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Alcazar
17239 Ventura Blvd.
Encino, CA 91316
(818) 789-0991
‘Zahle in the Valley,” a friend calls it, a bit of Mediterranean Lebanon in the middle of Encino: a shaded terrace of music, grilled mullet and bright coals of apple-scented tobacco burning in brass hookahs. The cooks are reportedly Egyptian and Lebanese, but the owner, a well-known Armenian crooner who sometimes sings here on weekends, is not above insisting on the chile-red Armenian version of hummus and the fluffy raw-beef dish kibbe nayeh to go along with the fried sea bass with fried pita and tahini; stuffed grape leaves, and a dish of sautéed chicken livers with pomegranate that are delicious enough to make you forget you don't necessarily like innards. The shish towook, grilled kebabs of extravagantly marinated chicken breast, is as good as a kebab ever gets. On weekends, ultrathin sajj bread, like lavash, is baked on the patio over a vast heated surface, wrapped around grilled meat or made into the thin, crisp, thyme-scented Arab quesadillas called kl'leg. Lebanon is famous for its red wine, but Alcazar, in the gentle levant of Encino, also serves oceans of arak, an anise-scented Lebanese liquor that turns milky when you stir it with ice and cool water. - Jonathan Gold
I'm usually pretty patient but this restaurant taxed me over the limit. Every year on my birthday we splurge and pick a restaurant off Mr. Gold's "essential" list. We found the food at Alcazar to be pretty good, although I wouldn't rank it above Marrouch or a lot of other places in Glendale and the Valley. The service, however, was abysmal...the worst I've had in ages. If a wait staff is overwhelmed, I'm sympathetic, but this was Sunday evening, half-full, and there was only one large party. We sat down at 6.30 and had our entrees exactly at 7.30. A neighboring table was seated when we ordered our mezze, and they were eating dinner about ten minutes before us. We even noticed the sommelier point out to a waiter that we hadn't been served, and they got into an argument because it wasn't his table! We had to go up to the counter to get both water and our check. I've had worse service in LA, but I walked on it. I'll not give this place another go.