Persian food is a special type of Middle Eastern food, and thus I was very excited to learn that Scottsdale has its own Persian restaurant, appropriately named the Persian Room, because it’s basically one big room. With Persian food. And like any Persian restaurant worth its salt, its menu was vast and filled with all sorts of meats and rice. Essentially it was the kind of place that was made for an unvegan.

It began with Tah Dig, which is a must-eat if you have never it. Essentially, it is overcooked rice, but in the best of ways. It’s oily and crispy and then covered in choice of two stews. Or, if you’re like me, you get both. One is the gheimeh and the other is the ghormeh sabzi. The gheimeh is more legumey, and the ghormeh sabzi is more herby. I preferred the ghormeh sabzi, but you can’t go wrong with either.

As for my main course, I snagged the Naderi Sultani. This took the classic Sultani to another level by combining filet mignon, chicken and koobideh (ground beef). I also decided to upgrade the rice to zereshk polo rice instead of normal basmati rice. This means barberries (a tart and sweet berry) and saffron were mixed in with the rice. The whole plate was a beautiful feast and I set to work on it. By far, the best was the filet mignon, which was perfectly seasoned and tender. The chicken and koobideh were plenty good as well, but just couldn’t compare with the filet mignon.

As far as rooms go, this Persian Room was definitely one of my favorites. There aren’t many other rooms you can go to for incredible meats and incredible rice, so the Persian Room is the right place to get that fill.

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.

Heading into Noho Royal Garden in North Hollywood, I kind of expected to find myself in a typical Middle-Eastern style restaurant. But no, there were no rugs on the wall, no decorative lamps or beads. Instead, it felt like I had just walked into a Mexican cabana. Part outside, part inside, with umbrellas, trees and stones, this was a perfect place to escape from work…well as long as the food was any good.

Outside the place was a big sign promoting their $7.99 lunch special, so even though they had some tasty-looking shawarma sandwiches, we asked the waitress what their lunch special was. It turned out that this wasn’t some sort of special lunch menu, but a single dish that was on special today. It just so happened that on this day, it was their Chicken Shawarma Plate. The plate was regularly priced at $9.99 and came with onions, roast peppers, roast tomatoes, salad and basmati rice. I was enticed despite the fact that it came with multiple vegetables, but ordering it without all those would require me to get more food. I opted for the hummus, which was $4.99, but looked quite good. Then I ordered the lunch special, but without the vegetables.

The hummus came out first and looked unlike any hummus I had ever seen before. It was quite white in color and looked really runny. Then I dipped some pita in and found it to be pretty amazing. It was the creamiest hummus I’ve ever had and still had great flavor. Plus, there was plenty of it.

While eating this delicious hummus, I realized tat in my haste to order my main course with no vegetables, I neglected to order without the salad. No sooner than I remembered, my dish appeared. Although the salad was on the plate with the real food, It was pretty well separated from the rice and chicken. The chicken was unlike any shawarma I had ever seen.

Most shawarma I’ve had has been shavings off of a spool of meat, but this was more like chunks of chicken that had been marinated and grilled in a pan. Although surprising, I didn’t hesitate in eating. I found the chicken to be quite flavorful. How ever it was cooked, the cook had chosen some great spices. I used the meat, pita and leftover hummus to make myself some delicious mini-sandwiches and by the time I exhausted my plate of chicken, I was one stuffed and happy unvegan.

Despite having a lot of vegetable options, Noho Royal Garden cooked up some delicious and unique Middle-Eastern dishes. I figured the Persian and Armenian influences that the menu purports to have were the reason the food was so unique. Aside from the veggies, the only downside was the price. Even though I got the lunch special, I needed to spend another five bucks to make it a whole meal. This isn’t a lot of money in general, but for lunch I feel like I can find something a bit cheaper.