Running the Gamut From Barbecue to Greek

We wondered how a Continental French meal would hold up delivered to our door. I mean, can you really take the scampi-with-garlic-butter/roast-ducking- a-l’orange show on the road? Yes. And in a manner not to be confused with airline food.

A phone call to Gourmet on the Run! gets hungry Sherman Oaks and Studio City residents full-course meals from 10 different restaurants delivered piping hot (and sushi cold). (If you live in a nearby community, you can have meals delivered with an order of $75.) Teru Sushi, Portofino, Mary’s Lamb, Chez Naturel, Oyster House, Uncle Tai’s Mandarin Gourmet and Marie Callender’s are on the list. We tried meals from Shain’s, Bar-B-Q Heaven and the Great Greek.

We started with Shain’s grand Caesar salad: toothsome croutons full of butter; crisp leaves slathered with a classic dressing punchy with garlic and anchovies.

Entrees were carefully wrapped in foil inside of insulated boxes and arrived hot enough to serve without re-heating. The four huge tender shrimp, set on a hill of buttery, garlicky wild rice, were perfect--as they should be at $18.95. The duckling was crisp-skinned and moist within with the classic fresh, tart, sticky orange sauce in a container (needing warming and thinning) on the side. The only low note to this meal was a round of veal and chicken pate that astonishingly tasted like mild herring mousse.

Bar-B-Q Heaven was heaven. Offering sandwiches, dinners and large size orders of chicken and smoked meats (various beef and pork ribs, ham, brisket of beef), everything we tried--down to the last small hickory sauced barbecued bean--was oh-so-fine. Chicken was incredibly tender; ribs were meaty, lean and bold, everything you’d hope they’d be. The crunchy cole slaw was well-balanced, potatoes were really baked, the green salad was crisp, steak fries were thumb-thick.

If Bar-B-Q Heaven was celestial, the food from the Great Greek was out-of-this-world. It was the best Greek food I’ve had outside of Greece and New York--certainly the best I’ve had in Los Angeles. We began with a great Greek salad: exquisite feta, very sweet red onions, particularly lovely cucumbers, good calamata olives all lightly dressed. The olive oil and roe paste tarama was a splendid rendition; imagine the texture of freshly churned butter with the taste of red caviar. Keftedes, the meatball of the Aegean, were light and fragrant with oregano and parsley.

A fassolia bean appetizer was a gorgeous two-part invention with the fleshy large white beans soaked in lemon, olive oil and tart vinegar. Fresh baby octopus was dreamy and not at all rubbery; we lapped up every last bit with soft, warm pita bread. Thinly sliced loukanika sausage served with lemon was yet another earthy satisfying appetizer from the isles.

Entrees were mesmerizing. Youvetsi baked lamb served with tomato broth soaked orzo was falling-off-the-bone succulent. Stuffed grape leaves were meaty and tasted home-made. Spanakopita managed to arrive with the filo still crisp; the moussaka combined its light high crown of custard with a solid spicy eggplant base; boneless lamb was cloaked with a tender avgolemono. (There’s also a deluxe Greek dinner for two at $16.95 per person with 15 different specialties.)

While you would probably want to end such a meal with a glass of Metaxa or some baklava, with Gourmet on the Run!, you could consider tuning in to The Late Show with one of Mary’s Lamb’s cakes or a Marie Callender pie. (There’s a $10 minimum order per restaurant and a $3.50 service charge for each place they pick up meals from. Costs are equal to what you’d pay if you ate in the restaurants.)

Tarzana and Encino residents, hang on to your hats, Gourmet on the Run Westside! (with another list of restaurants) will be opening in the fall.

Gourmet on the Run! delivers in Studio City and Sherman Oaks between 4:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. seven nights a week. Large private or business luncheons can be ordered the day before. For copies of menus call (818) 907-9885. Payment for meals made on delivery by cash or check. Entrees range from $4 to $25.