A beautiful October day in NE, we headed to Boston. Started at the MFA to see the Obama portraits. Worth the trip if you are a fan of the presidency and/or interested in new artists.
DH is now working with Dana Faber and so our next stop was the Franklin Park Zoo. DF opened it to employees for the day. I had never been but I am glad I was able to go today. The gorillas were fascinating. I could have passed on the snakes.
Lunch was Lavash Bar & Grill in Cambridge, near Fresh Pond. Turkish/Mediterranean food.
Indoor/outdoor seating, very inviting place. No liquor license yet but they are expecting it.
Exceptional food, can’t recommend it enough.
We had egg lemon soup, lentil soup, manti and chicken adana. The soups were meals unto themselves, I took most of mine home for dinner. Both were really good, sharp and sturdy. We are now researching Turkish red lentil soup with mint. Manti was an appetizer, but could of been a meal, small delicate dumplings perfectly cooked with some bite and the yogurt sauce was not quite tzatziki but in that family. I ate it with the grilled pita and on the andana and would ask for an order to take home next time, to replace mayo for a bit.
We really enjoyed the chicken andana, more crunchy then I expected in a good way but very flavorful, as were the pickled, grilled and fresh veggies on the plate. I am not a rice fan, so ate mine with the grilled pita.
Dessert was 2 Turkish teas and a Kazandibi (steamed milk pudding). Tea was good, pudding was fine but not being the sweet fan DH is, I could take it or leave it.
We did learn that breakfast is served on the weekends, and its just breakfast,no menu. Looked to be a spicy egg dish, sweet cheese, pita, fries, coffee and other things. And that, hopefully, will be our next visit. Staff and owner were very friendly and
$65.00 before tip, reasonable to us for the amount of food and the quality.
I included the website after the pictures, its a liitel wonky…don’t click on the
menu tab, scroll down and the menu is listed.
Sounds delicious, thanks for the report! And what a fun day.
This place has been on my list since I read in the Globe that Ozcan Ozan, who owned Sultan’s Kitchen downtown, is cooking there. Have always loved his food.
We agree completely with the kudos - we love Lavash! We haven’t dined in yet but have done takeout probably 5-6 times in the last few months and every time has been excellent. Very fresh and flavorful and exceptionally well packed to travel without a lot of wasteful packaging. (We usually pick up and head to a local park.) The prices are also very reasonable for the quality and portion size.
Our only suggestion has been for a better method of getting take out - generally the (very friendly) person who answers the phone suggests that we order in person and wait. That has worked for us so far but I could see it hampering their growth. We want them to succeed!
And it has been on ours too. I think he was there Sunday, Very serious and down to business. I want to go back with a group and order everything. Just had that feel to it.
I think they are still working the kinks out. The website is not 100% complete.
But it was very good, and we plan to return soon.
I love that kind of place!!
Thanks so much for the report. They’re good, but they’re in an unfortunate location, between autobody shops and fitness centers, on essentially a side road. I hope they thrive. There have been other good places there in the past, all interestingly with a middle-eastern bent, but they’ve popped up and gone.
I had their food again today, and I’m very sorry to say that it was uniformly ghastly. Of the cold stuff, the grape leaves were filled with par-cooked rice, the tzatziki was simply a bowl of yoghurt with an artful centerpiece of chopped cucumbers, and the hummus bland mush.
Things went from bad to worse with uniformly twice-fried stuff (where “twice fried” is not a compliment): calamari (fry me once, good for you, the eater; fry me twice, bad for you), very dry kibbeh, even dryer felafel.
Really, I haven’t had a worse meal in a while.
That makes me so sad. Thanks for posting about it. Was it takeout or eat in?
oh, so sorry to read this. our first trip was so good.
Takeout, but I live minutes away, so there was no distance-effect there.
It was odd/interesting because my wife and I have both had minor surgeries recently that render us temorarily unable to cook.** We had MDM on Saturday and leftovers on Sunday and there was enough left to make another dinner tonight. But, I figured I’d go for something new and fresh – hence Lavash.
(OT: ** This will be fixed in the next few days when I get 6 lbs of fish from Cape Ann Catch that I’ll marinate in a very spicy coconut-chili-coriander sauce, steam in banana leaves, and produce as one course at a multi-course Christmas Eve dinner with friends on Saturday.)
Yes. I had a good first impression myself, but tonight was so bad that, after some hesitation, I felt I had to report it. I actually just tossed a bunch of their food, something I totally hate to do, but being post-surgery I felt it was the safer option.
