Manghal (Kosher Israeli Grill)

Seven of the Evanston Lunch Group had a nice lunch at Manghal today. As always, the company was great, and the experience fun. Although there was only one other table taken while we were there, I think it took the staff a little while to figure out what we were doing, ordering umpteen dishes and splitting them between us. Eventually, they brought over some items for us to try on the house.

Two small dishes—mildly pickled cabbage and cold beets with cumin are complimentary. The cumin with beets was new to me, and I liked it. From the appetizers, we ordered falafel, Moroccan eggplant, babaghanoush, and matboucha, a spicy tomato sauce/salad. Falafel were good (6 small balls for $5), Moroccan eggplant ($7 large) pleasantly spicy, and the matboucha ($8 large) definitely packed a kick. The baba ($7 large) was a bit bland and incongruously sweet.

The laffa was excellent, but I wouldn’t carry it out. After only a few minutes, the big piece of flat, grilled bread was getting cold and stiff. We didn’t try the pita.

The best dishes were the meat skewers we sampled, in my opinion. Each is served with 2 side dishes. The pargit, or boneless dark chicken (2 skewers for $19), was succulent and mildly but nicely spiced. It did have bits of cartilage still embedded, however. The house kabob (sort of a cylindrical kefta-like thing) was again only mildly spicy, but charred and juicy (2 skewers for $19). The vegetable skewer (2 for $14) had tomatoes, yellow squash, and zucchini—not too exciting. The (chicken) shawarma was too bland, I thought, and as an entrée is served in a pile on the plate. We considered ordering the “Buffalo Drummetts,” which come with a choice of several sauces but presumably, in a kosher establishment, no blue cheese.

We were given some house-made lemonade with a sprig of mint, “Lemonana,” which was good if a little less tart than I prefer. We also received some off-menu items on the house—some beans (maybe someone remembers exactly what they were), some pickled red cabbage, some cole slaw (for those of you counting at home, that makes 3 kinds of cabbage for my husband Cabbagehead), and some pickled spicy lemons, which were meant as a meat relish, if I understood correctly. These were sweet, hot, and sour at the same time and really good.

It’s a large menu, and they are still figuring out what they’re doing and selling. I asked for a carryout menu because we live quite close, and all they could give me was a regular printed menu from its plastic sleeve. They had take-out sandwiches listed on a large blackboard that aren’t on the menu yet, such as falafel, shawarma, and kabob sandwiches on either pita or laffa, and salads to go in two sizes. These seemed quite reasonably priced for kosher--$6 for the pita sandwiches, for example. I think I will stop in some time for some carryout sandwiches on my way home from work, and my son, a chicken schnitzel fan, will have to order one for comparison to his favorite at HaShalom.

I look forward to nr706’s photos of our lunch.

Manghal
1805 Howard
Evanston, IL 60202
847.859.2681

Photos are here.

I felt that the appetizers were the high point of the meal. As nr (in the events thread) said, the main courses were underseasoned, but the same could not be said for the starters.

I found the falafel were excellent, richly flavorful and crisp. The hummos and eggplant were also impressive, but I especially enjoyed the fiery matboucha, which would make any diner sit up and take notice. The laffa with black sesame seeds, when warm, was a nice addition.

EvA wrote:We were given some house-made lemonade with a sprig of mint, “Lemonana,” which was good if a little less tart than I prefer. We also received some off-menu items on the house—some beans (maybe someone remembers exactly what they were), some pickled red cabbage, some cole slaw (for those of you counting at home, that makes 3 kinds of cabbage for my husband Cabbagehead), and some pickled spicy lemons, which were meant as a meat relish, if I understood correctly. These were sweet, hot, and sour at the same time and really good.

Hi,
We were there on Christmas Eve, and both the spicy preserved lemons and the beans were part of the mix of salads you could get for two or more people. If we're thinking of the same thing, I think the beans were actually chickpeas (I want to say spiked with cumin). I agree that the appetizers were the best part of the meal, but the pargit was served on the kind of knifed skewer that you'd see in Israel, which none of the Israeli style places locally have done.

I'm surprised that nobody has commented the Chicago area now has four restaurants that serve Israeli-style grill al ha-aish (counting the non-kosher Hashalom; I hesitate to count Benjehuda's fusion food). At some point this becomes a genre of its own locally, like Jewish American Chinese food or Indo-Pak Chinese. However, after a few trips to Israel, I would say that only Mizrahi Grill actually feels like the kind of shipudia establishment you'd actually see there, being the only one that has the style of turkey shwarma popular as street food, but this place comes closest otherwise. The irony is that this really isn't high-end food in Israel.

The beans weren't chickpeas. If I had to guess, I'd say they were Navy beans or Great Northern Whites.

nr706 wrote:The beans weren't chickpeas. If I had to guess, I'd say they were Navy beans or Great Northern Whites.

While we were there, I was thinking they were cannellini, but neglected to ask. So, anyway, I'm agreeing that they were a variety of white bean, and definitely not chickpeas.

sdrucker wrote:I'm surprised that nobody has commented the Chicago area now has four restaurants that serve Israeli-style grill al ha-aish (counting the non-kosher Hashalom; I hesitate to count Benjehuda's fusion food). At some point this becomes a genre of its own locally, like Jewish American Chinese food or Indo-Pak Chinese. However, after a few trips to Israel, I would say that only Mizrahi Grill actually feels like the kind of shipudia establishment you'd actually see there, being the only one that has the style of turkey shwarma popular as street food, but this place comes closest otherwise. The irony is that this really isn't high-end food in Israel.

Cabbagehead and I were wondering why kosher in Chicago is tending towards this cuisine. How many of these places can Chicago support?

Manghal is very good. However, when Taboun first opened it was better than it currently is. I'm hoping the enthusiasm doesn't wane for Manghal (with the owners, that is).

nr706 wrote:The beans weren't chickpeas. If I had to guess, I'd say they were Navy beans or Great Northern Whites.

Thanks for reminding me. The white beans were one of the salads I'd forgotten about, but there was indeed a chickpea dish as well. They might not have the same mini-salads on every salad combo, though.

EvA wrote:Cabbagehead and I were wondering why kosher in Chicago is tending towards this cuisine. How many of these places can Chicago support?

It's an ironic question because until Taboun opened (about five years ago IIRC), there actually weren't any kind of Kosher Israeli-style meat restaurants in the Chicago area as such. We don't keep kosher, but I have friends that do, and they always complain that Chicago doesn't have the offerings that NY/NJ, South FL, or LA have. After all, when the best Chinese meat option you have is take out at Jewel......and good luck finding Indian or Mexican kosher, let alone subgenres like Persian or Moroccan.

One reason why I think there are so 'many' places of this type now is that you have scattered Orthodox and/or Israeli immigrant clusters in Rogers Park, Skokie, and Northbrook/Highland Park, and they tend to be very locally focused if our friends are any guide. When you have limited eating-out options and there's suddenly more flexibility, each new place will draw some cluster of people around it that might eat there (or may draw people that come from another area that happen to be there, but have nowhere else to go except for eating at home or doing take-out). At some point they'll cannibalize each other, but I think it depends how far apart they are. I have a feeling that Taboun in Rogers Park is going to suffer from that, if they're not already. The last time we stopped there on an early Sunday afternoon (two months ago) the place was deserted.

The other thing is that these grill places are cheaper dining out options for kosher meat than, say, Shallots (hi end French/Mediterranean/steakhouse) or a place like Hy Life, which is a catch-all white tablecloth place. Both are within a few minutes of each other in Skokie, but the grill places are also much more family friendly and have less of a 'special occasion' vibe. And they do draw at least a few non-observant Jews or non-Jews, thanks to LTH and Yelp (if you can pardon putting the home of "yummy" in the same sentence as LTH).

spinynorman99 wrote:Manghal is very good. However, when Taboun first opened it was better than it currently is. I'm hoping the enthusiasm doesn't wane for Manghal (with the owners, that is).

Apparently it has:(. They closed about a week ago.

We were there about a week before Passover and they were no longer offering laffa as an option for sandwiches, which helped make them unique. It's a shame because it felt the most 'Israeli' of the sitdown grill restaurants, with meat on the knife-like type of skewers you'd see in Israel, and their festival of salads with the spicy Moroccan carrots, black bean and corn, and white beans. Taboun has never been the same since they relocated to Skokie (greasy, tasteless kebabs and a much more rushed atmosphere than when they were on California), and IMO Mizrahi has toned down the spiciness and freshness of their turkey shawarma, as well as the creaminess of their hummus, to match either blander local tastes, or to save a few bucks.

I'd still take either qualitywise over Pita Inn, but maybe not Naf Naf.

sdrucker wrote:

spinynorman99 wrote:Manghal is very good. However, when Taboun first opened it was better than it currently is. I'm hoping the enthusiasm doesn't wane for Manghal (with the owners, that is).

Apparently it has:(. They closed about a week ago.

We were there about a week before Passover and they were no longer offering laffa as an option for sandwiches, which helped make them unique. It's a shame because it felt the most 'Israeli' of the sitdown grill restaurants, with meat on the knife-like type of skewers you'd see in Israel, and their festival of salads with the spicy Moroccan carrots, black bean and corn, and white beans. Taboun has never been the same since they relocated to Skokie (greasy, tasteless kebabs and a much more rushed atmosphere than when they were on California), and IMO Mizrahi has toned down the spiciness and freshness of their turkey shawarma, as well as the creaminess of their hummus, to match either blander local tastes, or to save a few bucks.

I'd still take either qualitywise over Pita Inn, but maybe not Naf Naf.

The Shawarma Inn on Lincoln just south of Bryn Mawr. is pretty darn good. They use laffa although I'm pretty sure they don't bake it there.