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West Roxbury's second Lebanese restaurant opens

Chicken shawarma at Fairouz in West Roxbury

Chicken shawarma plate.

The other night, we checked out Fairouz, which recently took over from Cristelle's at 5268 Washington St. in West Roxbury.

To start, this is not a competitor to Al Wadi on VFW Parkway. It's nowhere near as fancy and the menu is far less extensive. Although owner Fadi Metri has upgraded the interior a bit, you can still see its sub-shop origins in the counter where you used to place your order (but they do have a waitress now).

There's no fancy bar that changes color, although they do have a beer and wine license (and recently got permission to serve arak).

Think of it as a good, solid take-out place - with prices to match (we left feeling quite full for $30 or so). It's a decent addition to the collection of international take-out places near the intersection of Washington and Grove streets.

We ordered fried kibbe as an appetizer and the beef kabob and chicken shawarma plates. The fried kibbe was, possibly, the best part of the meal - there was a subtlety to the spices that was great.

The entrees both came with rice, rather than the french fries listed on the menu (fine by me). Nancy's beef was well done, which would have been fine if I'd ordered it, but she prefers hers medium. The shawarma was decent; I'd order it again.

As mentioned, we had no room left for dessert, which was just as well, since they don't have any yet (dessert is on the way).

Interior of Fairouz in West Roxbury
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Comments

a half-assed place.

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Sometimes you want a full-blown restaurant experience where you spend hours going through mezzas and many bottles of wine and sometimes you just want some take out or a light dinner. If I want the former, I'll go to Al Wadi. If I want the latter, I'll go to Fairouz.

I've lived in that area long enough to think it's actually cool that there's a choice of Lebanese places.

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Adam, I could not agree more!

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How dare a brand new restaurant not be subjectively flawless! FOR SHAME

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Thanks for being the guinea pig for us

Out of curiosity did she specify how she wanted her meat cooked or no?

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Given that the place has probably only been open a week or so, it's probably just part of the kitchen shakeout.

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That's the most important part to me.

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Be sure to try the fresh hummus made at Bay Sweets on Spring Street .

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My wife and I went there tonight.

Hummus and babagannoush were served in small bowls with olive oil, parsley and a dash of paprika. The baba was smooth, smoky and satisfying . The hummus was creamy and fresh, but its flavor was a bit weak. (I much prefer Al Wadi's, the best I have ever had.) My wife ordered shanklish, a wonderful combination of feta, tomatoes and onion. This was a first for us feta lovers, who were very happy with its strong feta taste. I ordered a chicken shawarma sandwich. The rollup featured warm, slightly crispy pita, tender chicken chunks, a few soft French fries and a somewhat tangy, very tasty tahini mixture. I'm with Adam on this one.

This place runs friendly and casual, both in atmosphere and in service. If you come here to eat, be prepared to relax; in other words, the last thing to expect is to eat and run. Many local Syrian- and Lebanese-American parties come here, as they did to Cristelle's.

And cheesecake has now arrived.

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