Kelly the Culinarian: Restaurant Review: Mediterranean Oasis

Sunday, January 6, 2013

Restaurant Review: Mediterranean Oasis

Day two of Weight Watchers is going well.  I had a sensible breakfast and then hit the road for a five-mile run. I forgot to turn on my garmin's auto lap feature, so I don't have splits, but I'm very excited about my 9:07 pace. That's pretty fast for me these days.

Six-point breakfast
After running, I showered and met my friend, photographer extraordinaire Kate, for lunch. Thanks to Yelp, I found us some of the most amazing Middle Eastern food I've ever had the pleasure of eating.  Mediterranean Oasis in Naperville is quite the find - it's a food counter inside an ethnic grocery store in a strip mall. I would have never stumbled upon it without the joy of modern technology.

I clearly blew all of my points (including the activity points) on lunch. No regrets.

We both ordered lunch platters, which came with tabbouleh and babganoush.  The babaganoush was especially delicious, espousing layers of creamy garlicly goodness. The pitas were served warm and my chicken kabob platter was amazing.  It came with rice, hummus and a salad. I ate all of it with a pita, so not exactly my finest diet moment.  The WW calculator says this was 15 points, but I don't think I measured the portions correctly. I'm going to go ahead and assume this was at least 20.
If this is 15 points, I've found the right diet program for life

The service here was excellent as well. Despite the "restaurant" being five tables by the drink cooler, the manager was super attentive and thanked us (more than once) for coming in. We received a delicious complimentary tea with our meal, which he gave us the recipe for since we commented on it. He even refilled our glasses as we chatted, lingered and bough baklava (I managed to not dive face-first into it as I prefer chocolate desserts).

I loved the food, the service and the grocery store. I can't wait to eat here again and share it with as many people as possible. My Yelp review of this place was five stars, each of which was completely earned and warranted.
Kate with tea. Isn't she adorable?

1 comment:

emmers712 said...

Sounds delicious! I am a huge fan of Mediterranean food, especially hummus (I could eat it plain with a spoon like soup). And hidden local gem restaurants are the absolute best!