AT ENCINO'S MAYKEDEH, YOUR GUESS IS AS GOOD AS THEIRS.Byline: Larry Lipson Restaurant Critic MY MAIN GRIPE gripe v. To have sharp pains in the bowels. n. 1. gripes Sharp, spasmodic pains in the bowels. 2. A firm hold; a grasp. about restaurants these days is not giving the diner needed information in advance of ordering. Why give me a menu or wine list at all if there are numerous items on it that are unavailable? And if there happens to be just a few things that the kitchen or bar has run out of, then inform me before I make my ordering decisions, not after. Such a waste of time. This was the case at the recently opened Maykedeh, a Middle Eastern restaurant in Encino. It's in a building probably best known as the onetime home of the Greek Bistro. Because it possesses a full bar, one would expect a reasonable selection of wines. But when we asked the waitress for a wine list, she said they didn't have one. ``What do you have?'' I responded. ``Red or white,'' she said. ``Which ones?'' I asked. After a long pause, she came up with chardonnay or merlot. When I said ``Whose?'' she looked very confused. I then said that we would like a bottle of red and wondered what brand it would be. There are thousands of merlot producers, I informed her. She said she'd check with the bartender. It took her a while to get back to the table to say that the bartender had left because there wasn't enough business. Then she returned to tell us that she couldn't find the wine. ``Where's the owner?'' I asked. ``He's cooking,'' she said. I suggested she go into the kitchen and find out where the wine was kept. Eventually, she came to the table with two well-filled glasses of red wine, purportedly merlot. I repeated that I would prefer to buy a bottle. Finally, a man in a leather jacket (Zool.) A California carangoid fish (Oligoplites saurus). A trigger fish (Balistes Carolinensis). See also: Leather Leather , evidently the owner, showed up with the bottle. It was a 2001 DeLoach pinot noir that he agreed to sell to us for $25. (DeLoach, incidentally, was recently in bankruptcy, and some of its wine was selling locally for as low as 99 cents a bottle.) ``Do you think he cooks in a leather jacket?'' my wife pondered. By this time we had picked two soups from a list of three and two entrees. The waitress took our order. But wouldn't you know that this wasn't going to turn into a smooth experience henceforth. You guessed it. She gave us the ``good'' news, telling us they did have one of the soups and one of the entrees. I asked her if they had any lamb dishes, because it was a boneless Bone´less a. 1. Without bones. Adj. 1. boneless - being without a bone or bones; "jellyfish are boneless" lamb plate that wasn't available. She told us that we could have the skewered lamb (shishlik, $16.45). Consequently, our dinner of two passable pass·a·ble adj. 1. That can be passed, traversed, or crossed; navigable: a passable road. 2. Acceptable for general circulation: passable currency. 3. soups (ash reshte, $4.95, and mushroom barley, $3.95), fesenjoon, the traditional Persian pomegranate pomegranate (pŏm`grănĭt, pŏm`ə–), handsome deciduous and somewhat thorny large shrub or small tree (Punica granatum and walnut-sauced chicken stew Noun 1. chicken stew - a stew made with chicken fricassee - pieces of chicken or other meat stewed in gravy with e.g. carrots and onions and served with noodles or dumplings ($10.95) with somewhat dry pieces of chicken, and fatty lamb shishlik was mediocre at best. Totaling $81 with torshi (Persian pickles, $3.95) and tip, it was a meal better forgotten. Back a day later for lunch, it wasn't much improved. We skipped the wine this time, but had as bad a time picking items off the menu because so many weren't available. A skewered beef offering (kebab barg, $15.95), veal stew (gheimeh badmjoon, $10.95), eggplant eggplant, name for Solanum melongena, a large-leaved woody perennial shrub (often grown as an annual herb) of the family Solanaceae (nightshade family), and also cultivated for its ovoid fruit. appetizer ($4.25) and shirazi salad of diced tomatoes In the simplest definition, diced tomatoes are just that, tomatoes that have been diced. In the United States retail environment, however, the term refers to a relatively recent arrival in the processed tomato market, generally consisting of canned chunks of plum tomatoes in tomato and cucumber ($3.95) appeared to be executed with a mite more skill than the previous dishes. And Persian-style saffron-flavored ice cream studded with tiny crumbs CRUMBS is an improvisational theatre duo based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. The duo consists of two actors, Stephen Sim, and Lee White. Other members include videographers, musicians, photographers, webmasters, illustrators, producers, agents, publicists, graphic of pistachio pistachio (pĭstăsh`ēō, pĭstä`shēō), tree or shrub (of the genus Pistacia) of the family Anacardiaceae (sumac family). The species that yields the pistachio nut of commerce is P. ($3.95) hit the spot for a refreshing finish. But Maykedeh needs a lot more than a decent ice cream to earn this critic's recommendation. Larry Lipson, (818) 713-3668 larry.lipson(at)dailynews.com MAYKEDEH Food: One and one half stars - Service: One and one half stars - Wine: No stars Where: 17337 Ventura Blvd., Encino. Hours: Open for lunch, dinner and snacks from 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily except Monday, to midnight Friday, Saturday and Sunday, from 11:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday. Recommended items: Persian saffron and pistachio ice cream. How much: Starters from $4 to $6, entrees from $10 to $18, desserts from $3 to $6. Full bar. MC, V. Wine list: No printed or written list. Complete lack of knowledge of inventory or basic wine information. Corkage cork·age n. A charge exacted at a restaurant for every bottle of liquor served that was not bought on the premises. corkage Noun a charge made at a restaurant for serving wine bought elsewhere : Not allowed. Reservations: Taken. Call (818) 788-7744. |
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