ilili

I received my first taste of Lebanese cuisine many years ago at a small hole-in-the-wall restaurant in Brooklyn.  I didn't know what to expect of the cuisine before heading in.  With a friend's help, she navigated me through the menu and after one bite of the fresh baked bread covered in za'atar (a fresh herb blend mixed with sesame seeds, sumac, and lemon), I fell in love.  I will never forget that first taste, and that first meal.

For years that followed I became intrigued by Lebanese, as well as other Mediterranean cuisines. Small plates of mezze (think tapas) of traditional hummus, baba ganoush (baked eggplant mixed with various seasonings), tabbouleh (bulgar and herb salad), to large skewers of meat (mainly lamb and chicken), fresh pita breads, and heavy seasonings of garlic, lemon, fresh herbs, cumin, aleppo pepper (a mild type of chili flake), and sumac (a dried reddish berry powder with a lemony flavor, but not as tart).  There are few that could dislike this cuisine, and if you have yet to try it, I am hoping my descriptions have made you willing to do so.  

At nighttime it can easily be seen as a restaurant

However, it has always served as a medium-profile cuisine.  Small restaurant owners setting up shop serving traditional small plates of hummus, pita sandwiches, and grilled meats over rice.  With the introduction of ilili into the NYC restaurant scene back in 2008, Lebanese cuisine has finally come into the major spotlight.  

Located just a short distance from Madison Square Park, it is very easy to pass by ilili in the daytime.  Like the service staff inside, the restaurant is painted black.  Unless you notice the brown lettering sketched into the black awning over the front doors, the space looks vacant.  Step inside, though, and its a whole other story.  

Much like Junoon has done showcasing Indian cuisine, you realize very quickly that the owners of ilili spared no expense putting the space together.  Walk in through the front door and your eyes are immediately widened by the brown and amber colored restaurant.  Ilili is huge, over 50,000 square feet, broken into three sections, with over 300 seats.  The fact that they are able to fill these seats consistently every night shows they are doing something right.  It's not just the palace-like lavish decor which keeps clientele coming in, but a mix of everything.  The incredible wine list, the attentive service staff, the whimsically named cocktails, oh, and lets not forget the talented cooking of ilili's Executive Chef, Philippe Massoud.

Chef Massoud's cuisine at ilili is in no way daring.  Besides a few additions to the menu, he stays true to the traditional cuisine of Lebanon.  Take a talented chef who is passionate about his background, add a make-everything-from-scratch attitude, paired with fresh market produce, a keen eye for detail, a touch of humor, and you have yourself a winner.  After dining at ilili, all these profile characteristics are easily seen, and tasted.  

Before I get into the food, I do have to mention how much I loved the service at ilili.  In many restaurants across New York, as well as other cities, you will encounter many service staff that showcase very easily their talent in their fields.  These men and women dedicate their lives to serving others, are warm and friendly, and are as much part of the restaurant experience as is the cuisine.  Sometimes great service will even make up for sub-par food.  However, on this particular evening, my dining partner and I were served by a woman who was, in my opinion, probably one of the best servers I have ever encountered, anywhere, and her name is Stephani.  She was not just a great server, she went well above and beyond her duties.  She was warm, engaging, knowledgeable, and funny.  If you ever dine at ilili, I highly recommend requesting her section.  

While looking over the very large menu, a complimentary plate of labneh (strained yogurt with the whey removed) is brought out to the table.  The smooth and intensely flavored yogurt is paired with fresh, salty olives, olive oil, cumin, and crisp oven-baked pita chips covered with sesame seeds and sumac.  An incredible start to the meal, this plate will definitely wake your palate for more to come.  

Labneh with Olives, and Oven-Baked Pita

After a lot of help from Stephani navigating the menu, my friend and I decided on sharing a few cold and hot mezze between the two of us.  We started off with the traditional hummus, and ilili offers it five ways.  The original, or topped with pine nuts, sliced jalapenos, lamb, or shrimp.  I'll be honest, I have never seen a hummus paired with proteins before, so I was a little wary of the lamb and shrimp hummus.  My friend and I settled on the jalapeno.  Pureed chickpeas are paired with tahini, lemon, olive oil, garlic, cumin, sumac, and in this case, topped with a generous amount of jalapenos.  The mild heat of the jalapenos complimented the flavor profiles of the hummus perfectly.  

Jalapeno Hummus

The "Moujadara" was then dropped next, and was ordered based on my friend's suggestion.  Green lentils are pureed to a chunky paste, seasoned with salt and lemon, and covered with crispy red onion, chives, and tomatoes.  Although he has seen it traditionally prepared with raisins as well, this was quite easily one of the best vegetarian dishes I have ever tried.   

Green Lentils, Crispy Red Onion, and Tomatoes

Need something to pair it with?  Wait a few more seconds your server will arrive with warm, fresh-baked pita bread.  Don't worry about running out of bread too early.  The service staff is very quick to replace the bread when finished, as well as offer you warm pita if the bread on your table has gone cold.  Being the brown men we are, my friend and I had no problem ripping into the pita and scooping up the mezze with our hands.  Don't be afraid.  Forget the utensils and use your hands.  It makes the eating experience that much more pleasurable.  

Warm, Fresh-Baked Pita

After the first round of cold mezze was cleared, we then moved onto the hot, brought out with four more fresh pieces of pita.  You will definitely be eating a lot of bread throughout the night here.  

The "Warm Eggplant" mezze was vegetarian cooking at its finest.  The fresh eggplant is sliced and roasted until tender.  I was trying hard to distinguish the spice on it, but I think it was roasted with cumin and paprika, although I am not too sure.  A touch of vinegar and slices of green onion finished off the dish.  It was simplistic, and perfect.

Warm Eggplant

The runners then dropped the largest of the hot mezze in the middle of the table.  Behold, ilili's bone marrow. Four huge pieces of bone marrow, pita "pillows", and sour cherry tabbouleh.  It was still not as good as Casa Mono's bone marrow, but this dish comes in a very close second, although it is double the size and the same price.  The idea here was to take a small bite of the pita pillow, scooping the tabbouleh (very, very, very good tabbouleh I may add) into the newly formed pocket, and top it off with a scoop of marrow.  The sweetness of the cherries cut through the fattiness of the marrow, but my friend and I both agreed the only reason this dish fell short of sheer perfection was the fact it needed more salt.  I'm not going to lie, I did take a look around the dining room for a salt shaker at that moment.

Bone Marrow, Pita Pillows, Sour Cherry Tabbouleh

The most whimsical of the mezze was shared last, "Katayef & Veal Bacon".  Katayef are Lebanese pancakes, and as Stephani explained, this dish was Chef Massoud's answer to David Chang.  After visiting Momofuku, Chef Massoud decided he could do a better version of David Chang's steamed buns, and hence, this dish was created.  After tasting both, I do have to give this win to ilili.

Lebanese Pancakes, Veal Bacon, Pickles, and Fig Vinaigrette

The warm pancakes are filled with a generous amount of veal bacon, pickles, hot cherry peppers, and brought all together with a fig vinaigrette.  Don't even look at the picture, just close your eyes and think of those flavors.  You already know how well they will work together.  Now open your eyes, make a reservation at ilili, and try them yourself.

Katayef & Veal Bacon

The last dish that was dropped was a gift from the kitchen.  Hey, it helps if you work in the industry.  It was brought out by ilili's Chef de Cuisine, and his name is Kenny.  After speaking with him for a few minutes my friend and I were incredibly thankful that he sent out the veal sweetbreads as compliments.  Please read carefully, this was the best sweetbread dish I have ever had.

ilili's Veal Sweetbreads with Garlic Whip, Lettuce, and Pickles

I do not know the spice blend that was used in frying the sweetbreads, but these little bites were so intensely flavored and incredible.  On the menu they are written as served with "lettuce cup, garlic whip, and kabiss".  Kabiss is just a Lebanese word for pickle, and in this case it was pickled radish.  I'm not even going to waste my time trying to describe how good they were.  Nothing I say can do this dish justice.  You must try them.

At this point the table was cleared and upsettingly they took away my only half-drank Lebanese beer, Almaza.  Wtf was up with that?  If this was a yelp review I'd drop a star for that!

Even though neither of us really ordered an "entree", we were both pretty full, but decided to go for dessert anyway.  My friend settled on the Lebanese Ice Cream.  Ilili offers four choices, and you can pick three, and in this case it was milk, pistachio, and apricot.

Lebanese Ice Cream

The ice creams were very full-flavored, and had, as we both noticed, an incredible texture.  We found out the secret to creating the texture was that ilili makes use of mastic (also known as Arabic gum) in the preparation. We then learned this is actually a very traditional method in creating Lebanese ice cream.  Learn something new every day.

I settled on the "ilili Candy Bar".  As much as I do not order desserts at restaurants, anyone that knows me well knows I do have an incredibly bad sweet tooth, and sometimes I just need chocolate to satisfy it.  Readers, this dessert is a chocoholic's wet dream.

ilili's Candy Bar

Chocolate kataifi (shredded phyllo dough), pistachios, warm chocolate sauce, and fig caramel.  It is sooooo good.  However, if I had any complaint it is that it has a very intense sweet flavor, and after a few bites you feel your body might slip into a diabetic coma.  But trust me, it's worth it.

On the menu it reads there is a table-side finish of warm chocolate sauce.  I have to admit, the fact that they wrote it on the menu caused me to expect a grand finish where a server places the dessert on the table and chocolate is heated next to you and poured from some exquisite golden pot.  Ok, fine, maybe that's a little over the top, but my imagination gets going sometimes.  This "table-side finish" is nothing more than a runner drizzling a minuscule vessel of chocolate over the top of the dessert, then leaving it on the white tablecloth to drip.  If you've ever dined out with me before, you should know how much that peeves me.  Oh well, just make sure I don't slip into a food coma before paying the check.

I can't believe it took me this many years to finally try out ilili, but I'm glad I did.  It has definitely proven to me it can be a top contender for one of my favorite restaurants in the city.  I will definitely be returning in the near future to try out their grilled meats.  Philippe Massoud, keep doing what you're doing.  Hopefully the NY Times will revisit again soon and grant your cooking more than one star.  You certainly deserve more.

ilili

236 Fifth Avenue

New York, NY 10001