While the parent company, located further down the street, offers excellent mezzes and shawarmas, this branch, located in a former butcher's shop (the sign is still there), proudly displays its specialties: hummus, mouttabal (eggplant caviar), spinach turnovers, various sandwiches and foul, the broad bean dish found throughout the Middle East. In Syria, it is brown broad beans with a slightly thick skin and tender chickpeas, delicately seasoned with cumin, diced tomatoes, lemon and parsley, bathed in a sesame cream. While it is usually enjoyed for breakfast, it can also be, in its warm version, an ideal lunch. Enjoy with a glass of homemade ayran (fermented milk), while reading F. Mardam-Bey's Traité du pois chiche (The Chickpea Treatise) (Actes Sud), judiciously placed on a shelf... soggy black puddings in cans... For dessert, don't miss the mouhalabieh, this orange blossom flan, which takes you far away to the Mediterranean. And we haven't even mentioned the date maamouls... Wash it down with arak - the pastis of the Levant - or, for the adventurous, fermented milk. All for less than 25 euros, to eat in or take away.
Esterelle Payany: Journalist