Al-Khaymeih
One of the spiffier restaurants on a stretch of Middle Eastern and Mediterranean places in Albany Park, Al-Khaymeih has a large menu with all the Middle Eastern standards plus a few rarities like sumac-dusted fried cauliflower and sarouj, marinated and char-broiled Cornish hen. The food is always fresh and tasty, particularly standout appetizers. The smooth, flavorful hummus goes light on the tahini; the grape leaves are tightly rolled and bursting with lemony rice and vegetables; the lamb, beef, and chicken kebabs are nicely seasoned and generously portioned; and the pita bread, served warm, is made by Sanabel Bakery & Grocery, which shares its owner. —Laura Levy Shatkin
This Bucktown spot turns out food every bit as good as that of some of its more regal counterparts, and at half the price. Standards like shish kebab, falafel, baba ghanoush, dolmas, tabbouleh, and Jerusalem salad dominate the menu, but there’s a smattering of harder-to-find stuff such as borek stuffed with aromatic ground beef. The space is lovely, with brick walls and high ceilings that make the room seem bigger than it is. They must be doing something right—by the time we left there was a line out the door. —Chip Dudley
I’m never going to say that Kedzie Avenue has too many Middle Eastern restaurants, especially since some of the best are distinctive. But with the familiar menu of shawarma, kebabs, hummus, falafel, fattoush, etc, what does Dawali have that’s going to draw customers from the others? For one thing, every day the alluring aroma of baking bread blasts across the parking lot, issuing like a siren’s call from its next door neighbor, the grocery and bakery Pita House. Ordering at the counter and getting our own drinks, we sat down to an appetizer sampler of pretty basic baba ghanoush, heavily emulsified hummus, grilled vegetables (masaka’a), and crispy though oddly herbaceous and wet falafel. But the shawarma, with very clearly defined layers of beef and fat-streaked lamb, showed some potential, its exterior bits crispy and nicely charred, though despite the aforementioned fat, it still seemed a bit dry. And yes, the bread comes from Pita House—one of the guys at the counter went over for a couple fresh bags during our meal. Alcohol prohibited. —Mike Sula
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Masouleh specializes in home-style Persian food—stews, soups, and small sides, many based more on vegetables than meat. While Goly Nassiri-Masouleh works the front of this equally homey Rogers Park restaurant, her husband, Azim, works the kitchen, laboring over regional dishes such as mirza ghasemi, roasted eggplant stewed with tomato and garlic. Gilan, the northern Iranian province where Azim hails from, is noted for its heavy use of garlic, eggs, vegetables, and green herbs that infuse dishes with fresh, grassy flavors. Torshe tareh, for example, is minced sour spinach textured by a small amount of cracked rice and flavored with garlic, cilantro, parsley, and a minty dried herb called khol wash, from a dwindling stock Azim’s sister brought over from Iran. Other specialties include zaytoon parvardeh, a side dish of olives marinated in a mixture of garlic, chopped walnuts, pomegranate syrup, and a touch of golpar, a spice that comes from the giant hogweed and is sometimes called Persian marjoram. Then there’s the mirza ghasemi, the region’s most famous food, which is similar to the northern Indian baigan bharta but for the addition of scrambled egg. The menu also includes a triumvirate of three classic Iranian khoureshte, or stews: vegetable beef with green herbs (ghormeh sabzi), eggplant, beef, and yellow split peas (gheimeh bademjan), and chicken in a thick walnut-pomegranate sauce (fesenjan). And every weekend Azim prepares a more labor-intensive northern dish as a special, for example, morghe torsh, chicken and yellow split peas seasoned with garlic, lemon juice, cilantro, dill, parsley, mint, and khol wash and finished off with scrambled egg. There are kebabs as well, but why bother with the ordinary when you can eat like an Iranian? —Mike Sula
Mir Javad Naghavi, chef and co-owner (with his father Amin and sister Parvin) of Albany Park’s Noon-O-Kabab, says he makes his koubideh, skewers of ground beef and lamb, with a marinade of “ingredients your body needs”—salt, pepper, and onion. He takes a similarly elemental approach to all his cooking, relying on simple marinades and classic techniques to produce the menu of grilled meats; hearty vegetarian entrees like a stew of deep-fried baby eggplant, tomatoes, saffron, and sauteed onions; and traditional Middle Eastern dishes like hummus, baba ghanoush, and kashke bademjan, a delicious appetizer of pureed eggplant, onion, garlic, and mint. There’s a full bar; a separate location for pickup, delivery, and catering is located at 4651 N. Kedzie (773-279-8899). —Laura Levy Shatkin
