The Lebanese Taverna

The Lebanese Taverna
1101 South Joyce St.
Pentagon Row
Arlington, VA, 22202
(703) 415-8681

Right outside Pentagon City, easy access via Metro.
My friend started us off with two kinds of sausages and the "camel" wings (chicken wings, done with garlic and lemon).

I decided to make dinner out of Mezza (appetizer) dishes which turned out to be a good idea.

Makdous
spicy eggplant filled with walnuts, garlic, herbs, lemon, olive oil, and pomegranate.
This is a cold dish. I wanted to try it because I like eggplants and wanted to taste a different way of preparaing them.

Kalamar
calamari done with tomatoes and cilantro. Soft and tasty, not fried. I still miss the basil and tomato ones from News Cafe though. The description from the online menu differs from the actual menu I ordered from.

The third dish's name escapes my mind. It is basically a beef and pine nuts dumpling in a yogurt and mint sauce. I liked the dumpling but had mixed feelings about the yogurt. I may have to skip out on this one.

Also had a raspberry mojito which was interesting. May just stick with classic next time instead of the syrup shot. At the end of the day I was chewing on the mint leaves which were quite nice.

All in all I had a positive experience at my first Lebanese restaurant. I hope to find more in NYC and try them out. Obviously I wouldn't know if the dishes were authentic but it's cool to find places that have the following ingredients:
-pine nuts
-mint
-yogurt
-various veggies (especially eggplant)