This week in Dish, we take a look at two Mediterranean restaurants, Anatolia in Boca Raton and Al Bawadi in Plantation. Both feature a take on Med-style eats like hummus and falafel, but Anatolia's menu ventures a bit further into Turkish pizzas, grilled seafood, and a litany of hot and cold appetizers. Conversely, Al Bawadi's more straightforward approach yields a menu with fewer surprises, but what is there is executed wonderfully. Here's an excerpt from the review:
What a feast thirty bucks and a little open-mindedness will net you at Al Bawadi. Among the litany of small plates was kibbeh, fried balls of bulgur and beef that look like oblong eggs served with a salad of mint and parsley-flecked tabbouleh. A huge mound of baba gannouj, smooth as creamy peanut butter, begged to be dipped into with a basket of warm pita bread. We swiped up the roasted eggplant dip and worked in bits of tomato-cucumber salad to make miniature wraps, sometimes adding bits of ground lamb kofta that was presented in long, juicy spears. The only thing more expansive than the three other types of chicken and beef kebabs, almond-flecked rice pilaf, and warm, stuffed grape leaves was the very real and imposing challenge of trying to eat all of what was presented to us. Still, we tried mightily, pausing only to laugh at the two children spilling through the restaurant's tables as their parents (one of two other tables present) struggled to eat in peace.Check out the full review tomorrow in Dish.
