DC: Zaytinya

Indecisiveness is not one of my better traits, but it didn't take much deliberation to decide on Zaytinya for brunch on Sunday:



Zaytinya is a tapas-like restaurant serving dishes with Turkish, Greek, and Lebanese influences. How could I resist? The interior is very modern in white and blue, with large glass vases partly filled with yellow colored water (think olive oil).

Here's one of the best things about Zaytinya:



Hot pillows of dough in never-ending supply. I think we killed off five baskets of that stuff between the two of us. The exterior is a bit crispy while the inside is so, so soft. The bread came with a dish of olive oil with pomegranate sauce. The pomegranate was tangy sweet and while it doesn't look like a lot, a little bit definitely goes a long way.

We started off with the choice of three spreads:



That's hummus, baba ghannouge, and htipiti. The hummus was just....hummus. The baba ghannouge was smoky from the fire-roasted eggplant, with a hint of lemon, and so fresh that you could see the eggplant seeds. My favorite was the htipiti, which consisted of marinated roasted red peppers, feta, and thyme. The red peppers were sweet, the feta savory, and the overall taste was magical. Can I buy this stuff at the grocery store?

This dish was what convinced me that I needed to eat at Zaytinya. My friend told me that his favorite was the brussel sprouts and I just had to try it for myself:



This may ruin my reputation, but I can't lie. It was good. The brussel sprouts were crispy as if fried and salty, while the barberries and garlic yogurt added a refreshing touch. I'm still not saying that brussel sprouts are good, but I'll make an exception for this ONE dish.

To bring in a meat component, we got the arayes or grilled ground lamb and tahini stuffed in a pita and drizzled with garlic yogurt:



I love lamb, so anything with lamb can never go wrong with me. I liked the arayes, but I wasn't blown away by it. It was very lamb-y, which was good, but not as enjoyable as I wanted it to be.

We were originally going to pass on dessert, but once we found out that there was olive oil ice cream, we couldn't leave without trying some:



The ice cream trio came with apricot, olive oil, and walnut. Surprisingly, the walnut was both our favorites. The apricot tasted like an Asian mango slushie to me. The olive oil was interesting in that it was sour, but you could really taste the olive oil. Not bad, but I probably wouldn't get a big scoop of it on a cone. The walnut, however, was very creamy with a slight powdery texture from the ground nuts and had this nutty taste that was simply too, too good.

So far, Zaytinya has been my best food experience in DC. The food was great, the service was friendly (though a tad slow), and I can easily see why there would be a line waiting to get in.


Zaytinya
701 9th St NW
Washington DC, 20001
(202) 638-0800
http://www.zaytinya.com/

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