I must explain a couple things.
Omar’s family has an “inside joke” than when someone says something “Fattoush” it means a repetitive story. As I apparently like to tell stories over and over again, I hear almost daily from Omar, “I know, Fattoush!” I have now adopted this term into my vocabulary, so Fattoush has a different meaning for us all together.
Next, I know we reviewed La Saj in the past in this blog, we felt necessary and the polite thing to do, to review the new La Saj that just opened in Troy, at 15 1/2 and Crooks.
We had a rather large group meet Friday night (there was 14 of us). When I made reservations, they were friendly, helpful and eager to host our group (unlike another local restaurant **cough cough** Parrot Cove **cough cough**). When we arrived, the new restaurant was beautiful, tastefully decorated, with a knowledgeable and helpful staff ready to assist us. Our table was waiting, and we had waitstaff immediately bringing water, bread and that delicious garlic dip.
The food was the same quality and taste we had come to expect from the Sterling Heights location. Being new, they don’t seem to have problems with those stumbling blocks of having continuity in your cooking, and service. How many times have we gone to the same restaurant, different location, where food was different, and just wasn’t as good as the original? Not the case here.
You really just can’t beat the dinner for two. It comes with a sampling of everything you could want. Start off with a delicious lentil soup or salad, upgrade to fattoush for an additional cost, or be like me, and get fattoush dressing on your tossed salad – no upgrade cost and all that’s missing is the pita chips. Then you get baba ganoush (a smoked eggplant spread), hummus (regular or spicy, a chickpea spread), tabbouleh (parsley salad), beef or lamb kabob, chicken kabob, saji kafta (ground lamb with spices, skewered & grilled), fried kibbe (ground beef with spices, fried in a dough in a football shape), falafel (fried chick peas) and grape leaves (ground lamb or beef, rice and spices wrapped in grape leaves). What more could you need?
I was not feeling very hungry, so I ordered a regular dinner and Omar wanted Raw Kibbee (gross, raw lamb and bulgar wheat, seasoned, yes, but no thank you. For all you raw meat lovers, Omar said it was really good). The combo for two is such a great deal that our friends bill with all that food was the same as ours with one entree and one appetizer.
We have said it before and we will say it again (I know, that’s Fattoush!! LOL) La Saj is a place to go when craving Middle Eastern Food. Now that we have one so close, we will be back.
Keep in mind though, the Troy location is patiently awaiting their liquor license. We were terribly disappointed when informed it would be a booze free evening. In a couple months though, they will be good to go. In the meantime, have a cocktail first, and go for some exceptional food.
Thanks to all our friends joining us: Maria, Andy, Natalie, Colin, Kevin, Sherry, Karen, Mike, Sarah, Lisa, Laura and Ken! Happy to see you all. It has been far too long.