I went here a good while ago as can be seen from Andie's old review to this tasty Middle Eastern place. Judging from the menu, I presume they're Lebanese or Egyptian judging from the menu but characterizing them doesn't really matter much as the food here overall was tasty. The spot is casual inside though there was a larger spot next door connected to them which would have had much more room for our group but they were closed so we did what we could do with the room we had. The staff was friendly and they gave us extra food for our large group which was very appreciated. Of course as per many places around there, there's no alcohol and I don't believe you can bring it in either so I had a Laziza which is a non-alcoholic malt beverage which comes in a variety of flavors and I had the peach version which is my preference along with the raspberry. First arriving was the Hummus for $11 which came with pita which was unfortunately a bit cool. The portion size was decent and it was decently thick with a bit of cumin and olive oil on top and was overall solid though I prefer the version at a few other spots in the surrounding area. We soon got some Falafel which are $7 for 4 which simply came on some lettuce. The price would normally be a bit much but the they were a bit larger than usual. Outside of the larger size, the falafel themselves were also particularly good in terms of texture with a good crunchy outside and a soft interior. I guess the only negative would be the light spices compared to some of the best spots but that's the only complaint and it wasn't like it was bland. For the two platters we ordered, the better option was easily the Kofta for $20 which came with a pita wrap along with two sides which were more hummus as well as French fries. The two large pieces of kofta were very well seasoned and were tender with a touch of scorch from the grill and was one of the better koftas I had in recent memory. The hummus again was good while the French fries were decent as they could have been a bit more crispy but that's usually never the case in halal spots so it didn't matter as much. Worse and the weakest thing we had was the Lamb Shish Platter for $21 which had somewhat similar bread along with our sides; a salad as well as rice. The meat which was chopped into all different sizes had a handful of pieces that were a bit chewy and a bunch that were on the more burnt end so they were overall cooked a bit too long with this being the only thing that really required the green hot sauce or yogurt. The rice was a bit better than many similar spots with more spices than usual while the salad was a nice fresh mix with the closest version being a shepherd salad as per the mix of chopped up lettuce, tomato, and cucumber. In short, good sides but the meat outside of the nice grill flavor was subpar. We also got two feteer which is a flaky Arabic pie originally from Egypt with one savory version and one dessert version. The Levant Sausage for $21 was tasty with the slightly salty sausage pairing with some cheese as well as some bell peppers and olives. I would recommend this to share as it became a big greasy and oily but it was tasty overall. Next time however, I would prefer to try the mixed version to add more textures and flavors. The sweet one was the Lotus for $23 where the lotus presumably refers to the brand of biscoff cookies which there was plentiful of which added a nice crunch as well as a bit of cinnamon flavor. There was otherwise chopped up nuts along with custard and a bit of powdered sugar. I liked that I wasn't overly sweetened even with the cookies and powdered sugar. For someone who usually prefer savory, I preferred the sweet version here surprisingly and I would recommend it pretty heavily. They also gave us baklava and knefe (or kunefe/knafeh/etc.) which was very appreciated. The baklava was solid with a good texture from the filo dough with a good sprinkling of pistachio on top. The knefe was also pretty tasty though there was less cheese than usual but it's hard to complain as it was free and it was probably chopped up from a larger piece for our freebee with it being properly warm which made it better than the version at Al-Sham. This is a solid Middle Eastern spot. It's not the best food of it's type but the general quality overall (outside of the shish) was quite high with a notably good kofta and some tasty falafel with the lotus feteer being an excellent dessert as well. The portion sizes were also quite large for the price point. I partially don't get the NYT top 100 but it's definitely a good amount better than average and if this place introduces folks to Middle Eastern food (outside of halal carts,) that isn't a bad thing. 4.3. read more