The first thing you notice when you walk into West LA Persian kabob house Kabab Mahaleh is the bread making. A baker is stationed to the left of a giant cylindrical oven. He plops down a large pile of dough with a consistency that appears similar to The Blob. He then pats it into a thin sheet and it goes into the oven, pizza style. When done, the huge sheets of bread, long, flat and sprinkled with sesame seeds are laid to cool on a rack before being served, still warm.
The bread, known as sangak, is chewy with crispy spots and is one of the highlights of Kabab Mahaleh, but most everything is great. The kabobs are moist and nicely spiced. The ground beef and chicken are similar to kefta kabobs at Lebanese restaurants. The regular chicken and salmon are all moist and delicious and all the meat is perfect wrapped in a greasy piece of sangak and sprinkled with sumac and a leaf of lemon basil.
Kabab Mahaleh
8762 W. Pico Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90035
(310) 275-3000
Persian food is delicious! That picture made me really hungry! Nice review sku! Persian bread comes in dozens of varieties, each as unique and delicious as sangak, which is termed such because of the small stones, or 'sang', which would sometimes stick to the bread while baking, producing the flat, crispier spots in the bread. The burnt edges and holes are the best part! Goes good with whiskey!
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