The dingy little Lebanese joint on Hamdan St has just opened a snazzy new outlet at the Souk Central Market. Basically it’s good, honest food for good honest folk, but with a face lift.
If you fancy some shisha after your meal or just don’t feel like eating in a mall setting (though the Souk Central Market isn’t your average mall) ask to be seated on the roof. There you’ll find a terrace garden furnished with carpeted canopies, sofa seating under lanterns and a few tables for the odd romantic diner. Kudos to Tarbouche for getting a nice atmosphere going here in spite of the buildings towering overhead and the noise from the ventilation shed nearby.
The starters left quite an impression on us, so let’s start with those. One delve into the hummus with our bread and we could tell these guys weren’t cutting corners. And when a restaurant has nine different variations of hummus on their menu, you know they take as much pride in their dips as we take pleasure in them. Consider the moutabbal, for instance. Drizzled in virgin olive oil and with the topping of pomegranate seeds giving the perfect contrast of tangy-sweet to the heavier flavours of aubergine and tahini, it has you dipping within an inch of feeling too full for the main course.
Then we had the vine leaves, which helped sum up what the food at Tarbouche is all about: simplicity. These vine leaves weren’t showing off; they weren’t wrapped tightly like they’d come out of a vine leaf dispenser; they weren’t packed chock full of raisins, pine nuts and the 101 interfering herbs and other palava. They were fresh, simple and when we bit into them, they oozed with lemon juice and olive oil.
The main course, to be fair, didn’t impress as much as the starters, though by no means was it disappointing. We ordered the Kabab Istanbouli, which is four minced kababs with charred vegetables on a bed of bread, and a fresh parsley, mint and onion helping on the side. The meat was tender though a little bland. The charred vegetables were delicious, and particularly the sour yellow tomato, which is saying a lot considering it’s just a tomato. It did demonstrate, though, that the people at Tarbouche put some thought even into their choice of vegetables.
After all of this, you’ll be pleasantly surprised when you receive the bill. One can easily eat for under Dhs100 here, though with such great starters, one probably won’t be able to resist ordering more than one can consume. No matter, the polite service staff will be more than happy to pack it all up for you to take home.
The bill (for one)
Hummus Beiruti Dhs20
Moutabbal Dhs18
Stuffed vine leaves Dhs24
Kabab Istanbouli Dhs46
Water Dhs4
Total (excluding service) Dhs112
