Mediterranean Kitchen @ Bellevue

On Saturday, we met some friends for lunch at Mediterranean Kitchen in Bellevue. We have been there n number of times before, but I haven't really got a chance to review it in my blog. We all looooooove the middle eastern fair and jump at every opportunity to go there.

The cozy, dark interiors and the pricey menu make it exemplary for rare occasions. But we simply loooove their food and used to lunch there atleast once a month. Thanks to their unostentatious grab n go cafe in Kirkland; we now go there every other week, sometimes, every week.

The waiter first brought in a pita bread basket and a pungent garlic dip. This restaurant is loved and hated for the amount of garlic they add to the food. So much, that they are even thoughtful to offer mint flavored chocolates with the check. May be they should change the name to Garlic Kitchen or something. But we love the garlicky flavor, so in turn love, love, love their food.

Next, the lemony Lentil Soup came. All good so far. 

Since we were four of us, we ordered the Mezza Tray, which is an assortment of delicious Middle Eastern appetizers: Hummus (mashed garbanzo beans, with spices and tahini sauce), Baba Kanouj (mashed eggplant with spices and tahini sauce), Labnie (Drained, delicious yogurt with olive oil, olives, tomatoes and cucumbers topped with fresh crushed mint), Tabouleh (Chopped parsley with onions and tomatoes tossed with extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice and bulgar), Zahra (Cauliflower deep-fried, topped with tahini sauce, garnished with green onions, raddish, fresh crushed mint), olives, tomatoes and cucumbers.
Now, if only dolmas (fresh grape leaves stuffed with rice, onions and parsley then baked with delicious Mediterranean spices) were part of this yummylicious platter....... esp. if they could replace the Tabouleh ;-)

We ordered our usual, the spicy Veggie Shawarma.This dish is not listed on their menu, but they customize it for us. In a nutshell, as our meat loving friend pointed out, it is the Chicken Shawarma without the Chicken :). The Shawarma is made with red wine vinegar, spices and garlic, and is tossed with grilled onions, green onions, red cabbage and tomatoes, served with tahini sauce, on a bed of saffron rice. The one at Kirkland, adds a side of hummus to this plate and we absolutely love it. I somehow feel the food is more flavorful at the Kirkland location. And ofcourse, a better bang for the buck. Plus, they have some additional interesting items on their menu. One such sandwich is Batinjan (grilled eggplant with lemon, garlic, green pepper, red pepper and cauliflower deep-fried, topped with tahini sauce, garnished with green onions, raddish, fresh crushed mint and all wrapped in a pita)  that is phenomenol.

A usually saves a few scraps of the pita bread, to polish the plates clean, after every morsel has been gnawed and relished. So clean, that, sometimes it leaves me a tad embarassed. Especially when the waiter/waitress gives us a knowing smile when clearing our plates. I ususally scamper off as soon as am done eating, to save myself the embarassment :)

Belle Pastry @ Bellevue

The quaint yet upscale neighborhood of Bellevue, along Main St, is where we sometimes engage in a mindless traipse, from one end to the other, stopping briefly for coffee and cake at some interesting patisserie that we stumble upon.
This Saturday afternoon during one such saunter, we found Belle Pastry. Bright and shiny, with a few casual tables by the windows and a huge array of interesting looking pastries and dolce, it came upon as a perfect spot for shooting the breeze. We controlled our urge for an uncalled-for indulgence and ordered their Latte and a Paris Brest. It is a ring-shaped pâte à choux with praline butter cream, garnished with slivered toasted almonds. It seems this delightful French pastry was created by a pastry chef in honor of a bicycle race between Paris and Brest. And, hence it is patterned after a bicycle tyre. Interesting,eh?

The Latte was delicious by itself. The ratio of coffee to milk was perfect, and complemented the dessert.

A little on the expensive side, I would say. The desserts were between $3.75 and $5.00 a piece, but then, they are one of a kind. So, once in a while, when you have a sweet tooth, splurging is not too bad, huh?

Georgetown Liquor Company

I heard about GLC from some collegues at work. They told me that the food there is one of a kind. I had never heard of Georgetown before. So, after a tiring day of tubing at Snoqualmie, we were voraciously hungry and headed to GLC for some scrumptious dinner, hoping that we will not be disappointed, and we were not!

The neighborhood was kind of abandoned on a Saturday night. The restaurant was more like a sports bar and had a very unpretentious decor. A few booths, a few wobbling tables, an old juke box, some video games and a small bar. I had second thoughts about the restaurant, and wondered how the food would be, when I sat on a chair and the table did a little dance. Eventually, we moved to a booth. But I am glad that the food was to die for. They have the best sandwiches on earth and all of them 100% vegetarian.

We ordered the Tycho - Garlic roasted portobello mushroom was juicy; together with the melted mozarella cheese, grilled red onions and roasted tomato aioli toasted on Ciabatta, it was ultimate. It came with soup/salad/chips n salsa. We chose the split pea soup. We also ordered the Wild Mushroom Tamales - Two housemade tamales filled with beer-simmered wild mushrooms, topped with housemade Spanish red sauce and queso fresco, served with Forbidden Rice, and housemade salsa and a house salad. Both the entrees were excellent! It was quite interesting to see a veggie tamale. The forbidden rice was perfectly cooked. And there was salad on the side too.

For the curious foodies, forbidden rice is a type of black rice that turns purple when cooked. And, it may have gotten its name because only emperors in ancient China were allowed to eat it, due to its rarity and high nutritional value.

Anyhoo, they have a lot more interesting entrees and we will go back for more. I love love love Tycho and I love love love GLC!

Chilli Pepper House @ Vancouver

A and I love hooot and spicy food. The kind of spice that makes your head itch, your tongue crave for some ice chips, and then you look around and gesture to the waiter for more water..... Just kidding. We love spice but not the kind that has after effects. We relate hot and spicy food to Indo Chinese cuisine. Seattle, has only one, Bamboo Garden, but Vancouver has many. A trip to Vancouver is considered complete only after the said food is consumed and relished. So,on our drive back, after the Winter Olympics, we stopped at Chilli Pepper House in Surrey.

It was just another restaurant. Some tables.No bar. Asian waitress. The manager looked Asian  too, but was fluent in Hindi. The menu had lots of Vegetarian options.I scanned the menu, made big eyes whenever I read the words "Paneer" "Chilli" "Garlic" "Spicy", let out a tiny squeal and looked at A, who shot back a look as if to say "We can only pick two!". We ordered the Gobi Manchurian (dry) and Chilli Paneer. A told the waitress, "Make it spicy....maximum.....how many? 5 stars? Yes, make it 5 stars." The waitress, not sure of A's spice levels, brought us a spice rack on top of the 5 stars.She had some trouble understanding the "dry" part of the Manchurian. To avoid any disaster, we told her to get the regular Manchurian.

Gobi Manchurian came. It looked good, but was kind of cold. Or least, was not hot enough.We told the waitress to heat it a little more and she stomped back to the kitchen swearing something under her breath.
Then, Gobi manchurian (aka Cauliflower Manchurian) came back, nice and hot. I would describe it as Golden fried cauliflower florets in a mildly spiced soy garlic sauce cooked with fresh cilantro, celery, chilies, ginger & green onions.It was excellent.

The Chilli Paneer was fantastic. Basically, it is Indian cheese fried to perfection and tossed with green bell peppers, onions, chilies, ginger and garlic.We ordered rice on the side.

                            

We loved the food and will go back for more, sometime soon. They have another branch on Kingsway, which is also great!

Red Door

We were in Vancouver one weekend, for the Winter Olympics. While driving around looking for an interesting restaurant to lunch at, we found Red Door, a pan-Asian grill. The weather was rainy, making it perfect for some hot and spicy food.

Red Door is a unique place in that, the interiors and the ambience make it look like a $$$ restaurant, but in reality, it is just a $$ restaurant. Ha! Isn't that lovely? The walls were red and the tables black. The decor was bambooish and some Asian art pieces were hung on the walls. There was a bar and a closed outdoor seating area.

We had their special of the day for appetizer. I think it was called a veggie kabab. Basically, it was a piece of roti (I think, of Indonesian origin) that was folded and filled with an eggplant-onion-tomatoes sauted filling. There were 3 pieces of kebabs, that came with a side of raita (from India) and a Thai red curry. Thus, it was an Asian fusion dish and tasted great.

The other item we had was their Seven Flavor Tofu - Thai basil, lemon grass, 5 spice, hoi sin, chillies, garlic and ginger with roasted peanuts. It was awesome. Just thinking about it makes me drool.

The service was good too. We asked for our dish to be spicy and the waiter, apart from making the food spicy, was thoughtful to bring us three different hot sauces ranging from mild to real hot. Rice was extra, but we loved it anyway.

Preet's Buffet

Preet's is my favorite north Indian restaurant in the Seattle area. Coming from India, I have always been on the look out for a restaurant that makes food very similar to authentic Punjabi Ghar Ka Khana (home cooked food). Punjab Sweets in Kent is excellent, but way too far away to visit. And then I found Preet's a few years back. We are fans of their chaat and parathas. Though a lil pricey, they make it up in the food. Another thing to note is that I heard the cooks at Preet's grind all the spices and make their own masalas that taste much better than the store bought ones. Even the paneer is made from scratch and has a fresh flavor to it.
I was thrilled when I heard about their lunch buffet. An all vegetarian buffet, what could be more better?

We stopped by for their lunch buffet on a Saturday and we were bowled over, as usual. The buffet consisted of a Salad, Pakore, Cilantro/Mint chutney, Raita, Pickled vegetables, Paneer Tikka Masala, Dal Makhni, Channa Masala, Aloo Gobi, Jeera rice and Rice Pudding.

The Pakores were crispy and when paired with the Cilantro chutney tasted just like what we get in India. The Paneer had a fresh aroma to it, unlike the frozen ones that you get in the grocery stores. The Tikka masala had the right spices, right consistency and had the flavor of fresh cream. The Dal makhni was also the best i have had. Channa masala was not spicy, yet aromatic and reminiscent of what our cook makes back at home. Aloo Gobi was also excellent. The whole-wheat buttered roti was similar to what the Punjabi Grand moms would make. The downside is that you only get two rotis in your buffet. Each extra roti costs $0.50. Now, what is that attitude? Its like they are screaming "We make the best food, pay more if you want more!". That really sucks, ain't it?

And the buffet costs $8.00 on weekdays and $10.00 on weekends. I asked the waitress, what's special on the weekends and she said," Hmmmm....nothing....really." For the extra $2, I expect something extra in the buffet. A better dessert maybe, instead of the standard cold rice pudding. Or atleast extra rotis! What do you say? Though I love their food, their attitude kinda gets to me. Hence the 4 stars.

Update (04/14/10): D was visiting and suggested Preet's for dinner. We were quite surprised to know that they have a dinner buffet too! The menu was the same except for a couple of changes. The "Green Chutney" is no longer a part of the buffet. We had to request for some and the waitress brought it out to us.They had a bell pepper, potato mixed veggie dish that got emptied out and it was replaced with a Tofu Scramble. Excuse me ??? What is Tofu doing in a Punjabi Buffet?? Shouldn't it have been Paneer or something? A little disappointing....and yes, I did pull a face when I saw that, but the rest of the food was as good as ever. The service was sloppy. There was just one goofy waitress and the restaurant was packed. She served the generous helping of "2 rotis" to a family that arrived after us, much ahead of us and that kind of put us off.
D ordered Chai Tea and had to repeatedly ask for it untill it was gently shoved in front of him. We ordered the "Jamun with cream" (as they call it), for dessert. Two Jamuns with two scoops of vanilla ice cream drizzled with pistachio... mucho delicioso!

Garlic Crush

Garlic Crush is an affordable joint that specializes in Middle Eastern cuisine. I am a huge fan of Mediterranean Kitchen. I have not come across any other restaurant that is better or atleast on par with Med Kitchen. I got this B1G1 coupon for Garlic Crush from Entertainment Book and decided to give it a try. It was different yet nice in its own way.

First of all this is more of a take out place. A great place to grab a quick lunch/dinner. There are about 8 tables and an open kitchen. The food was great. The portions were generous. We ordered the Mezze plate and the Falafel plate. The Mezze plate came with couple of pita bread, Hummus, Baba Ganouj, 2 Falafels, 2 Dolmathes and Tabouleh.

We had requested them to make it more garlicky and they gave us a side of extra garlic. The pita bread was big, not very thick, and layered. I have heard this is how an authentic Lebanese pita is and is the best pita I have had.

The Falafel plate came with 6 falafels of a decent size on a bed of lettuce, saffron rice and some hummus on the side. The saffron rice had a slight lemony taste and was tossed with brown colored vermicilli. We mixed the extra garlic with the rice and it tasted exactly like the one you get at Mediterranean Kitchen. And then we realised that an extra helping of garlic makes the food really flavorful.

I would have liked the plates to include tahini sauce and some tzatziki on the side. Each plate costs no more $10. And oh yes! Each plate comes with a side of soup or salad. We asked for the soup and it was really delicious.

 If you are in Bellevue Downtown and are craving for some Middle Eastern food and have time to just grab a quick bite, Garlic Crush is the place to go to.