Message: | Though I've never been to Israel, I've certainly endured some of the global extremes of service, bad and good. The service I had last night at Magic Carpet was terrific. Requests for more pita were immediately rewarded; dishes arrived quickly; advice was happily given; our own needs were catered to. Though every member of the wait staff helped out with our orders, our waitress bore a particularly pleasing and good humored demeanor.
Based on our single visit, I would strongly concur with Thi's qualitative evaluation of the melawech, though I find his comparisons to Chinese scallion pancakes very misleading. A good Chinese pancake is chewy, with the sort of flakiness I think of as "pully," a bit like the consistency of the interior of a croissant. The melawach at Magic Carpet is not really chewy--its oilyness is slightly crunchy and melts in the mouth.
Other good dishes are the Bulgarian eggplant and the vegetarian stuffed cabbage. The foul madamas I did not care for, and since the problem lay with the hummus, which had far too high a proportion of tahini to chickpea, I suspect that the hummus may not be great either. But then, no restaurant can compare with my gold standard--the hummus at Sunnim. |