Sunnin Lebanese Cafe

Photo credit: Life as a feast

This is going to be a fairly lazy post, since I’m backed up by at least ten posts, and I’ve been very busy at work over the last month. On the Saturday before Halloween, a group of us decided to go out for dinner before all but myself headed to a Halloween party hosted by a couple of our friends (a party which I was later coerced to attend briefly). Wanting something nearby, Eugenia and I overlapped our to-dine lists, and Sunnin was the closest restaurant that was on both of our lists.

As its name suggests, Sunnin serves Lebanese food. If you’re not familiar with what Lebanese food is, it’s actually not very different from your typical Middle Eastern cuisine. In fact, it’s very much so. You got your kabobs, shish-kabobs, and plenty of hummus. On the council of her dining buddy Yelp, Eugenia ordered the fried cauliflower appetizer. Each of the five of us ordered a different entree (all pictured below). All of the entrees were pretty good, but all of them also tasted pretty similar to one another. And it’s tough for any of the individual dishes to stand out when they all tasted a little one-note.

Frankly, I don’t think it’s any better than the other Middle Eastern restaurants in the vicinity that I’ve tried (Flame, Zankou). Still pretty good though, but I’d rather just go get an awesome sandwich at Attari a few blocks up (post forthcoming). And a side note: the service was pretty good in general (a little slow, but they were pretty busy – no problems there), but they tacked on a 18% gratuity fee for the five of us on the bill. I could care less about the 18% (I usually tip more anyways), but the fact that they did it for a group of five is a little…interesting. Like they thought we were a group of kids who don’t tip or something.

Fried Cauliflower – deep fried Cauliflower served with tahini sauce

Chicken Kefta Kebab – finely ground chicken seasoned with a blend of herbs and spices, grilled on a skewer served with rice, hommos, Lebanese salad and pita bread

Chicken Shawarma – marinated layers of chicken cooked on a vertical broiler, served with rice, Lebanese salad, tahini sauce and pita bread

Beef Kebab – tender beef cubes grilled on a skewer served with hommos, rice, Lebanese salad and pita bread

Lamb Kebab – cubes of lamb grilled on a skewer served with hommos, rice, Lebanese salad and pita bread

Shish Tawook (Chicken Kebab) – cubes of chicken breast marinated with garlic grilled on a skewer served with rice, Lebanese salad, garlic sauce and pita bread

Chris Hei grade: B-

Sunnin Lebanese Cafe
1776 Westwood Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90024
(310) 475-3358

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