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I’m a big fan of meat. I love cooking it and eating it. I’m of the opinion that meat tastes best when it is juicy and perhaps a little raw. Along those lines, I wholeheartedly enjoy Persian food, which cooks its meat along those lines.

While I am an avid supporter of Javan, my good friend is of the opinion that Shamshiri is just as good, while being a little less expensive. Finally, he convinced me to abandon my loyalty for one night and go to Shamshiri.

I ordered the Beef Koobideh, which consists of two skewers of spiced ground beef. My dish came with the usual grilled tomato and saffron-scented rice. To my pleasant surprise, I also got a side of grilled peppers and onions. Before digging into my meal, I applied a generous shaking of the berry-flavored seasoning that comes at each table and cut up the tomato and mixed it with the rice. I was finally ready to eat.

My first impression of the beef was that the spices didn’t overwhelm the beef taste, which was a good thing. The mixture of the spices and beef flavor worked in unison to offer that unique Middle Eastern flavor. If you want to tone down the flavor a bit, eat the meat with the rice. The rice itself was so tasty that I could have eaten it by itself.

My only complaint was that the meat was a little drier than I prefer. At Javan, the meat is literally dripping with juice. It wasn’t quite the same at Shamshiri, but it was close. What makes Shamshiri attractive is that the dishes are a couple dollars cheaper than at Javan while offering a similar heaping portion of food of similar quality. Most people I know can’t finish each dish, which means that for around $12 dollars average, you can get between 1-2 meals of delicious food, which for any cost-conscious diner, makes it all the more worth while.

Shamshiri
1712 Westwood Blvd.
Westwood, CA 90024

By Jeff (see more of his posts).