Fresh Tabouls & Chadrools: Tabouli Grill, Southport

Anyone who knows me doesn't necessarily know I flove North African and Middle Eastern food...bold spices, chickpeas, heat, fresh flavors of lemon, cilantro and parsley, olives and their oil, lots of fried things...

To say Middle Eastern Food generally refers to a genre too vast to be considered one cuisine, but I like lots of what I know from Morocco to Egypt to Lebanon to Turkey, and everything in between.  I've never been to that part of the world, nor am I an expert in it, but I do know that many of the dishes appear in variations on the same theme from country to country over a wide area.  Falafel, for instance, may be made with chickpeas only in one place, but with chickpeas and/or favas in another.  And the name may change by a few letters and punctuation marks too.      

Anyway, Fairfield already had a newcomer Turkish place and a Pan Mideastern with Syrian twist place, but recently added to them is Tabouli Grill, which is distinguished by its focus on freshly made and all natural, where possible, takes on the Lebanese, Israeli and Egyptian ways of eating.  Not one to espouse any border disputes though, it considers itself a Mediterranean restaurant. 

When we walked right in and snagged the last table for a kind of early dinner recently, they started us off with a tiny plate of pickled cucumbers and cabbage, which we sampled and used to whet our appetities and cleanse our cotton mouths after a trip to Homegoods, which always does that to me.   

Tabouli Grill has a liquor license so they offer wine by the glass and bottle, as well as specialty cocktails, but for me beer is the old reliable...if not the then one of the original libations of the world, brewed in the cradle of civilization itself, going with every cuisine I can think of. Plus, they didn't have any traditional malted fruit beverages on the menu, so...

The Tabouli appetizer was dry--in a good way...not swimming in lemon juice nor with too much rough parsley.  Just plenty of plump bulgur with a good but not overpowering mix of breath-assuring greenage and diced tomato. 

Their Hummus was delightfully fresh and smooth...not cold but not room temp either.  It had a distinct bitterness and nuttiness to it, with a well in the middle filled with lemony tahina sauce.  Nicole was on my case for a three day garlic breath bender courtesy of some really good Chicken Tikka Masala, but this hummus didn't send it over the edge.  The garlic was discernible, but in balance with everything else, which is what I look for.  Sorry Sabra. 

The pita served with it was excellent; doughy, floury, fluffy and tasting of honey.  Their pita to hummus ratio was heavily skewed toward the latter, and though I could just eat the puree with a fork, we needed seconds on the bread to properly finish, and they seemed happy to oblige. 

For dinner, the sliced lamb in the Shwarma Platter retained its natural flavor despite an abundant peppering of allspice.  It was also pretty lean but with the occasional bit of fat to keep it honest.  There's no vertical spit with cylinder of dripping meat to be seen at Tabouli, not that I would have minded, but theirs is an approach of freshness and clean flavors.  This lamb was apparently spit roasted, but it was less saturated with herbs, spices and salt than I'm used to in a Shwarma or Doner Kebab.   

Megadarra, or rice with lentils and caramelized onion was very light and well seasoned with cinnamon that played off the sweet onion.  Part of me initially wanted more salt, but then I realized that the use of spice was sufficient to talk me out of it.  I think in general we look for too much salinity, so this was one of those moments to resist the urge and taste it for what it was.   

The falafel, served with more of that zesty tahina, were good...it's hard to make your falafel really stand out from the crowd of other properly made falafel, so I can't say too much about them other than that they were deep golden brown and crunchy without being greasy.  I could easily order like a dozen or two and just snack on them as an appetizer, for what that's worth.  Which is something to me.

The handful of falafel were served with Israeli Salad, which had plenty of crunch courtesy of bits of cucumber and cabbage, tossed with a lemon dressing that worked off the the cukes to give the whole dish a a subtle pickled flavor. 

The small space of Tabouli is well staffed, which made service pretty swift. Probably not somewhere we'll go for an 8pm dinner and close down the place, but not takeout-focused with napkin dispensers either...a happy medium which means it's good for a casual and/or impromptu dinner.  I think we got lucky just strolling in when we did, because shortly thereafter a small line formed, and there's really nowhere to put it.  As we ate, passers-by pulled in to check out the menu and see what else they have to add to their list in the breakneck culinary revolution of the Post Road. 

Our experience was definitely positive, but with one small caveat: no Kibbeh...when I'm going for takeout, I'm wishing to see these fried levantine meatballs on the menu.  Personal preference though and maybe they'll add them at some point.  When it came to every other dish we were pleased by the freshness, balance of flavors and desired textures.  We'll have to look somewhere else for kibbeh, but I would come back here for everything else.

http://www.tabouligrill.com/

Chadrool: Neapolitan dialectical pronunciation of cetriolo, which means cucumber.  Often used as slang to call someone an idiot.  No idiots to be found here, but it rhymes with taboul and cucumbers were enjoyed during our dining experience.