Lebanese Taverna

Twenty eight years ago, my wife to be and I rented a small house in Arlington. A friend told us about the excellent Lebanese Taverna , a family run restaurant on Washington Blvd. and we went to check it out. We fell in love with the food and the wonderful family that ran the place. I can't tell how many times we have enjoyed their food over the years. Well, the little family restaurant has grown into a mini corporation with numerous restaurants and cafes all over the DC Metro area. They also run a grocery store. Has success been a good thing? Well, yes and no. For decades the Arlington restaurant was our favorite place and the place to go to meet and greet the family that ran the business. However, they have expanded the place and remodeled it in recent years. The last time we went with friends, our lovely intimate little restaurant has grown into a monster. The food was still excellent but the place was so popular and crowded that we could barely move around. Worse yet, remodeling affected the acoustics so that the place now sounded like a noisy disco and we were unable to carry on any sort of conversation. We have never gone back to our beloved Arlington location. Nowdays the best location to go to is the DC restaurant in Woodley Gardens on Connecticut Ave. I think the best cooks work there and that place has the most extensive menu. When we want to celebrate a special event, it is the DC location that we head to.

The Silver Spring location is more of a Cafe and has a much more limited menu. The decor is modern and strikes us as only so-so but on nice days you can eat outside, and the party around the fountain is always a treat. When we want Lebanese, we go to that location most of the time as it is close to home and easy to use. Although we miss some of the items to be found at the DC location, the limited menu is still good and offer up plenty of good (and fairly healthy) Middle Eastern food. I highly recommend the food there as it is much better than the usual franchise pap that is offered up in the other eateries found in downtown Silver Spring. The best deal is one of the two sampler platters that they offer up. The more expensive has some meat dishes but we find that the cheaper of the two which is mostly vegetarian is a much better deal and offers better variety.

My only regret is that we never see any of the original family members in any of the locations. I suspect that they have just gotten too successful and wealthy over the years. Anyhow, writing this has made me hungry. Might just have to head on down there this evening for some flat bread and hummus.