A new restaurant

A new restaurant has recently opened next to the Papalote, across the street from the Lucky, on Fulton near Masonic. That would be Jannah, which is described as Mediterranean/Middle Eastern. We finally checked it out tonight for dinner. We started off quizzically ordering a couple of their "home-made juices" for $2 - sun dried lime and raisin with mint. They were out of the raisin, it turns out, so we never got to try it, but after a couple sips each of the sun dried lime, we both quickly gave up on that. Very odd taste, not at all something we liked (but vaguely reminded me of some of the dried plums Chinese people like to snack on, so it's probably a personal taste thing). We then got the "Jannah", a $3 salad of eggplant, roasted red peppers, marinated cucumbers, and onions in pomegranate molasses, served with pita bread, which I found more and more yummy as I ate it (and got closer to the molasses). My bf wasn't as big of a fan - he thought it was fine - but given that he's not a vegetable eater, that's not really a surprise. Finally, for the entree, he ordered the perdaplow, a phyllo pastry stuffed with shredded chicken, raisins, rice, cardamom and some other stuff, sitting in an apricot sauce. I took a bite and found it had a strong taste I didn't like - I think it was the cardamom - but he seemed to think it was ok enough to eat most of it. I ordered the fesanjoon - chicken with walnuts marinated in pomegranate molasses sitting on a bed of rice with steamed veggies arranged around it - and really enjoyed it. I think I really like pomegranate molasses. The entrees were $11 each (the menu is really straightforwardly laid out - all entrees are $11, all salad/dips are $3, etc). On the service front, they weren't particularly speedy but it was fine.

Overall, I liked what I ordered and would go back, but my bf said he decidedly would not return. I think the weird flavors in both his drink and his dish turned him off. It's too bad, b/c I suspect there are other things on the menu that he might like better, like the tikkas. If he really refuses to return, I think I may use this as one of my standby takeout places when he's not around.