The Roving Ravenous Horde was on the move again. We’re managing about once every two to three weeks right now, still being a bit more cautious about going out. But, it’s really nice to have something social to look forward to now and again after most of a year of semi-isolation. Recently, I’d heard about a new Syrian spot opening up in Las Cañitas, and one day, out walking around, I stopped in to try a couple of bites. It was quite good and I thought it would make a fun outing for the group. Aleppo, Baéz 205.
It’s a fairly large place – there’s a dining room on the ground floor and another on the second floor, almost as big, plus, being a corner, a good amount of outdoor seating. Service is friendly, though a bit strained, as there were, on both visits, only two people “working the floor”, taking orders, answering questions, serving, and clearing. When it gets busy, and it did on both days, and with two floors and an outdoor area to attend to, getting a waiter’s attention can be a bit slow at times.
The menu isn’t extensive, a selection of dips that come with pita breads, a half dozen classic plates, and a few roasted meat skewers. On my solo visit I ordered up the mutabal, a smoked eggplant and yogurt dip, and enjoyed it quite a bit, though it’s not very smoky. For the group visit we ordered the same, plus hummus and mutabal – chickpea puree (good, could have used a little more spice and/or garlic to it), and roasted pepper puree, really very good (walnuts on the side as one of our members is allergic). Each dip runs 250 pesos and comes with pita bread.
On my solo visit I’d tried the shawarma, available in beef, chicken, or a mix. Here, the beef version. Very good quality meat, a decent amount of lettuce, tomato, and onion inside, and a good, garlicky yogurt sauce. Fairly large, too. Not a wow, but a very good shawarma. 320 pesos.
In addition to the usual non-alcohol beverage suspects, Aleppo offers two infusions – one made from cardamom flowers, sahrawe, and one from hibiscus flowers, karkade. Both very good, and something different. The group leaned towards the hibiscus one as the fave. The flasks are enough for two people to split over a meal and run 250 pesos.
The meat skewers proved popular – four of our group of six went for one or another. The chicken version a little bit light on the seasoning, and bordering on dry; the beef one well seasoned and nice and juicy; and, I think our favorite, the kafta, a beef rather than lamb version, with heavily seasoned ground meat. Personally, I find the French fries a bit odd as an accompaniment – why not something more traditionally Syrian, which seems to be their forte? The canoe shape of the fries would be great if you had something to dip them into, and could have spent another minute in the fryer to get a more golden, lightly crunchy crust. All the skewers run 540-560 pesos a plate.
And two of us ordered rice dishes. The classic arroz a la persa, or Persian rice. Hmm… it’s a lot of rice. And it’s pretty stodgy – a bit overcooked and dense. Rather than studding the rice with raisins and almonds, they’re just sprinkled on top. And the chicken in it consisted of four 1″ cubes in the entire dish. A bit of a disappointment at 390 pesos. The fateh shawarma is basically the exact same dish, except for 100 pesos more you get a modicum of sliced but un-sauced shawarma meat on top, and some deep fried pita chips around the rim. Likewise a bit of a yawn.
The menu only offers up two desserts. A fairly good bakhlava filled with walnuts and honey, and nice, crisp layers. The menu also says they offer a coconut version, but our waiter just sort of shrugged and said they don’t have it. But, on the coconut side, they have mamul, which were kind of dry, dense, floury cookies with only a vague hint of coconut flavor. 140 pesos each, one thumbs up, one thumbs down. Actually, the mamul would be nice to dunk in coffee – which, one of our group ordered a cortado, the classic Argentine version of café con leche, and then so did two others. It wasn’t until we saw that other tables were getting the traditional, poured at the table pots of “Arab coffee” (infused with cardamom) that it occurred to us to ask. Something that perhaps if the waiter hadn’t been so harried to move from table to table, he’d have told us they had available. 110 pesos for regular coffee, not sure the price on the Arab version.
All around, nice space. Friendly, but overwhelmed service – I don’t know if they’re just keeping the number of staff down because of pandemic issues, or if it was because it was a holiday, or if they’ve just decided to go with fewer than optimum. Food – mixed. No wows, and it ranged from very good down to ho-hum. I think there are enough middle eastern spots around the city that are better that it’s unlikely to be on my list for a revisit.
