Manakeesh Cafe and Bakery Philadelphia
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Address: Manakeesh Cafe 4420 Walnut Street Philadelphia, PA 19104 Other Philadelphia Indian Restaurants |
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Manakeesh Cafe - Nice Lebanese Find
It’s been a distressing summer this year in the U.S.The heat is unrelenting and no matter how much beer we quaff we feel lousy.
So in a irritated mood we headed to Killadelphia, known in more peaceful times as Philadelphia, the City of Brotherly Love, for a change.
Tired of the unending run of mostly crappy Indian restaurants, we headed to Manakeesh Cafe & Bakery, a Lebanese restaurant on Walnut St (at 45th St) in Philadelphia.
Manakeesh has received favorable reviews and has a good selection of both vegetarian and non-vegetarian items on the menu. Parking is a bit of a headache in the area and we had to park two blocks away.
The inside of Manakeesh is slightly dark. You head to the counter, place your order and get a plastic number token that you place on your table. When the food’s ready, the waiter brings it to your table.
Being famished as usual, we ordered a whole bunch of stuff – three sweets (one Baklavah, a date Ma^moul and a Pitachio Ma^moul), Kafta (ground lamb and beef with Parsley), Falafel, Vegetarian Combo (half Zatar and half cheese) and a Spinach pie.
There’s seating outside too on the side and we opted to dine alfresco gazing at people walking by on the Walnut St sidewalk.
The pastries came quickly since they are prepared and housed in a glass case near the cash counter.
Baklavah, Mamouls
The Baklavah ($1.50) was a gorgeous, honey and some nut filled layered delight that had us swooning. We’ve had grocery store Baklavah on several occasions but the Manakeesh version is nonpareil.
Date Mamoul (L), Pistachio Mamoul (C) & Baklavah (R)
Pistachio and Date Mamouls ($1.75 each) were crumbly and not as sweet as the Baklavah. But a delight nevertheless.
Kafta
As we were polishing off our Bakklavah and Mamouls, the Kafta and Vegetarian Combo showed up.
Kafta (Ground Lamb & Beef with Parsley) – Deeelicious
Yummm, delicious. Drooling on our keyboard at the sheer thought of it.
Each time, we lifted the Kafta bread to our mouth the pleasing, heavenly aroma of the meat hit our nostrils heightening the anticipation of the bite. Kinda like going down on…well, you know the rest.
Fatayer
Fatayer (Labanese Spinach Pie) was most definitely not worth it.The Samosa-like pie ($1 a piece) was small and had a small filling of Spinach inside.
Fatayer (Lebanese Spinach Pie) – Avoid It
Vegetarian Combo
Forgetting the disappointing Spinach Pie, we eagerly turned to the Vegetarian Combo that came hot to the table.
Vegetarian Combo at Manakeesh
Also, the bread was badly burned on the edges of one side.
Despite the acts of sabotage, our Vegetable combo still tasted good after we went in and got our order ‘fixed.’
Unlike Indian bread (Naan etc) that becomes unpalatable after a few minutes on the table, the bread at Manakeesh remained tasty till the last bite several minutes later.
Falafel Wrap
At $4.50, the Falafel was a good deal, particularly if you’re heading there for a quick, non-heavy lunch.
Falafel Wrap ($4.50)
The Falafel wrap had four Falafel balls, four tomato slices, a single slice of pickled cucumber and four slices of a pickled vegetable that we couldn’t identify.
