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ZAHLE IN THE VALLEY: THE MIDDLE-EASTERN POLISH OF ALCAZAR EXPRESS
By Jonathan Gold
LA Weekly
Sept 9 2009
Since it opened a few years ago, Alcazar has been the go-to Lebanese
place in the Valley, a pleasantly scented patio with great chicken
kebabs, fried fish with tahini and oceans of specially imported arak,
a place that a Beirut-loving friend dubbed Zahle in the Valley. The
new Alcazar Express, squeezed into a narrow Westwood storefront near
the top of what is sometimes called Tehrangeles, is nowhere near as
grand as the Encino Alcazar. If you're looking for hookahs, wine or
live music, you're probably better off at the original. The grilled
meats tend to be a touch less accurately done.
But the menu, especially the several pages devoted to mezze, the
procession of salads and small dishes that make up the first few acts
of a Lebanese meal, seems almost more ambitious in this context --
it's almost as if flavors of the chunky hummus with garlic and whole
chickpeas, the thick Lebanese yogurt with fried bits of Armenian sujuk
sausage, and the succulent lamb's tongue sautéed with lemon are too
big to be contained in the confines of this dining room. The crisp
falafel, served atop an almost-delicate chopped-vegetable salad bound
with tahini, is very good, if untraditional, and the cheese-stuffed
bourek are as thin as pastry cigarettes. The texture of garlic sauce
served with the grilled lamb chops may be closer to a silky, fluffy
sauce raifort than to the pungent ointment you know from Zankou. The
buttery baklava pastry is so thin that it melts away the second you
touch it with your tongue. Alcazar Express may look a bit like a
corner kebab stand, and it is not inexpensive, but even in its first
weeks, the Middle Eastern/Armenian cooking is the most polished on the
Westside. 1303 Westwood Blvd., Wstwd., (310) 914-9777, al-cazar.com.
By Jonathan Gold
LA Weekly
Sept 9 2009
Since it opened a few years ago, Alcazar has been the go-to Lebanese
place in the Valley, a pleasantly scented patio with great chicken
kebabs, fried fish with tahini and oceans of specially imported arak,
a place that a Beirut-loving friend dubbed Zahle in the Valley. The
new Alcazar Express, squeezed into a narrow Westwood storefront near
the top of what is sometimes called Tehrangeles, is nowhere near as
grand as the Encino Alcazar. If you're looking for hookahs, wine or
live music, you're probably better off at the original. The grilled
meats tend to be a touch less accurately done.
But the menu, especially the several pages devoted to mezze, the
procession of salads and small dishes that make up the first few acts
of a Lebanese meal, seems almost more ambitious in this context --
it's almost as if flavors of the chunky hummus with garlic and whole
chickpeas, the thick Lebanese yogurt with fried bits of Armenian sujuk
sausage, and the succulent lamb's tongue sautéed with lemon are too
big to be contained in the confines of this dining room. The crisp
falafel, served atop an almost-delicate chopped-vegetable salad bound
with tahini, is very good, if untraditional, and the cheese-stuffed
bourek are as thin as pastry cigarettes. The texture of garlic sauce
served with the grilled lamb chops may be closer to a silky, fluffy
sauce raifort than to the pungent ointment you know from Zankou. The
buttery baklava pastry is so thin that it melts away the second you
touch it with your tongue. Alcazar Express may look a bit like a
corner kebab stand, and it is not inexpensive, but even in its first
weeks, the Middle Eastern/Armenian cooking is the most polished on the
Westside. 1303 Westwood Blvd., Wstwd., (310) 914-9777, al-cazar.com.