OLD WORLD RIGHT AT OUR DOORSTEP.Byline: Larry Lipson Daily News Restaurant Critic The Eagle has landed in Encino. The food is homey, tasty and inexpensive at this new restaurant, a narrow, two-story Armenian-Russian eating place in the former Akbar space. It's a reverse twist here. The cooking is evidently done in an upstairs kitchen and sent down by dumb waiter. The downstairs dining room offers comfort and neatness without any lavish decor treatment, just a gallery of framed works by Armenian artists Art
Review visits have been on weekday evenings or at lunchtime, noticeably times when the restaurant is nearly empty. Evidently the crowds come here on the weekend and fill the upstairs patio and dining room, where there is usually musical entertainment. When you think of Armenian food, you think of kebabs. And they have them all here: lamb of course; also pork, beef, chicken, chicken breast, ground chicken and ground beef. The ground beef ones, called beef lula ($7.99), juicy and flavorful, arrive with a nicely executed house steamed rice and a choice of salad. Crab salad is probably the best choice if you like a creamy, mild mixture. Other options include such refreshers as tabbouleh tab·bou·leh or ta·bou·leh n. A Lebanese salad made with bulgur wheat and finely chopped scallions, tomatoes, mint, and parsley. [Arabic tabb , the parsley, bulgur bul·gur also bul·ghur n. Cracked wheat grains, often used in Middle Eastern dishes. Also called bulgur wheat. [Ottoman Turkish bul and tomato favorite of the Middle East; and a diced cucumber and yogurt combination something like the Greek tsadziki. Incidentally, any of these salads may be ordered a la carte for the reasonable price of $3.50. A traditional Armenian boiled lamb dish called chanakh ($9.99) arrives steaming in a clay pot with potatoes and bell peppers in a soupy soup·y adj. soup·i·er, soup·i·est 1. Having the appearance or consistency of soup. 2. Informal Foggy: soupy weather. 3. Informal Sentimental. broth and provides the perfect entree on a cool or rainy evening. This is the kind of hearty dish you'd expect to find in an Armenian home. And it isn't the only one. Sturgeon sturgeon, primitive fish of the northern regions of Europe, Asia, and North America. Unlike evolutionarily advanced fishes, it has a fine-grained hide, with very reduced scalation, a mostly cartilaginous skeleton, upturned tail fins, and a mouth set well back on the ($12.99), called Asetrina, does not possess the flaky flaky - (Or "flakey") Subject to frequent lossage. This use is of course related to the common slang use of the word to describe a person as eccentric, crazy, or just unreliable. , very tender flesh expected. Instead, it's slightly rubbery and chewy chew·y adj. chew·i·er, chew·i·est Needing much chewing: chewy candy. chew  i·ness n. , served however, with that good rice, also an interesting red bean Red bean can mean:
The Kievsky ($12.99) looks a little like chicken Kiev chicken Kiev n. A dish made of a rolled chicken fillet that is filled with butter, coated with batter, and fried until crisp. Noun 1. , but instead is a formed, ground, seasoned chicken breast arrangement rolled in bread crumbs and baked. Without the spurting butter routine of a traditional chicken Kiev, the Kievsky, described as a ``cutlet-rissole'' on the menu, provides a very amenable, full-flavored main course. The soups tried are excellent, one a vegetable borscht ($3.25), chock full of good tastes and textures, the soliancka ($3.25) a similarly satisfying recipe with a slightly pungent accent from olives. You can have a great time here just noshing on appetizers. The Eagle kitchen makes a tasty eggplant caviar ($3.75), a mashed eggplant dish the Russians used to call ``poor man's Poor man's is a common slang term used to compare one thing with another. It is not necessarily a derogatory term. It is usually used in a sentence as "X is a poor man's Y", with "X" being the person or thing one is referring to, and "Y" being the superior but similar person or caviar.'' Blinis ($1.50), khinkali (a ground beef and parsley tidbit, 50 cents each) and eashly kyofta ($1.99 each), a meaty onion appetizer, also made with ground beef, are recommended. The kitchen also marinates mushrooms, asparagus and mixed vegetables. It makes pelemeni dumplings, egg rolls, an eggplant and walnut mixture, stuffs cheese and spinach in puff pastry, also stuffs grape leaves and serves hummus hum·mus also hum·us or hom·mos n. A smooth thick mixture of mashed chickpeas, tahini, oil, lemon juice, and garlic, used especially as a dip for pita. , basturma and a plate of olives. And if you have room for dessert, there's baklava ($1.50) and thick Armenian coffee. THE FACTS The restaurant: Eagle. Where: 17049 Ventura Blvd., Encino. When: Open for lunch, dinner and snacks from 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday, for dinner from 5 to 11 p.m. Sunday. Recommended items: Vegetable borscht, soliyancka soup, eggplant caviar, blinis, eashly kyofta, khinkali, Kievsky cutlet, chanakh, cucumber and yogurt, crab salad, tabbouleh, beef lula and other kebabs, baklava. How much: Starters and salads from 30 cents to $4.75, entrees from $8 to $13, desserts $1.50 each. No alcohol. License pending. All major credit cards. Reservations: Taken. Needed on weekends. Call (818) 789-6701. Our rating: Three Stars for food; Three Stars for service. CAPTION(S): Photo Photo: Owner Karine Khachatryan serves lamb stew chanakh and beef kabobs, both traditional Armenian dishes, at Eagle in Encino. Hans Gutknecht/Daily News |
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