washingtonpost.com: Lebanese Taverna

Publish date: 2024-07-10
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|2641 Connecticut Ave. NW
(202) 265-8681

Hours of Operation and Prices
Lunch: M-F 11:30-2:30, Sat 11:30-3; Entrees: $7.75-$13.50
Dinner: M-Th 5:30-10:30, F-Sat 5:30-11, Sun 5-10; Entrees: $9.75-$15.50

Other Information
• Credit Cards: All major
• Reservations: Accepted 5:30-6:30
• Dress: Casual
• Parking: Free lot
• Nearest Metro: Woodley Park-Zoo
• Handicapped accessible
• For the Virginia branch of Lebanese Taverna: 5900 Washington Blvd., Arlington, Va., (703) 241-8681.

The walls are the color of sand, and arches that suggest a courtyard. Potted trees hint of gardens, etchings and photos of old Lebanon establish the cultural setting, and the open kitchen is as lively as an open-air market. On a weekend evening the hubbub is loud, the mood exuberant. So if you are looking for quiet, you'll need to find another time or place.

A Lebanese dinner is at its best a group activity, because with a tableful of people you can order a proper mezze - an array of appetizers that can be a prelude to dinner or dinner itself - mostly served in charming, handmade pottery bowls. The menu lists almost two dozen appetizer possibilities. I'd focus on pastry-wrapped cheese or spinach pies. The meat choices are also special - tiny spicy sausages called maanek, milder beef patties called sujok, the raw lamb and cracked wheat paste called kibbeh nayeh, or the oval cooked kibbeh, its thin, even, beef-wheat shell stuffed with ground lamb and nuts.

Note the wood-burning oven that produces Lebanese Taverna's breads. A falafel sandwich is wrapped in a house-made pita, and a huge, paper-thin, pale bread comes wrapped around the kafta mechwi and the rotisserie chicken. That chicken is the best main dish I've tried, its skin crisp and fairly tingling with spices. Chicken is also handled with respect in a kebab, shish taouk, lemony from its marinade. I'd choose chicken over lamb and beef here. Peppered red snapper is succulent in its soft, walnut-lemon sauce, and shrimp kebabs offer large shrimp, smoky from the grill, yet still juicy. In all, the food tastes better in a conglomeration of dishes than dish by dish. The combinations enhance each - mild, spicy, tart, crisp, oozing, hot, cold - by their contrasts. And they add up to a festive meal.

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