la.foodblogging

50 gajillion points to anyone who understands what my title is all about. Everyone else has to Google it.

I have discovered as I go through life, that there is a direct correlation between the prestige and salary of my career and the regularity with which I get to take a lunch hour. In my very first post-college job, I took a lunch break every single day, even though I never had money to buy lunch. Many days, I just went and read a book while drinking coffee somewhere. Now, I am lucky if I have time to go to the kitchen to get my food out of the refrigerator.

One small silver lining there is that having lunch in a restaurant has become a special occasion for me. Whenever it happens to be a Friday where my boss is out of the office, I make a point to take a long lunch, no matter how busy I am, and go out to eat somewhere. The problem is, there aren’t a whole lot of options. There are a limited number of restaurants in walking distance and I have now been to all of them, except for the ones I am scared of.

Up until recently, the Cedar House Cafe was one of those places. It’s not that I thought it was bad, it’s that I simply did not know if it was good or bad and had no way to tell without hearing something about the place from someone else. Well that someone turned out to be the Los Angeles Times, whose mention of the Cedar House Cafe in its article about hummus prompted me to try the restaurant on my next Friday lunch outing.

From the outside there is not much to catch the eye here. It’s tucked away next to a liquor store in a strip mall that is set well back from the street. There’s a neat, but fairly plain green awning proclaiming the name of the restaurant, with strings of icicle lights dangling down. But as I approached, I instantly noticed that the tables outside were all occupied–a good sign.

The inside was bustling as well, with every table but two filled. The decor was minimal, but the effect cozy with a nice orange color to the walls and giant photos of Lebanon, which I totally want to go to now after admiring the photo of a village overlooked by a snowy mountain.

The first thing I ordered was the hummus, since the Times had given that dish its blessing. What arrived was one of those appetizers that really needs to be a group effort:a bowl of hummus with a basket overflowing with soft pita and crispy toasted lavash chips and a side of pickled things: little cornichons, olives and turnips ($4.95). The hummus was smooth and creamy with a small pool of extra virgin olive oil, paprika and herbs in the middle. The flavor was good with its touch of garlic. I could have used a bit less oil. The best thing about it was the lavash chips. The hummus was so good on these that I kept nibbling at them long after I was full.

For my main lunch, I ordered the chicken shawarma sandwich ($6.95) which consisted of marinated chicken grilled on a vertical broiler, than rolled in a wrap with vegetables and served with thin fries. It wasn’t exactly the most adventurous choice (I could have ordered quail!), but it made for a great lunch meal. Simple, filling and flavorful. The chicken was tender and juicy and they had the perfect ratio of meat to vegetables. The fries were great, some of the best fries I’ve had in recent times. They weren’t too greasy, crisp on the outside, soft and warm on the inside.

They have all kinds of interesting looking appetizers, including lebneh, mouhammara, and kibbeh. The quail actually looks intriguing as well–three pieces marinated in lemon garlic and then pan flamed or grilled. I don’t usually go for gamy birds, but my mouth is watering anyway.

All in all, I don’t know that I would make a special trip for this restaurant what with the Jonathan Gold-recommended Alcazar right in the same area, but if you happen to be around and want a cheap and delicious lunch that’s a bit more exotic than the usual fare, Cedar House Cafe is a good option.

Cedar House Cafe
4805 Whitsett Ave,
North Hollywood 91607
At Riverside Ave

Phone: 818-769-9994
Fax: 818-769-5211

By KT (see more of her posts). You can find more of KT's writing at her own website Gastronomy 101.