Thanks for the report! I liked Beit Rima too. It’s on Church St. in the location of a former Burgermeister across from the Duboce Triangle Safeway (very convenient to Muni Metro), and was actually opened by a member of the family that runs the local Burgermeister chain, chef Samir Mogannam, who had also worked as a chef at Aziza and Dyafa.
You order and pay at the counter and get a number. They seem to be quite busy. Much busier than the Burgermeister was. Recently they’ve added a Yelp check-in tablet to handle the wait list.
I had the chicken shish tawook plate ($16), described on the menu as “yogurt marinated chicken, charred onion/red pepper, toum, mom’s rice, half pita”. It was really good. Very tender juicy chicken that was drizzed with a garlicky toum sauce. I’m not a hummus connoisseur but I liked the hummus too. Slightly warm and creamy. Medium density. Not as dense as say, Oren’s. The rice was kind of sticky. Pita was good too. It also came with a couple pieces of pickled turnip.
I also had a single falafel, which you can get for 79 cents a piece. A good medium sized freshly fried falafel that had a crunchy crust.
Went back another time and had the mezze sampler ($16), which has four of the spreads - hummus, muhammara, baba ghanoush, and lebna. It also comes with three half pitas, a couple of falafels, some olives, and some pickles.
Good spreads. The hummus was as good as before. Muhammara was well spiced with paprika (edit: after googling muhammara the spice is actually Aleppo pepper), kind of sweet. Baba ghanoush was fine. The lebna, a strained yogurt, was very nice - like a concentrated yogurt with the texture of cream cheese. I don’t think I’ve had this before.
Also had a dessert on another visit - the muhalabia ($6). This was ok, kind of like a milk jelly with a lot of crushed pistachios on top. It’s flavored with orange blossom water. Probably wouldn’t get again.
Will be back to try the ful, and the lamb shank.
