Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Middle Eastern food and art...the art was better

Fairouz Restaurant & Gallery
3166 Midway Dr
Ste 102
San Diego, CA 92110
(619) 225-0308

I often use yelp to find new places to try out. The reviews are usually pretty candid and accurate. I was on the hunt for more Mediterranean food and I was very stoked to read about a buffet place in a part of town that I still haven't explored nearly enough: Sports Arena/Midway. The place has been here forever (25 years) and I was a bit surprised to hear about it so late since it seems like something right up my alley. They're in a strip mall (like all good buffets) so they're easily missed.

The yelp community told me that the owner was exceptionally nice and the art on the walls was weird and cool...but the food was lacking. This synopsis was spot on. The buffet was $12/person and you could also order from the menu but, as is often the case in such places, the buffet seems like a much better value, as most of the dishes from the menu are between $9 and $16.

Upon entering, the art is striking. The place is jam-packed full of art and after a short while it becomes obvious that despite the variety in styles, every piece is painted by the same person. The host told me that his brother is the artist and apparently he's been painting for a long time as many of the pieces are dated from the 80s (and just as many are from last year). Some of the pieces are incredibly intricate. Some are realistic, others are abstract, and all of them are quite good.

But the art I'm interested in is on the end of my fork. The buffet has a ton of vegetarian options. There is a variety of hot vegetable dishes, cold salads and decent selection of deserts. My wife, her friend and I stuffed ourselves silly. Unfortunately, there were only a couple of dishes that were really, truly good. The rest of them were either a bit dry or flavorless or both. I think the buffet in general is too ambitious. They've tried to put out too many different dishes and in the process they sit out longer than they should and probably don't allow the chef to pay them their due attention. It also has the effect of forcing me to try everything on the buffet...which is dangerous. The cuisine was (from what I can tell) a mix of Lebanese, Greek and Persian. I think narrowing down the selections to about HALF their current number could drastically improve the quality and enjoyability of the selections.

The chef is the wife of the operation's host, so this is decidedly a family business and super authentic. The host was the most remarkable part of the evening. He was so amazingly friendly that I felt bad for not having discovered his place before. He will talk to you as much as you care to (the place wasn't very busy, but I get the feeling he'd go out of his way to make time to chat no matter how busy they get). He asked if everything was okay EVERY time we went to the buffet. I'm almost uncomfortable with this level of service because no one pays so much attention to the customers these days. It's sad that this exceptional service makes me feel awkward. It should be the standard of any sit-down restaurant.

I think I'd like to hit this place again for lunch to give them a fair chance to serve something fresh with a bit more care put into it. One unusual aspect of the buffet is that it seemed to have very little in common with the selections available via the menu. Not sure if this is a deliberate strategy or not, but I definitely want to see their take on spanikopita (on the menu, but not the buffet). Will report back when we're able to do that.