Mideast Feast

The sign at Skaf’s Grill reads “Authentic Lebanese Cuisine” and brother, do they deliver. This plain new mom-and-pop joint in a North Hollywood micro-mall is already pulling in crowds of nostalgic Lebanese.

If you aren’t familiar with Lebanese food, order the mezze combo, at $11.95 by far the priciest thing on the menu; it’s a short course in honest Lebanese cooking. It includes hummus and baba ghannouj, the famous sesame-flavored dips made from garbanzo and eggplant puree, respectively, and a variety of wonderful finger foods. Delicate, sensuously flavored grape leaves, for instance, with a moist herbed rice stuffing. The empanada-like savory pies (sambousik) have light, flavorful fillings, either a sort of farmer’s cheese or sweetly spiced ground beef.

There’s a flaky, palm-sized spinach pie, all dough and vegetables; unlike its Greek cousin, it incorporates no cheese at all. Sfiha, which you might never have tried, is a pastry open at the top like a fruit turnover but filled with a mixture of ground beef, tomatoes, onions and pine nuts.

All these snacks take a back seat to Skaf’s kibbeh. It’s a crisp-crusted, deep-fried torpedo of ground meat and bulgur wheat with a dense meat stuffing studded with pine nuts.

Appetizers aren’t all that Skaf’s is about, though. Look for kebabs, served with hummus and mounds of fragrant basmati rice, and shawarma, the Lebanese gyro, filled with crunchy browned beef shaved off a vertical spit.

I like the kefta kebab, two long cylinders of ground beef mixed with chopped parsley and onions, redolent of cumin and black pepper. (It’s one spicy meatball.) The chicken kebab isn’t particularly remarkable, but the chunks of meat are fragrant and tender. The one dish I wouldn’t order again is shish kebab, two skewers of beef broiled with green bell pepper and sliced onion, because the meat is tough.

You can have a nice tabbouleh salad with your kebab for only $2.50; it’s a proper complement to the tomatoes and tangy turnip pickles that garnish all kebabs here. There are also falafel balls for fat pita sandwiches. I’d describe them as crisp outside but rather mealy inside, mildly rather than assertively spiced.

Finish off with tiny squares of homemade walnut or pistachio nut baklava and a cup of Turkish coffee. It’s called Lebanese coffee here, by the way. In fact, there isn’t much here that isn’t Lebanese, in case you hadn’t noticed.

BE THERE

Skaf’s Grill, 6008 Laurel Canyon Blvd., North Hollywood. Open Tuesday-Sunday, 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Closed Monday. No alcohol. Parking in lot. Cash only. Dinner for two, $12-$27. Suggested dishes: mezze combo, $11.95; shawarma, $3.50; tabbouleh, $2.95-$4.95; kefta kebab plate, $5.50. Call (818) 985-5701.