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When I asked for a glass of doogh at Best Bite, a
Persian restaurant on El Camino Real, the waiter asked, "Have you
had it before?"
I assured him I had, and he brought out the drink ($2), a salty,
mint-flavored mix of yogurt and sparkling water. My dining companion
took a sip and got a funny expression on his face: It was, he
explained, completely not what he expected.
Best Bite's doogh is in fact terrifically refreshing, with just the
right amount of salt and mint. But the waiter, knowing that Western
taste buds are used to sweet drinks, took care to make sure I
wouldn't be put off.
It's that kind of attention from the staff that distinguishes Best
Bite. Owner and chef Fred Ghiassi, an Iranian who came here by way
of Germany, said he's found his slice of heaven in Mountain View.
His gratitude is obvious in the attention he and his family members,
who wait tables, pay to diners.
Our waiter, Ghiassi's teenage son, answered all our questions
patiently, and when he didn't know the answer, he trotted out his
dad. And though we lingered at dinner so long we closed the
restaurant, he pulled up a chair and chatted with us about the
family business.
The menu at Best Bite is equally welcoming. Besides the usual
kebabs, it offers stews, gyros, a selection of unusual appetizers
and several specials. There are also plenty of vegetarian options,
including falafel dishes and appetizers, starring eggplant, yogurt
and eggs.
The two eggplant appetizers we tried, meerza ghasemi ($7.99) and
koko bademjan ($6.99), were both very good. Meerza ghasemi is
grilled, chopped eggplant scrambled with an egg, tomato, onion and
spices. It comes out like a sort of pate; we spread it on the lavash
that's served with every meal, adding raw onion. The smokiness from
the grilled eggplant shines in this satisfying-without-being-filling
dish.
Koko bademjan is an eggplant frittata -- salted and fried eggplant
cooked with eggs, onion and garlic -- with an earthy taste and light
texture. It comes with borani (yogurt mixed with sauteed spinach),
and a small salad of lettuce, tomato, onion and cucumber. The
appetizer could easily make a light meal.
The third appetizer we sampled, mast-o-khiar ($3.99), was yogurt
with diced cucumber and mint. I found it overly sour, even when I
added just a dab to my kebabs.
All the kebab dinner meals, which range from $9.99 for the koobideh
(ground meat) to $17.99 for the colbeh special (a kebab medley),
include a mound of buttery basmati rice topped with bright yellow
grains of rice cooked in saffron. They also come with a grilled
tomato, which I found unfortunately anemic, especially for
mid-summer.
A variation on the kebab meals was zereshk polo with boneless joojeh
($13.99): chicken kebabs with a pilaf of dried barberries and
saffron. The barberries are like tart cranberries -- on their own,
they're quite sour, but they balance nicely with the sweet rice and
saffron to make a piquant side dish for the simple grilled chicken.
Of the stews, a customer favorite is gheymeh bademjan ($10.50),
cubes of lean beef, eggplant and lentils in a tomato sauce, served
with basmati rice. Nothing spectacular, it still made for pleasant
comfort food. The stew included a whole sun-dried lime, which
Ghiassi throws in for flavoring. He said some of his customers love
these limes and ask for extra; I took a way-too-large bite and found
it overpoweringly bitter. If you want to try it, take a tiny taste
before you dig in.
The falafel combo ($9.99) was a well-balanced meal of falafel with
tahini, basmati rice, a lettuce salad and shirazi (a chopped salad
of tomato, cucumber and onion in vinaigrette). The falafel had a
chewy texture I liked; on its own, it was a little dry, but the
tahini, rich with paprika, solved the problem. The shirazi salad was
crisp, with the right balance of vinegar, salt and oil.
Best Bite offers weekday lunch specials, selections from the regular
menu offered at a lower price. On Wednesdays, for example, diners
can order the beef and eggplant stew for $8.99, and on Thursdays,
they can try the ground meat kebab for $6.99.
Two of the traditional Persian desserts on the menu are quite
unusual. Faloodeh ($3.99) is a rose-water sorbet that contains small
pieces of cooked rice noodle. The dish was quite subtle and slightly
sweet, with just a hint of rose petals; the noodles added a
chewiness to the sorbet but little flavor. It came served with a
wedge of lemon, which added a refreshing kick. It's an ideal way to
end a meal on a searing day.
Bamieh ($2.50) are small pieces of fried dough soaked in syrup:
These were quite sweet and a little greasy. Our waiter explained
that in Iran, bamieh is served with unsweetened tea -- you take a
small bite, then a sip of tea, and they balance each other.
The best dessert was the classic, baklava ($2.50). A little
pastry-wrapped parcel of ground and spiced nuts, it shone with
coriander, cinnamon, rose water and a drizzle of honey. It was truly
a "best bite," or what the Iranians call a "delicacy."
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