One advantage of living cheek by jowl and bumper to bumper with several million other people is that some of them are pretty good cooks.
Such as the crew at Taboule. A Lebanese restaurant (named for the salad that is variously spelled tabbouleh or tabouli), Taboule tries to apply the starkly lighted efficiency of a fast-food restaurant to homey Middle Eastern dishes such as shawarma and falafel. Illuminated signs depict many of the menu items in vivid color, and a long stretch of stainless steel and glass separates the cooks from the customers, who can eat at the adjoining dining room’s spotless tables.
But if the efficiency quotient suffers (we had a 20-minute opportunity to watch the parking lot traffic as our large carryout order was assembled), much of the food makes up for it.
Fans of falafel, those deep-fried dollops of ground chickpeas, should investigate Taboule’s version, available as an appetizer (12 balls for $3.50) or a pita-bread sandwich ($2.25). A crisp, dark brown exterior hides an herb-flecked, light-textured interior that’s only slightly spicy. A dozen would disappear quickly.
Another fine appetizer is the spinach pie (2 for $2.50), a chewy pyramid full of juicy spinach seasoned with onions and tart ground sumac berries, which liven up several other dishes too.
Skip the yogurtly fatteh ($4.75), a soupy appetizer of chickpeas, yogurt, garlic and pita chunks that suffers from scorched pine nuts. Fattoush, a chopped salad of toasted but soggy pita tossed with vegetables ($1.75 and $3.25), overdoses on acid: Tomatoes, vinegar and sumac prove overpowering. Potato salad ($2.75) also is very acidic. All the better to make your mouth water, maybe.
Hummus ($1.50 and $2.75) here is very smooth, salty and lemony, just the thing to spread on the house-baked pita bread rounds that come with many dishes. (A more garlicky, Beirut-style version will cost you an extra 50 cents.) More surprising is the tabbouleh ($1.50 and $2.75), a salad usually based on cracked wheat: At Taboule, cracked wheat becomes a bit player behind masses of chopped parsley and mint, heavily dressed in lemon juice. Owner Nasr Khonaisser says that this herb-heavy version is the correct, Lebanese, original.
Among the meatier issues, the beef and lamb shawarma ($3.20 for a sandwich, $7.75 with rice and salad) earns the title of perfect pita filler. The thin slices of spiced meat (cardamom is one of nine flavorings), stacked, broiled and sliced again, put Chicagoland’s gyros shacks to shame.
The grilled kebab combo ($11.75, with rice and pita) matches chunks of beef (well-done, tender and salty) and chicken breast (tart and tomatoey) with a mild kufta, a patty of minced beef and lamb. Two people could share this and a salad and call it dinner.
A dish with possibilities is the Beirut-style fish kebabs ($3.95 as a sandwich, $7.95 as a dinner with pita and rice). Tart with tomatoes and lemon juice and fragrant with garlic, the lean cubes of orange roughy were overcooked in our portion.
These represent only a few of the 100 or so menu choices at Taboule, which offers many vegetarian dishes that the Middle East specializes in. Reason enough to visit again soon. Though Taboule doesn’t offer alcoholic beverages, you may bring your own as long as you have a receipt that proves you didn’t buy it on premises.
If you want to end your meal with something sweet, ask for the pistachio variation of baklava ($1.20). If you aren’t a fan of rose water, you might ask them to hold the syrup. Add a cup of Lebanese-style coffee ($1.25) and ponder the benefits of life in a big city as you sip. Forget, for the moment, that you have to get back in your car and drive home.
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Taboule
(2 forks)
3445 W. Dempster St.
Skokie
847-675-2535
Hours: 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Sun.-Thurs.; 11 a.m.-midnight Fri.-Sat.
Credit cards: A, DC, M, V
Noise rating: Conversation-friendly
Ratings key:
4 forks: Don’t miss it
3 forks: One of the best
2 forks: Very good
1 fork: Good
Reviews are based on anonymous visits by Tribune staff members. The meals are paid for by the Tribune.
