Sumac

I LOVE Sumac. Simple as that. It's love. And I met some pretty awesome girls that love it as much as I do. What what. It's Lebanese at its best. Forget Amir or Boustan, Sumac is where it's at. So that's where I was last week with Al and Mar, the Sumac 'experts' and V, one of my fave baby gurls from the gym.

First off, lemme say that Sumac is effin busy. All the time. ALL the time. All the TIME! Y'all get it? Obviously, there's a good reason for that! You want the best Lebanese fast-ish food, you go there, it's as simple as that. On top of being busy, it's happenin'! It was full when we got there at 8h30 pm and got even more full after that!

Happenin' usually means loud, and it certainly did in this case. Which is just fine, but when the table is as large as I am long, and you have a hard time hearing the person in front of you, it becomes a problem. A problem I would absolutely accept if I were in a night club. But this was not a night club. At least not that I'm aware of.

I've already written about Sumac so I won't dwell on the place itself (you can read about it here: http://www.eatingoutmontreal.com/2015/02/sumac.html ) but more on the food because let's be honest, this is the #1 reason why you are reading this.

I wanted to have a drink. Rum and fanta sounded like just the thang I wanted. Simple and right up my alley. You know, my drinking alley. It had just the right amount of rum in there (read: LOTS) and was nice and sweet. AND, when do I ever get to drink Fanta? I LOVE that stuff.

Hummus fries. So basically two of my favourite things. It should be part of that song in The Sound of Music-- 'some hummus on fries with lo-ooots of spices, these are a few of my favourite things!'. Yes? Let's do it! I'll call up the Von Trapp family. But before I do that...I would like to rename this dish 'The Lebanese Poutine'. I don't really like poutine and will only taste one that does not include either the crottes de fromages (ew!) or that brown sauce (eeeeew!), so this was purrrrrfect! The fries were crunchy and hot and soft on the inside. Basically, the definition of a good fry. On the fries, the spices were very present, which is what you want! Well, it's what I want! Aight so there's sumac (I bet at least 62% of you did not know that it was a spice), which adds a bit of acidity, and zaatar which is a mix of spices like thyme, sumac and sesame seeds. I remember when I was in high school, dem Arab boys would always bring pita type bread (from what I recall, it is called manouché---but I might be wrong) smothered in zataar. The spiciness came from the s'rug which was kind of sprinkled on so we never knew which bite was going to be spicy. For me, it was a nice surprise but for Mar, who dsont like the spice, it was not cool. The hummus was like a cloud: smooth and heavenly. some of the best I've had. And trust me, I've HAD hummus!

Chicken shawarma OR very full and colourful vagina. No? Come oooon! In this loveliness, there's hummus, tahina, purple and green cabbage and pickled turnip. Yes. What I noticed at first was that the chicken seemed a bit old. I guess they had cooked it earlier and hey, there were closing soon soooo. Still, obviously, the fresher the better (duh), so that kind of turned me off. It was still uber tasty tho but... the question remained: when in the hell did they cook it? The bread was very soft and fresh but maybe a bit too thin in some spots because all the liquid from the sandwich would seep through. If there's one thing i hate is having hands full of food juice. Hahaha: food juice. The turnips were perfect and I just loved the cabbage in there. Really loved the textural aspect of it. Crunch crunch crunch!

Service was aight: very quick, water on the table, but does not check if we're a-ok. How it goes is that you order at the cash (those big line-ups can get annoying) and then you are seated and wait a couple minutes for your plate. It's actually rather light-speed fast.

And now, the scores!

Food: 7
Service: 7

I can't not go back because I usually love it so much so ya, totes heading there again soon for more Lebanese awesomeness that will hopefully be a bit awesomer (don't even check, it's a word!) than the last time.

Sumac

Last week, I was feeling rich. Oh-so-rich! I had booked my Via1 ticket and felt on top of the wooooorld. And then I realized that the reason I felt so rich was that I hadn't been to a restaurant in a while! This had to be fixed: I decided to try Sumac. My super friend Lea had tried it the week prior and oh so wanted to go again so I had my resto partner! Yay!

This middle-eastern restaurant seemed very inviting. OK so I was kind of comparing it to a restaurant that is 100% better than Amir. Don't get me wrong, I love some Amir here and there but this... this! Basically... no comparison! At all!

The place itself is very white and pale wood, loft-ish, open kitchen at the back, lots of movement.  And, on top of it, they were playing Livin' On a Prayer by Bon Jovi! Hellllooooo!

The thang is that you get in and get in line. Some peeps pass by and give you numbers (for your order) and a table. After you order, you go to your table and wait for the marvellousness to arrive.

Oh and it did (can you tell I like this place?)

The yumminess. I don't care if you fight me on this, 'yumminess' IS a word. I had the Sumac fries and the falafel sandwich and Lea had the baba ghanouj and the chicken shawarma.The bread was fluffy and moist, and there was a perfect mix of textures in there: crunchy, soft, and down right good. The fries were a tad spicy and lemony (sumac is known to be lemony) and oh so good AND totally worth that measly 4$. The baba ghanouj was tasty and smooth. Although it seemed a bit slimy at times, it was still very good. My falafel was wonderful: so many veggies in there, and great falafel balls!  Not dry at all, very tasty, although a bit too crunchy at times, it was nice to have somewhat of a contrast in there.  Plus, as you eat it, because of the bread, the sandwich stays together! The shawarma also had some nice veggies in there and the chicken was so tender and wonderful! You could taste a bit of cinnamon in there which was great! Their sandwiches were so big that when I went to take a bite, my nose dipped in the sauce. Hehehe. 

Service was good. Although our waitress AND what seemed like the maitre-d' sih guy forgot some things we asked for (and later got from the 2nd waitress), everything else was on point. We got our food and drinks fast and our water even faster. All in all, great service. the only thing that's not going to work in the end; getting in line and being assigned a table and then ordering and THEN sitting down. It was quite unpleasant to have a line-up behind us for half of our meal, with some pushing and shoving. This won't last, but this restaurant will.

And now, the scores!!!

Food: 9
Service:8

I will definitely go back 100% to share this wonderful experience with all my friends (all of em, I swear!)!
 
ps: it cost me 15$ or so with tip. Uh hello, can you say 'worth it'?