My Mom came for a visit over the Thanksgiving holidays. So a couple of days before Thanksgiving, we decided to go out to eat and asked Mom what she wanted to try. Middle Eastern is her favorite and since she’s of Syrian descent, she knows good Arabic food.
Khoury's Mediterranean Restaurant
We decided on Khoury’s Mediterranean Restaurant. It’s about 15 miles west of the strip, pretty close to our house and they freshly bake their pita bread in small batches so it’s always warm and soft.
Khoury's Open Oven
The restaurant felt good inside (it’s finally gotten cold in Las Vegas) because of the open oven which was periodically baking pita and pizza. We were seated quickly and decided to have the House Mezza to share among us all. Mom also wanted to try their lentil soup.
When the waitress starting bringing out the small plates of mezza, they ended up filling the table.
Along with the hot Pita Bread, we ate Tabulli, Hummus, Baba Ghanoush, Labni, Cheese Plate, Loubieh, Bamieh, Pickles and Olives, Fresh Vegetables, Foohl, Falafel, carrots & jalapeno, and the vegetarian stuffed grape leaves.
Mezza
Mezza
The Tabulli (or Tabouli) was fresh tasting and heavy on the chopped green parsely. Baba Ghanoush had a great roasted eggplant flavor and a creamy texture.
The dish of shaved carrots that you see in the picture, were tossed with jalapenos in an olive oil based dressing. Sweet, spicy and refreshing.
The Foohl is (that brown dish in the picture) cooked, crushed Fava Beans dressed with garlic, olive oil and lemon juice—which is the Arabic cuisine’s version of the Holy Trinity. Everything gets annointed with those three ingredients. Foohl was just OK. Tasted kind of heavy to me.
Mezze with tabouli & falafel in front
Falafel was hot, crisp and tasted good. Mom said her lentil soup was delicious. And of course all the mezze went beautifully with the pita bread, which we ate until we were stuffed. That’s a great way to leave any restaurant.
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