David Snyder checks out the boastful claims of Leila Cafe’s Mohamad Kammoun and finds he’s backing them up.

Turns out it’s Leila’s meat that’s worthy of exaggerated praise. Each preparation is mixed in-house and seasoned with secret blends of between nine and 16 authentic Mediterranean spices. Thick, tender slices of shawarma (a lamb and beef mix here) are carved off a vertical spit and placed in a veggie-stuffed pita coated with homemade hummus. The beef gyro pita (also a lamb/beef mix) comes slathered with a refreshing scratch-made tzatziki. The couscous mixed in with the 100-percent-beef kibbie makes for a wonderfully textured patty.

Feed My Worried Mind [City Paper]
Leila Cafe [Official Site]

David Snyder finds enough to like at Aladeen Middle Eastern Restaurant on South Street that he’ll be back.

 The first is a traditional Moroccan bastilla. If a breakfast burrito had sex with a coffee cake, this would be their offspring. A mammoth pastry crust stuffed with eggs, chicken, crushed almonds and spices is baked, and then topped with mounds of powdered sugar and latticed with ground cinnamon. Though Aladeen lists it as an app, the pie’s sweet and savory interplay satisfies my lifelong quest for a compelling meat-based dessert.

 Genie in a Bottle [City Paper]

View Zahav Plaza in a larger map
Zahav and the Society Hill Towers are working together to allow Zahav to add outdoor seating in the Society Hill Towers Shopping Plaza. Zahav is looking to start patio service as soon as possible but has to work out a number of logistical issues first.

For those unfamiliar with the layout of the area, the roof-topped plaza backs up to Zahav along St. James Place and is home to a number of merchants and previously to a small super market.

Zahav has been piling up the accolades, Food & Wine, Esquire, Bon Appetit and most recently, Philadelphia Magazine named it the top restaurant. All this before turning a year old.

On Wednesday, May 20th the Israeli restaurant is throwing itself an anniversary party. Starting at 8pm there will be live Middle Eastern music, belly dancing and $5 all you can eat hummus and laffa. plus drink deals like $3 Goldstars and $5 Lemonnanas.

Zahav [Official Site]

13 years in the making, S&H Kebab House is finally a reality and according to Adam Erace, the restaurant is pushing out some of the best kebabs around.

[T]he kebabs, made with chicken or leg of lamb ground in-house, skewered on metal spits and cooked over open charcoals that imbue each stick with a smoky, almost sensual undertone. Turkish pepper paste reminiscent of Tunisian harissa stoked a fire in the long, sausage-shaped Adana kebabs, while the classic, familiar shish kebabs bring cubed lamb and chicken that had been marinating for days in yogurt, onion juice and tomato paste.

For both the shish and the doner kebabs, Yuksel starts with whole legs of lamb butchered, trimmed and trussed in the S&H kitchen, and you can taste the time and effort in each tender, succulent bite.

Serendipity Brings Kebabs to South Philly [Philadelphia Weekly]
S&H Kebab House [Official Site]

Craig LaBan is all about the iskender kebab special at S&H Kebab House, just off of South Street.

This Turkish grill from owners Sal Kucuk (he’s the “S”) and chef Hussein Yuksel (he’s the “H”) is all about spot-on, homemade Ottoman classics, and this iskender kebab is one of my favorites. Made from well-onioned ground lamb and roasted on a gyro spit layered with veal, the meat comes sliced over a platter of butter-crisped pita chips beneath lively tomato sauce and a rich dollop of strained homemade yogurt. It’s a true taste of Istanbul street food and is a particularly hearty deal at lunch for $7.95 with a side of Turkish red lentil soup.

Good Taste [Philadelphia Inquirer]

On Wednesdays, Mazag Cafe serves koshary, an Egyptian dish worthy of praise. David Snyder also finds plenty to praise on the rest of the menu.

[Owner Dahlia] Osman makes [koshary] by molding medium-grain rice, lentils and pasta on a festive plate and topping it all with a light tomato sauce. It sounds too plain to warrant exultation, but the harmonious blend of flavors that had my neighbor cooing come from house-infused garlic vinegar (drizzled on tableside), bitter fried onions and a deliciously nuanced homemade hot pepper sauce. After a few bites, I found myself wishing I knew how to say “delicious” in Arabic so I could pay the dish the compliment it deserves.

Eat Like an Egyptian [City Paper]

Food magazines just love Zahav. Philly Mag gave it “Best New Restaurant.” Bon Appetit included the Israeli restaurant in its “Hot 10 Summer Blockbusters,” Esquire named Michael Solomonov’s latest to its “Best New Restaurants of 2008″ and now Food & Wine includes Zahav in its “Best Restaurant Dishes of 2008.”

Yep, Zahav’s fried cauliflower with lebneh is one of the top ten dishes the editors of F&W have tasted all year. Kristin Donnelly has the details in the December issue.

My favorite was the cauliflower florets, fried until sweet and caramelized. Crisp enough to pick up with your fingers, they’re a terrific bar snack, served over a pool of tangy, dill-flecked lebneh (a thick, creamy yogurt) for dipping.

Zahav [Official Site]
Food & Wine, December 2008 Contents [Food & Wine]

Trey Popp checks out the newish Hummus on the western edge of Penn’s campus and it sounds good.

Hummus’ marinated thighs are so succulent I actually imagined sticking a straw into the pile of meat to suck up the juices. The depth of flavor is no fluke; the chicken on the spit is layered with lamb fat.

The falafel balls are crisp but not dry, beef kebabs ring with spices and onions and the pita bread is pillow soft. Moroccan cigars — deep-fried cylinders of potato or finely ground beef — were still so hot when they hit my plate that the Styrofoam vaporized, riddling the rim with penny-sized holes. That freaked me out a little, so I was extra glad for the thick smear of creamy hummus covering the middle of the plate.

Middle Eastern High [City Paper]
Hummus [Official Site]

Rick Nichols subs for Craig LaBan and rings three bells for Zahav, the Israeli restaurant overlooking Dock Street in the shadows of the Society Hill towers. Nichols finds some gold in the regular menu but he’s quite grumpy with the the Quarter, Zahav’s back room for weekly tastings.

Zahav does so much right, so singularly and – in its rendering of a Jewish grandmother’s unforgettable chicken soup – sometimes brilliantly. It’s worth the climb up, if only to look down, indulgently, on the out-of-the-know Zahav-nots.

Three Bells – Excellent

Zahav [Philadelphia Inquirer]
Zahav [Official Site]