Resturant Review: Lebanase Taverna

Yet again the life of a graduate student was taken over by traveling to fun conferences! Man, it's hard to get sarcasm across in textual context. In any case, this year's stop was in the fabulous town of Bethesda, MD. What do you exactly do in Bethesda...well there is the NIH that provided us much need entertainment, but in reality, when you have a conference in Bethesda, you simply go to Washington DC. My favorite spot in the DC area is Adams Morgan. Wonderful food and eclectic stores make up the streets in this area of town. However, due to time constraints, we decided to have lunch at Woodley Park. Accompanied by luggage and tiredness, we chose the closest restaurant from the metro stop. When you walk out of the metro station, there are rows of restaurants to pick from. Each place has a printed menu posted outside the restaurant which allowed us to quickly select a Lebanese restaurant for lunch.

Menu: Several Vegetarian Options

Patio Seating

 I started my meal by venturing out with a Lebanese drink called Arak. To me, this was like drinking liquid fennel. It's very strong and I was done after four sips. It's always worth trying something new, but Arak is not something I would like to try again. Moving on to our lunch.We had two vegetarians at the table. I decided to go with the vegetarian platter, and my friend ordered the fatteh with eggplant. We also received complimentary pita with our meal...including whole wheat pita! 

Arak = Liquid Fennel

Clockwise (starting at center): Vegetarian Platter, Fatteh with Eggplant,  Kafta Sandwich, Shawarma Sandwhich, Traditional Platter

Vegetarian Platter: Parsley Salad, Baba Ganouge, Humus, Stew (bean, eggplant), Dolmathes, Falafel, Spinach Pie

In general, we all liked the experience and the food. Our server was extremely patient while we waited for our entire party to arrive. He wasn't very intrusive but checked on us regularly, just to make sure we had enough pita. He suggested Arak, as a traditional drink of choice. The server did warn me about the strong flavor, but I decided to give it a shot. If you like liquorish at extensive amounts, you will like this drink. If not, steer away! As for my lunch, I simply loved it! The bean stews were full of flavor. The eggplant stew was good, but I am not sure if I could handle a full serving. The hummus and baba ghanoush paired wonderfully with the pita. The right most column contained my favorites dishes, and I was not disappointed. Most things aren't perfect, so what went wrong with this meal? The parsley salad. The flavors were too overwhelming and I would have been perfectly happy with a tabbouleh salad. I prefer parsley as a garnish, not as a replacement for greens in a salad. Regardless, the overall experience was wonderful and I would definitely go back there.

Tote Full of Veggies Rating: O-M-Gee
URL: http://www.lebanesetaverna.com/
Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/lebanesetaverna
 
**To find a listing of my favorite restaurants go here**