Parkallen Restaurant

A few nights ago I joined a friend at the Parkallen Restaurant on 109th Street at 70th Avenue.  As I arrived, it looked like the average out of the way establishment that offered the average patio (not an option due to a deluge of rain), average decor and an average menu.  Once I walked inside, I knew that I was wrong.  The decor was unique, but not eclectic.  There was a warmth to the interior that I couldn’t put my fingers on, but after an afternoon and evening of rain it was most welcome.

While waiting for my company to arrive I perused the menu and wine list.  It had been suggested to me that this was an ethnic restaurant, but nobody could remember the region.  When I was arriving and looking at the building I would have sworn it wasn’t ethnic at all.  Reading the menu certainly proved that it was.  The starters and entrees are a rich selection of traditional Lebanese food.  The wine list, which spanned all the major wine producing countries in the world, also included two bottles of Lebanese wine.

As it was the 25th anniversary of the restaurant, the special was a Lebanese feast.  After reading the menu numerous times and not being able to settle on only one dish, we decided that the feast was in order. 

Our waitress, a wonderful young lady with tinges of accent in her voice, arrived with the starters.  Five dishes to be shared between the two of us.  They ranged from a light and refreshing Fatouch (Lebanese Salad) to the rich flavours of Falafel.  All were wonderful, but with five dishes of appetizers it left me wondering if I should have skipped breakfast and lunch in order to consume the volume of food we were seeing.

Our main course arrived on one large plate.  It included a base of fragrant rice pilaf that was covered with five or six differently prepared meats.  I can’t remember all of them, but not one wasn’t worth asking for more of.  Again, the dish was much more than the two of us were capable of finishing, but it was so good that we couldn’t resist having just one more bite.

Desert was a tough call.  I had already eaten to the point of gastronomical discomfort, but that last menu can be quite tempting.  Once I saw that there was homemade ice cream available, I knew I was going to be waddling out at the end of the evening.  The size of the ice cream portion was amazing.  After all the food they put in front of us, they expected me to have room for 4 or 5 scoops of ice cream?  Well, like any homemade ice cream, once I had started, there was no stopping me.

With a dining room that exudes comfort, wait staff that were knowledgeable, friendly and attentive (but not to much so), and food to die for, I’m going to have to give Parkallen Restaurant a 4.75 out of 5.