After successfully opening up Bestia, an always packed Italian restaurant since 2012, Chefs Ori Menashe and Genevieve Gergis set out to open a Middle Eastern restaurant called Bavel (not too far from Bestia). Bavel features middle Eastern food, particularly foods from the roots of Israel and their family backgrounds, and uses slow cooking techniques.

Quickly after opening, Bavel became instantly popular. Word traveled pretty fast among the LA locals that a new restaurant, cousin to Bestia, opened up and it was delicious! Foodies talk a lot too. One of my best friends kept hearing her coworkers rave about this new place for months. It was HARD to get a reservation! You need to book 3 months out for a good time slot. And you WANT a good time slot because their main featured lamb neck shawarma quickly sells out every night, including week nights. My friend went multiple times to try their entire menu. She loved every single item.

Now it was my turn to try it! For an early birthday and occasional sister catch up, we tried Bavel for our first time in April. I nabbed a reservation on a Tuesday night at 9pm. It was a random weeknight. It shouldn’t be that bad right? I was wrong! The place was so packed at 9pm still! And what worst of luck, when we were ordering we were informed by our waiter that they had just sold their last lamb neck. OMG!!!! If only we made decisions a minute sooner…

But everything else was good! In fact, it just made my sister and I want to come back even more! So let’s go back in time to April..

Duck ‘Nduja hummus – creamy garbanzo beans, Jerusalem’s mix spice, herbs, pita. This did not disappoint. You can taste and smell the garbanzo beans in there. The hummus is so earthy and full of flavor. The creaminess was rich. I love the duck and oils and herbs. It made a very decadent spread.

Baba Ghanoush – smoked eggplant, mushroom and eggplant salad, tahini, fried curry leaf, pita. I normally am not a fan of hummus. In fact, I don’t like it much. I can almost hate it. But I’ll make exceptions here or there to try it when I feel like I would like it. Such exceptions as here where I can’t really tell it was eggplant. I enjoyed the fried pita very much. It was served super hot, hence freshly fried.

Roasted cauliflower – Hawaii chili sauce, lime leaf, creme fraiche Serrano dip, pistachio, dried flowers. This was our favorite. And what a surprise!! The cauliflower vegetable dish takes number 1! It was crunchy and spicy. There was depth and flavor in what would normally be an ordinary and boring cauliflower. The Serrano dip was refreshing.

The pretty flowers!

Braised wagyu beef cheek tagine– dried fruit, Ras el Hanout, cilantro, serano chile, cous cous, cashews. Because they ran out of lamb neck, we settled for this dish. What a disappointment. It looked and smelled and tasted exactly like Vietnamese bo kho. My sister looked at me and she said, “did we just order bo kho?” Sigh, yes we did… Don’t get me wrong, it was good. It was soft and tender and savory. But we’re Vietnamese and we could easily eat good and cheaper bo kho from our parents. This did not impress us.

—- Round 2 —-

Immediately after our date, I set out to make reservations for almost 3 months later to try to nab an earlier reservation time (but with my mom) because I really wanted to try the lamb neck shawarma. I ended up making one for 7 people, including Dr. JoAnn. We just went last night!!!

Oh it was so silly because the night before, I couldn’t sleep well. I kept having nightmares that they ran out of lamb neck. But they can’t right?! I made reservations for 7:30pm last night so this was a much earlier time!!!! Pray..

Roasted snap peas – pickled vegetable soffrito, mint, Meyer lemon zest, Serrano creme fraiche. I was so sad they took cauliflower off the menu list. Our water said it wasn’t the season anymore so they replaced cauliflower with something that was in season. This dish was similar to the cauliflower in concept but definitely different in flavors. The roasted snap peas were crunchy with the same Serrano yogurt dip. It was actually pretty good! Not as good as the cauliflower but it was a good alternative.

Oyster mushroom kebab – spinach and lovage purée, sumac. As soon as our waiter set the plate down with the sword, I was prepared to stop him and said WAIT!! I needed a picture of the mushrooms in the sword still! It was magnificent! No shame 🙂

I hear these were the #1 selling dish, even more than the lamb neck and I wanted to know why. I hear it was because it still tastes like chewy meat in terms of texture. That these were grand mushrooms or fungus. The way they grilled the mushrooms gave it such depth in texture. It was indeed gooood. I think I ate like 4 mushrooms. There were a lot of mushrooms. It felt meaty.

You can’t go to a Middle Eastern restaurant without ordering hummus. I advised the duck hummus. Everyone loved it! I think all of the adults and kids were impressed by the rich and savory flavors of this spread. It was everyone’s favorite. I would come back and order this again and again. The duck and oils just brings the hummus to another heavy level. I just wish they gave more than two pita breads.

Two was not enough.

Marinated tomato – smoked harissa, whipped feta, black garlic, sesame, sunflower, cilantro. We asked our waiter after ordering if there were anything else we were missing. He suggested this tomato dish. I was skeptical but acceptable. Sure, why not? OMG why yes!!!!! This is one of my new favorite dishes!!!! The refreshing flavorful tomatoes full of juices with the heavy black garlic and the creamy feta cheese spread was just a perfect culmination of refreshing yet decadent at the same time. Ahh! Yes!!! Love love love.

Grilled octopus – avocado, Amba tahini, pickled okra, pepita sesame chili oil, cilantro. Ooooo. If a restaurant can put out a successful octopus dish, I am impressed. There have been too many times where I order octopus as a main entree and am disappointed. But this was good! First time I had octopus pre-sliced into bite sizes for me. The skin was thin and just the skin was crispy. As you bite into the inside, you get this soft and tender meat that is in the borderline of jelly because it’s so soft. The avocado was a good touch. Loved the kick from the chili oil to finish.

Another view with the pretty flowers.

Lamb flatbread – spicy fermented sausage, grated tomato, red onion, pine nuts, nigella seed, mint, sumac. Aww, we ordered this more for the kids than for us. We had hoped they would eat it thinking it was pizza. The spicy level was strong in a back door kind of way. I didn’t appreciate the extra kick on another level and it was kinda dry to me. Not good.

Grilled Dorade – smoked chermoula, fried seeds, cilantro, lime, turnips. If this were the only entree dish, I would eat it. The two bites I tried were very soft and flaky and tender.

Slow roasted lamb neck shawarma – tahini, green amba, pickled vegetables, fermented cabbage, laffa. But I got to save room for the finale!!!!!! We ordered TWO of these out of hunger eyes and hearts. The adults were slightly impressed but more like just satisfied. Just Dason and I were in love and impressed! It was so soft… so flaky soft that it reminded me of my dads oxtail pho. The texture it just so flaky and soft and tender. The meat just fell off the c-spine bone! Ahhhhhh!!!!!!! It was good! And I quickly became full because of all the decadent foods tonight.

Tonight’s meal was a success! But I kinda want to go back to eat it again… and for the hummus.. and try other items on the table.. I just might come back 3 months later 😉