And order the shawarma you should. Served with a light garlic sauce and pickles, the meat shawarma is flavorful and lean. But the chicken shawarma is better – it’s so juicy you have to eat the sandwich with a fork, and it’s spiced carefully so as to compliment but not overpower the chicken, making it the best shawarma I’ve had outside of Syria. We were picking at it long after we swore not to eat another bite.
Attention to detail stands out in other dishes as well. The pita bread is fluffy without being doughy, served warm with a plate of tapenade, a spread made of diced green olives and capers. The white pita is good, but the subtle sweetness of the wheat pita made it my favorite – good to the taste buds and the body. The donut shape of the falafels makes them crunchy on the outside and soft, but not soggy, on the inside. Fried pita chips lend a layer of texture and flavor to the hearty lentil soup.
While vegetarians will be happy, meat lovers will be thrilled: the skewers of lamb, chicken, and filet mignon (shish kabob, taouk, and lake, respectively) are tender and lightly spiced, following the owner’s philosophy: keep it fresh, and let the natural flavors of the ingredients shine.
"We have no freezers," boasted Jay Ghamtous, who opened the restaurant in March 2003, "only coolers. Whatever is bought in the morning must be sold." And with good results - the quality of the meat is obvious.
If you order any of the skewers, do splurge for the yogurt drink, which is smoothie-thick and laced with garlic: a better compliment than the basmati rice served with the dinner entrée.
There were some dishes that could have stood more spiced oomph. Both the cheese and spinach dough-wrapped fattayer were too thick and plain. The baba ghannoush looks Syrian: eggplant mixed with diced tomatoes, parsley, and bell pepper, rather than its tahini-dip cousin. But the eggplant is baked rather than fire-roasted, robbing the dish of its lovely smoked flavor and rendering it good but not amazing. The kishkeh, however, touted as Arab cream cheese with diced walnut and mint, and the hummus were refreshingly good sides.
For dessert, the restaurant serves baklawa imported by Samiramis, a favorite pastry company in the Arab world.
The prices at Sham are reasonable for a nice sit-down dinner. Curiously, the restaurant doesn’t fill up until after 8pm with a general demographic of young American professionals, though how they picked up this back-home habit is beyond me. You might even catch the owner chatting up the tables.
Not bad for a flooring contractor who opened the restaurant as a hobby, out of a love of his culture and to undo the "stereotype of greasy, over-spiced" Arab cooking.
Be aware that while the restaurant does not serve alcohol, it does allow patrons to bring their own. If you can get past that and parking, Sham Restaurant brings the tasty flavors of Syria to Los Angeles.
