Best of Tucson 1996: Best Middle Eastern

Best Middle Eastern

Tork's Café
1701 N. Country Club Road

READERS' PICK: They've done it again! Proprietors Khalifa and Monica Turki make any meal at Tork's Café, 1701 N. Country Club Road, a pleasure from start to finish, with quality Middle Eastern fare, warm hospitality and trenchant conviviality. With only 15 chairs, vegetarians and meat eaters alike vie for space to dine on the Tork cuisine. Scooping up hummus or baba ghanoush with Tork's pita bread is a great way to get started, and we recommend following that up with the most delicious falafel we've ever tasted: small patties of mashed fava beans, lots of fresh parsley, garlic and bulgur wheat slipped inside a pita or savored on the side. One finicky 4-year-old we know eats nowhere as readily as she does here. No less than once a week she's there chowing down on the specialty of the house at Tork's--sambusas (rice, onions, fava beans in flaky pastry shells)--with hummus and pita on the side. Take note: Within a matter of weeks, Tork's Too-International Food Market and Deli will be opening at 3506 E. Grant Road. Praise Allah!

READERS' POLL RUNNER-UP: The dining traditions of Western civilization got their start among the ancient Mediterranean cultures. Look it up if you don't believe us. And while modern American eating habits are a far cry from those of the ancient Greeks and Romans, they're not necessarily better--hey, give us quail eggs over a Snicker's bar any day! Little wonder then that cuisines of today's Mediterranean region are far more flavorful and healthy than our upstart American diet, according to experts both gustatory and medicinal. Which is why we like Le Mediterranean, 4955 N. Sabino Canyon Road. It features an exotic-sounding menu that translates into palate-pleasing, heart-healthy meals. And the service is friendly--they happily explain the finer points of their fine food to us New World newcomers.

STAFF PICK: Sindbad's--or Sinbad's, as some of its signs read--is a tiny eatery in the Geronimo complex (806 E. University Blvd.), close to the university and its sizable contingent of students from the Middle East. Sindbad's more than rises to the occasion of having to please such a knowledgeable clientele, offering regional delicacies like shawerma (the Arabic version of gyros), falafel, hummus, shiesh tawooq, and tabouleh in hefty portions. The best deal here is lunch, with a five-item combo plate for under $5. Never mind that you-get-what-you-pay-for bunk: Everything in this humble house of hummus is fresh and well-made.