Food court food isn’t typically known to be great, but then food court food isn’t generally Middle Eastern. Massis has kind of built a food court empire around LA, dishing out mostly Middle Eastern food with a sprinkling of random things like Argentinean Skirt Steak and Idaho Trout. I found myself at the Santa Anita mall and went looking for kabobs.

My kabob of choice was Persian Koubideh because I couldn’t get that stuff out of my mind after my recent visit to Raffi’s in Glendale. I watched as they grilled the ground up beef in the background of the stall, and it took a surprisingly long time for a food court spot. I assumed this meant there was a certain amount of attention to detail correlated to the preparation.

Eventually it arrived on a bed of rice, with the Russian Bean Salad I had chosen for my side and a tomato and pita for some reason. The koubideh turned out to be pretty great with some solid seasonings and plenty of it. Everything else, though, was somewhat disappointing. For one, the rice was plain. And I know that’s how rice generally is, but not Persian rice, which can have amazing things mixed in. Then there was the side, which I guess tasted okay, but it was pretty disappointing that hummus was not an option.

Regardless, Massis served me pretty well for a food court. The centerpiece of the meal was very good and fit into my expectations of food court prices. If only the sides were better, I would consider making Massis my go-to food court spot.

About a year ago, a new Turkish restaurant opened down the street from me in Palms. I was overjoyed at this and especially happy when I saw that they were open late on weekends. Unfortunately, I went pretty soon after they opened and was kind of disappointed with the results. Lucky for them, this was before I started a meat blog, so when I finally got around to paying them another visit recently, it was my first chance to give them an unvegan review. The restaurant is called Sofra Kabab Express and although “express” is typically applied to fast food restaurants in airports, this is nothing like one of those, even encouraging people to hang around and smoke hookah (nargile in Turkish).

They run a great lunch special, which I was able to take advantage of. This was a sandwich, fries and a drink for $6.99. Not too shabby. For the sandwich, I went with the Chicken Doner (Shawarma) Sandwich. I think they threw shawarma in there so they wouldn’t scare off people looking for a regular Middle-Eastern meal. I made sure to order it without vegetables, since for some reason, people still seem to think vegetables are a good idea for a sandwich. Anyway, my sandwich was ready pretty expressly and since I’m no hookah smoker, I took it to go.

Just looking at the thing, I could tell they had made great improvements since my initial visit. The chicken was covered in a garlicky sauce and looked pretty juicy as well. Also, it was good to see that the sandwich was pretty stuffed, since there is nothing worse that a sandwich with too much bread, no matter how good the bread may be. I bit in and was quite happy. The chicken was as juicy as it looked and the sauce on it tasted great. In the Middle-Eastern style, I loaded some of my fries into the sandwich, which only enhanced the thing. The fries were nicely seasoned and good on their own as well.

This was a great stop for a reasonably priced lunch. I’m glad I decided to pay them another visit and now I’m looking forward to taking advantage of their late hours.