Mazza Middle Eastern Cuisine now has 2 locations in SLC, about 6 blocks away from each other. One is at 9th and 9th (for those not in the know, it is 900 S and 900 E) and the other at 15th and 15th (south and east again). When we first moved here in 2003 we quickly learned to love the original location (15th). It is small. Seriously small. Their dining area would fit into my living room. It is also seriously popular, and on many evenings the wait would be 40+ minutes for a table, so we learned to get take out. This had the added advantage that we could enjoy a bottle of wine with the meal at home. Then they opened the new location at 9th about 1-2 years ago. It is much bigger, and the decor is fancy-looking. You might walk in and think, "uh oh, I can't afford this" but you can. The food and prices remain the same as the original location, and while it is not cheap, I rate it as a good value.
As an aside, I tend to follow a couple of rules at restaurants: 1) get something that I couldn't (or wouldn't) make at home and 2) get something different than my dining companion.
Anyway, the food at Mazza is uniformly excellent. We enjoyed an appetizer plate of hummus, baba ganouj, and MUHAMARA
I wasn't terribly hungry and ordered the baked eggplant sandwich for dinner rather than an entree. I don't think that I really got much less food than my companions, but it was in pita pocket form instead of piled on rice. I like tatziki sauce and requested that in place of the garlic tahini that comes with the dish. For the first time ever, I actually ordered dessert. They have baklava squares made with walnuts and also baklava fingers that are smaller and made with cashews. I can report that the finger was just the right size, and a lovely high-protein dessert.
Many vegetarian options. A few vegan as well, but I haven't seriously investigated that.
5 comments:
Sounds yummy!
I shamelessly eat out pretty frequently, but I count it as entertainment. Being inside houses with children for large chunks of the week, I look forward to Saturday morning escapes, all by myself, with a good book at a great breakfast joint. I could probably write a book about Twin Cities breakfast places.
It goes without saying that if you eat out frequently, good health requires that you develop healthy restaurant eating strategies. I pretty much have to live under the same rules at restaurants as at home, because restaurants are not really special occasions. Mostly this means leaving food on my plate and ordering extra vegetables.
Really, my rule about getting something that I wouldn't get at home is usually not that healthful because it often involves something fried (falafel, sweet potato fries etc.). On balance though, I don't fry at home. I don't have a vent hood in the kitchen! Pizza counts under this rule too because my oven isn't nearly as hot as the ones at actual pizza joints.
Of course, as I have noted many a time, I do not believe in eating low-fat, so as long as I am pretty sure that it's not full of trans, I'm happy to order fried stuff.
The two things that come most quickly to mind are egg rolls, especially Vietnamese egg rolls -- lots of good Vietnamese restaurants around here -- and fried yuca as served by the Cuban restaurant up the street. It's cut into thick steak-fry sizes and topped with a mixture of lime juice, garlic and onion, and I eat it with poached eggs on top (and a big tomato juice -- the Cuban place is low on breakfast veg). Falafel is another excellent example of healthful (IMO) fried food.
Do you ever shallow-fry things at home? We don't do it often exactly because of the mess, but we have a few favorites: salmon patties, for instance, and I do make falafel once in a while. Also home-fried tortillas for tostadas and tortilla soup, and potatoes once in a great while.
Oh, I love the falafel and the hummus.. and the baklava.. and everything else I've eaten at Mazza. I haven't been to the 9th and 9th location yet though.
I miss being able to walk to Mazza! It is a favorite of mine. I have that same rule of ordering things I can't make at home!
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