Along similar lines...

Back in late December, but a few days before Christmas, I had to pick up Lucantonius and Amata at O'Hare and we decided to stop by El Aurans for a late lunch. After mulling over the many options, we all agreed that City Noor was the place to go. There we found Meisoun in a very festive mood and sporting a Santa Claus hat -- I should have gotten a picture of her but, alas, I only took a few pictures of, what else, food...

Meisoun's holiday spirit moved her to serve up our mixed vegetable mezes platter in a very entertaining fashion:



Mr. Mezes-face was as tasty as he was handsome. The kefta sandwiches were also swell, as always.

Antonius

Ha!

My mom noted while we were dining that the red cloth with a white fringe holding a beaded curtain open looked, to all outward appearances, like a repurposed Santa hat-- but we knew that couldn't possibly be true...

Ha!

My mom noted while we were dining that the red cloth with a white fringe holding a beaded curtain open looked, to all outward appearances, like a repurposed Santa hat-- but we knew that couldn't possibly be true...

Mike is wrong, it absolutely was a Santa hat holding back a beaded curtain made of shells, painted with a butterfly motif - I think the subtle logic of those symbols coming together in a perfectly balanced statement escaped him.
Mike G's Mom

Antonius wrote:


Mr. Mezes-face was as tasty as he was handsome. The kefta sandwiches were also swell, as always.

Antonius

To me, it looks more like a Christmas tree with all the trimmings.

What - your Christmas doesn't have angelic floating meatballs?

I picked up a take-out order from City Noor tonight and learned two things:

#1 - I've learned that I will never order chicken shwarema from there again. This is the first dish I've had from them that really let me down. But they're batting a healthy .950 with me, so I'll let it slide.

#2 - They now deliver.

Best,
Michael

eatchicago wrote: I will never order chicken shwarema from there again.

What was wrong with it?

gp60004 wrote:

eatchicago wrote: I will never order chicken shwarema from there again.

What was wrong with it?

While it wasn't bad, per se, it was far from what I wanted from a shwarema. The meat was very wet and seemed sauteed rather than the slow-roasted. It had a spice profile that put it much closer to an Indo-Pak dish.

City Noor does a lot of things well, but for shwarema, I'll stick with Salam.

Best,
Michael

LTH,

Last two times I've had lunch at GNR winner City Noor business has been very slow. We were there yesterday around 1pm for a good hour and a half and were the only customers. This is a shame as the food at City Noor is excellent, in particular yesterdays fava bean falafel were terrific as was Maqloba- rice, cauliflower, potatoes, eggplant and tender lamb.

It's be a crying shame if City Noor closed for lack of support.

Enjoy,
Gary

City Noor
4714 N Kedzie Av
Chicago IL 60625
773-267-6777

Another disquieting fact. . . about six months ago Sam and Maysoun stopped selling meat in the butcher shop next door. "Too much work," said Maysoun.

About a month ago I crawled into a cab at about 3 am and was given a jolt when I realized Sam was behind the wheel.

m'th'su wrote:Another disquieting fact. . . about six months ago Sam and Maysoun stopped selling meat in the butcher shop next door. "Too much work," said Maysoun.

About a month ago I crawled into a cab at about 3 am and was given a jolt when I realized Sam was behind the wheel.

There's a 'for sale' sign on the old butcher shop door.



I hope their restaurant business picks up...

Antonius

Inspired by the clear skies and Germuska's post on city walks, I took an extended stroll up to Albany Park to check on the progress of my new home (we move next week). This stroll had the added value of providing a pretext to procrastinate for another three hours the onerous task of making headway on packing my every possession. After checking in at the open house (fridge=installed, laundry door= non-closing!) I meandered into City Noor for a quick lunch.

With two-year old memories of the mansef at Steve's Shish Kebab, I decided to try out Maysoun's version.

First course - iceberg, tomato & cucumber with bland dressing; second was a basket of toasted pita and a dish of the most peculiar torshi I ever had:



Peculiar is not the right word, this torshi was bad. It is a mystery, truly, why any restaurant near Lawrence and Kedzie would ever use canned pitted black olives and jarred spanish pimento stuffed green olives as a table condiment when there are no fewer than a dozen sources for excellent, house-cured or brined olives within 2 minute's walk. City Noor's seemed to be an assemblage of jarred olives, grocery store giardinera and a couple of home-brined pickled cukes & cauliflower, the only elements that approached the intense pucker that I hope for from a lebanese pickle. Not to harp on the negatives, but what gives with that?

Mensif arrived soon after - tender shredding lamb with toasted slivered almonds over excellent yellow pilaf and yoghurt soaked lavash.



On the side was a soup cup full of yoghurt gravy - I learned after the meal that Maysoun usually pours it over the rice, but for customers that she suspects may not be that familiar with the dish, she keeps the gravy separate as it's pretty strong, and suggests that clients taste it first before pouring it over the dish.

I'm actually sorta glad she did - I'm pretty good with "strong" flavors usually, but this yoghurt sauce was pretty well past the level of funk that I'm accustomed to - it had an acrid ponginess that was pretty unfamiliar. Sipped from a spoon it was overwhelming, drizzled over the lamb it was less noticeable, but still a little out of whack.

Has anybody else had this experience at City Noor? I actually really liked the dish - not as much as the version I had at Steve's back in the day, which didn't have any "extra" funk that I recall - but was a little surprised by the yoghurt.

Luckily the lamb was delicious - rich and juicy, fork-tender and intense. I'd eat it again.

Then it was back to the sidewalk - on the way home I stopped at Guatelinda for macaroons and empanadas - that bakery will be one of the things I miss most about Logan Square: charming owners, delicious pastries, decent prepared guatemalan meals (they even have a couple of tables now for folks that want to eat in).



If I don't stop procrastinating packing, we may never move out however, and I may not have to give up the sweet sweet Guatelinda.

Read this forum a long time ago and have been wanting to go. finally did with my very old parents. It was really good. Exactly the same experience with the Mansaf (Noor said Jordanians flock when they hear it's around), but for my partner who will eat basically anything, it was just on the other side. He added a touch of the sauce to the rice, but by itself, it was definitely of the barnyard. I would guess it is pretty authentic, and it's good to have the warning to try it first before pouring it over everything.
I asked for some hot sauce and Noor brought us some homemade that was delicious. Also my mom's meat paratha was outstanding. The food definitely had that extra homemade flavor that lifts it from the masses. We'll be back.

unless things have changed in the time since my last eating of the mansaf (4-5 months ago probably) I had the direct opposite experience of yours - drank the sauce straight from the bowl - for me though that might possibly be because it reminds of a kashmiri specialty - "yakhni"

I tried to go today, but the restaurant was closed because of a fire around July 4th. According to the nice guy at the Noor store, which now sells phone cards, they are planning to reopen and dickering with the insurance company. Bummer, but we enjoyed Noon-O-Kabab just down the street.

Cheers, Jen

City Noor is now Taqueria San Juanito and City Noor Meat Market, just North, a phone card store. As I was passing the phone card store on my way to San Juanito I saw a smiling familiar face, Maysoun at the register. Chatted for a few minutes about her fava bean falafel, mensef and molukhia, sadly no plans to open another restaurant.

Maysoun at phone store where City Noor Meat Market was.

Gary,

I've had many occasions -- esp. of late -- to think of City Noor, the restaurant, and also City Noor, the butcher shop (for a number of years my go-to place for lamb and veal)... Thanks for the up-date... I hope they're all doing well... I'd like to stop by the phone-card shop myself to say 'hi'...

Very sad how things went with their food businesses...

A

Antonius wrote:Very sad how things went with their food businesses...

Maysoun said no immediate plans to get back in the restaurant business. I think she misses the restaurant, her eyes lit up as she showed me pictures of recently made dishes on her cell phone.