The votes are in, and the winners have been selected for
OnMilwaukee's Best Dining 2008. The results of this readers' poll,
including an editors' pick, are available in this series of articles
that run all October long during Dining Month on OnMilwaukee.com.
October is Dining Month on OnMilwaukee.com. All month,
we're stuffed with restaurant reviews, special features, chef profiles
and unique articles on everything food. Bon appetit!
The dinner menu here is heavily carnivorous, featuring several varieties of lamb -- roasted, kebabs, shawarma and lamb steak -- as well as chicken bathed in garlic, spices, onions and crushed berries and tenderloin kebabs.
The weekday lunch buffet, however, is another animal entirely.
For $6.95, the all-you-can eat buffet seems an endless array of completely vegetarian and vegan options, from the usual offerings of hummus, couscous, babaghannoj (baked eggplant pureed with tahini, olive oil, lemon and garlic) and perfectly fried falafel (ground chick peas and vegetables, formed into balls and deep fried with Middle Eastern spices), to more usual -- yet delectably smelling -- entrees such as tahini pasta (dairy-free), eggplant potatoes, mixed vegetable stew, spinach pie and sweet carrots baked with garlic vegetable sauce.
Experienced buffet diners go light on the sides, saving stomach space for the restaurant's real highlights like the bed of couscous covered with a combo of stewed eggplant, zucchini, carrots, onions and chick peas in a tomato sauce, or the hand stuffed grape leaves -- which, on the dinner menu, come vegetarian or stuffed with seasoned ground beef, onions and rice.
OnMilwaukee.com editors' choice: Shaharazad
Runners-up:
2. Tulip
3. Shaharazad
4. Abu's
5. Aladdin
6. Shiraz
7. Yaffa
8. Sahar
9. 2 Sweet
