Lebanese Taverna, Arlington, Va.

Another shopping outing to Pentagon City today gave us an opportunity to have dinner in Pentagon Row at the Lebanese Taverna while we were in the neighborhood.

Robert had the Taverna Platter. This was a combination plate with some beef and lamb shawarma, hommos, and tabouleh, plus two interesting dumpling-looking things called a fatayer b'sbanigh, a pastry stuffed with spinach, onions, pine nuts and sumac, and a kibbeh, a fried thing that was stuffed with lamb, beef, pine nuts and almonds, all very attractively presented in a divided rectangular tray.


I had a shawarma sandwich platter that included a regular green salad and French fries.


For dessert, we split something called a halawet jibne. They took a crepe made from semolina and filled it with a farmer-style goat cheese, and served it with a rose-scented sugar syrup and garnished it with a grating of pistachios and some orange zest. It was pleasant, and half a crepe was just the right amount. We also each had an Arab coffee with cardamom seeds floating in it.