Wednesday, August 22, 2007

The message is clear as soon as you walk into this stylish eastern Mediterranean cafe and market in Rockville: No strip-mall dive here. There are comfy couches, flat-screen TVs mounted over the fieldstone fireplace and back-lit displays of Turkish tea sets and modern glassware.

No doubt the look of the place has helped Lemon Tree earn a devoted following in the six months since it opened. But so has the quality of the food. Owner Koray Kotan says the most popular items are the juicy chicken kebabs ($9.99) and lamb and beef kebabs ($11.99 and $10.99), each served with a spiced bulgur rice and salad. They are good, and a good value.

We loved the baba ghanouj (about eight ounces, $5.99), a deliciously smoky version of the traditional eggplant-tahini puree; the dolma ($1.49 each), grape leaves stuffed with a slightly sweet spiced rice and pine nuts; and the Shepherd Salad ($6.99), a lettuce-free mix of tomatoes, cucumber, onion and feta cheese. For entrees, try the Turkish Meatballs, or Kofte. Chef Mine Dilsiz mixes ground beef and lamb with eggs, onions and a mysterious blend of spices -- was that mint and a little chili? -- and fries them into hearty patties ($8.99, with bulgur rice and salad). He also turns out piping-hot Turkish flatbread pizzas ($4.99) and panini such as the Tel Aviv ($6.99, with french fries or salad), which includes grilled eggplant, zucchini and roasted peppers with pesto and oozy mozzarella cheese, and the Yengen Soujouk ($7.99, with french fries or salad), with pepper-flecked Turkish sausage and melted Kasseri cheese.

For dessert, there is baklava and a selection of gorgeous French pastries; however, the predominant flavor in every one we tasted was a cloying sweetness. With takeout this good, you might not have room to indulge, anyway.

-- Jane Black

Lemon Tree Mediterranean Market & Gourmet Cafe, 1701 Rockville Pike No. B1 (on Halpine Road at Shops at Congressional Village), Rockville, 301-984-0880,http://www.lemontreemarket.com. Hours: Mondays through Thursdays, 8 a.m.-9 p.m.; Fridays and Saturdays, 8 a.m.-10 p.m.; Sundays, 10 a.m.-7 p.m.