By Gary Phillipe
On Wednesday evening, a good friend invited my partner and me to try Raffi’s Kitchen, a new Lebanese restaurant in Lower Sackville specializing in Mediterranean cuisine. It was an enjoyable experience and one we will certainly repeat.
As soon as we arrived and were looking at the array of food in the display cases, the owner/chef—exemplifying the friendly and generous service we were to receive throughout the meal—handed each of us a small bowl of vegetable soup with a delicate, very slightly thickened, lamb broth. I particularly liked that the soup was only lightly salted, leaving each of us to add the amount of salt we prefer.
Two of us, being lamb lovers, ordered lamb Kafta (nicely seasoned minced lamb in a cigar shape), while my partner chose the chicken souvlaki. To say that portions were generous would be a serious understatement. In addition to more lamb and chicken than we could eat in one sitting, the platters positively groaned with the salad we chose — tabouli (parsley, bulgur, finely chopped vegetable, with a light citrus and oil dressing), the two kinds of rice (one mixed with lentils and the other with saffron), and lots of extras.
The food was wonderfully fresh and tasty. I loved the lamb and the tabouli was the freshest and best I’ve ever had. The only problem was the size of the portions: they were enormous. We brought home more than enough food for lunch the following day!
As we were paying our relatively modest bill, we chatted with a woman who had ordered take-out and who said that she lived nearby. “What a great addition to the local community,” she said. “It’s good to have an alternative to burgers and pizza.”
It’s too bad we don’t have something similar to Raffi’s Kitchen in Halifax’s south end.
