At Al Halabi, Syrian buffet dishes include aspect order of spectacle

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Al Halabi Restaurant
1638 Financial institution St., 613-731-7171, alhalabi-restaurant.com
Open: Monday midday to eight p.m., Wednesday to Sunday midday to 9 p.m., closed Tuesday
Costs: most fundamental programs between $20 and $30, household meals from $77 to $135, buffet $35 an individual
Entry: slight ramp to entrance door

Sadly, I didn’t get the memo earlier than chef Abdullah Alosman’s grandest culinary feat occurred two months in the past outdoors Al Halabi Restaurant, his year-and-a-half-old enterprise on Financial institution Road simply south of Heron Highway.

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As proven on Al Halabi’s social media, Alosman and his crew cooked what he calls Canada’s largest kebab, measuring about 65 metres lengthy, within the restaurant’s car parking zone. The epic ground-beef creation fed tons of of individuals after its was divided into greater than 1,000 sandwiches and given away, Alosman instructed me this week.

In Ottawa’s crowded area of Center Japanese eating places, maybe a way of spectacle is required to face out. Having dined twice at Al Halabi this month, I can say that it indulges in spectacles evening in, evening out. Whereas another companies promise dinner and a present, at Al Halabi, dinner may be the present.

Final weekend, 4 of us had Al Halabi’s household barbecue meal ($89.99) that was only one metre lengthy slightly than 65. It consisted of 13 char-grilled, halal skewers (three every of beef chunks, floor beef, floor rooster and rooster cubes, and certainly one of rooster wings), served on a mattress of cardamom-studded rice, plus aspect orders of salad, hummus and garlic sauce.

Within the centre of our platter was a sparkler awaiting its superb future. Delivered to our desk separate was a small pail that contained dry ice. Earlier than we ate, a server lit the sparkler and poured water on the dry ice. Cue sparks, smoke and smiles throughout.

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“We want a bit little bit of a present, so individuals come, attempt the whole lot. Individuals are all about social media,” mentioned Alosman, who got here to Ottawa as a refugee in 2017.

Fog and pyrotechnics apart, the rice and kebabs had been fairly good. I might rank the juicier rooster skewers over the beefier ones, had been you to order some kebabs only for your self.

Alosman instructed me he had a restaurant in Aleppo that might serve 500 individuals, and also you get a way that he enjoys feeding bigger events or festivities, be they vacation celebrations or birthday events, particularly if a little bit of theatricality may be added to the expertise.

Movies constantly proven on the large-screen TVs in Al Halabi’s eating room present Alosman working at a cart that’s been wheeled into his restaurant’s eating room.

In a single clip, Alosman frees a complete, rice-stuffed rooster from a thick casing of salt after the chook spent 5 hours within the oven. After all, there’s a ring of fireside surrounding the rooster on the cart, and Alosman, sporting flame-resistant gloves, showers the rooster with flaming salt earlier than he prepares it for serving.

In one other clip, Alosman prepares an enormous and long-baked beef dish, ending it with honey and pistachios, drizzled or dropped from on excessive.

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We didn’t have the forethought to order both of those particular dishes prematurely. However slightly than dine a la carte throughout my different go to to Al Halabi, we indulged in consuming as a lot as we might from its buffet, which fills an extended, much-decorated desk on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.

The buffet ($35) consists of about 40-odd selections, from dips and salads to a mess of stews to mandi, the Center Japanese rice dish made with rooster or lamb, to “broasted” rooster, which is pressure-cooked fried rooster.

As with every buffet, some gadgets probably degraded whereas they remained on the desk over time. In some circumstances, these gadgets may effectively have been higher had they been served a la carte. However as a pal mentioned when he contrasted visiting the buffet with selecting a fundamental course plus a aspect bowl of rice: “Would you like 40, or would you like two?”

We opted to pattern as a lot as doable, and we tried to time our journeys to the buffet when trays had been being replenished.

Broasted rooster recent from the stress fryer was fantastically crisp, juicy and engaging. Helpings of rooster and lamb mandi didn’t disappoint, due to their long-cooked, tender meats. Hen additionally starred in a tray accomplished with heaps of savoury freekeh, a inexperienced and earthy historic grain. I used to be particularly eager on dishes that concerned tangy yogurt sauces. One concerned chunks of beef whereas one other featured zucchini full of floor beef. Effectively-seasoned eggplant dips had been shortly dispatched with slices of pita bread that had been already on our desk, in plastic baggage.

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The one dessert that I’ve tried from Al Halabi was a serving of kunefe, the candy, tacky pastry. It’s a style I’ve but to accumulate, I confess.

It’s usually mentioned that we eat first with our eyes. However whoever mentioned that probably didn’t have sparklers and dry-ice prospers in thoughts. As fleeting as these demonstrations had been, they underscored Al Halabi’s apparent need to please and entertain, which together with some fairly good Syrian meals is tough to withstand.

phum@postmedia.com

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