or spiced ground beef. Anything from the oven here is worthwhile, and that goes for dessert, as well.
You’ve surely had baklava before, so consider, as an alternative, kuneifi, sweet cheese squares topped with orange-colored crumbs. Mariz Khoury says this is the way the dish is made in Jordan, as opposed to the Lebanese version, which is a pale yellow. The squares are served piping hot from the oven, drizzled in simple syrup, and are addictively good.
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Khoury’s
Mediterranean Restaurant
6115 S. Fort Apache Road. 671-0005. Open Monday-Thursday, 11 a.m.-10 p.m.; until 11 p.m. Friday-Saturday. Suggested dishes: house mezza, $25; manakeesh (thyme pizza), $5; kibbi, $9 (lunch), $13 (dinner); meat combination, $19.
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Photograph by Iris Dumuk