Lunch break review

Small plates and sandwiches
Zaytinya for lunch
By Justin Rude
Friday, June 17, 2011

Lunch at Zaytinya, Jose Andres's enduringly popular downtown Mediterranean restaurant, presents a microcosm of its neighborhood.

In the same dining room you will find power lunchers discussing policy sitting next to groups of wide-eyed, shorts-wearing tourists. Neither group seems out of place in the handsome, high-ceilinged dining room, decked out in Adriatic blue and white. Patrons familiar with how loud the space can get during the always-busy dinner service will be relieved by how comparatively quiet it feels at lunch.

On the menu: Zaytinya is a dual-purpose lunch destination. When eating with a group, a $22 fixed-price, four-course menu of small plates allows the table to share from a limited list of the restaurant's regular mezze selections. If you are dining alone, or with a smaller group, a selection of Mediterranean-accented sandwiches offers another way to approach Zaytinya's modern take on the flavors of Greece, Turkey and Lebanon.

If the mezze menu has one drawback, it's that the entire table is asked to partake. But if orders are placed strategically, a group can experience more of the menu.

That means trying the tangy hummus and the crispy, lightly fried eggplant served with a garlic yogurt sauce, which are both offered as first-course choices.

Later courses include arayes, a quesadilla-like fried flatbread filled with ground lamb and tahini; ground lamb adana kebab; and shish taouk, a perfectly cooked strip of grilled chicken served with grilled tomatoes; lightly pickled onion and an airy, whipped garlic dipping sauce.

Finish the meal with a choice of two desserts: a take on Turkish delight that presents scoops of walnut ice cream and honey gelee between a piece of phyllo; or apricots and yogurt, which layers apricot preserves and Greek yogurt in a shot glass and tops it with crushed pistachios.

Compared with the fixed-price mezze menu, the sandwich selection is modest but still a good option for those in a hurry, especially if a seat at the bar is available. Most, such as the chicken and salmon shwarma and the cerkez (shredded chicken with walnut-cilantro sauce and roasted red peppers) are served on lavash (a Middle Eastern flatbread). The vegetarian option is the marinated eggplant sandwich. It's served open-faced and dressed with mint and a chickpea and red-pepper relish. The portions aren't overwhelming and come with your choice of maroulosalata, a small salad of romaine, dill and fresh cheese with a wine vinegar dressing, or french fries smothered in greek yogurt.

Going green: Head Chef Michael Costa recently added items to the menu, including more vegetarian options, such as bamya, a tomato stew with caramelized okra, crispy chickpeas and cardamom; whole wheat couscous with beech mushrooms, squash, english peas and harissa broth; and bizeli me yiaourti, English peas, roasted garlic yogurt, pistachios and mint.

Happy hour: Sunday through Friday from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. and Tuesday-Thursday from 10:30 to 11:30 p.m., Zaytinya offers its "Mezze Ora" cocktail hour, which includes mezze plates, draft and bottle beer and selected wine by the glass for $4 each.

Dining guide review

2009 Fall Dining Guide

By Tom Sietsema
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, Oct. 18, 2009

I'm always tempted to bring earplugs to this sleek, blue-and-white ode to the flavors of Greece, Turkey and beyond. Zaytinya remains one of the loudest restaurants in the city. But my last meal there was worth the aural assault: Jose Andres and his crack team of cooks put out a spread like few others, anywhere. The dips and salads, seafood and meats are reliably luscious, and if you like steak tartare, the raw kibbe ("freshly ground," a waiter trumpets) garnished with radishes and fresh mint is a must. But pay close attention to the specials, such as long-roasted lamb, carved and sauced at the table by the chef on duty. (Hey, it's Mike Isabella, from TV's "Top Chef"!) "This lamb did not die in vain," a gourmet at my table declares, swooning over a tender hunk of shoulder, flavorful from its marinade of garlic and oregano. We enjoy the feast with warm-from-the-oven pita bread and fresh chickpeas roasted in their pods. Soggy fried mussels with walnut sauce miss perfection. But pressed dried caviar in a yellow band of beeswax, a saline snack that Andres calls "the essence of this restaurant," shows how close this kitchen comes to that mark.