My friend, Henster, was in town and we caught up over dinner at Lala Rokh on Beacon Hill. Boston has a lot of fantastic high-end french, italian, contemporary american, and steak restaurants. But there's always been a dearth of the more, what the locals would consider "exotic" international cuisine, when one is looking for fine dining options. Henster has always been an adventurous foodie, so I knew she was up for this.
Lala Rokh is situated just behind the MA State House, on the corner of Charles and Mt Vernon. Self parking is tricky in Beacon Hill but valet parking is available. From the outside, Lala Rokh looks like a small neighborhood cafe. I was a few minutes early so I decided to have a drink at the small bar. The restaurant has a tiny but full wine bar, offering a menu of Persian cocktails in addition to the standard offerings. The section on Persian martinis and champagne cocktails caught my eye. I just completed a 4 mi run before getting ready for dinner so I knew i wanted something refreshing and light. I decided to try the Hafez- prosecco and peach liqueur combo. It was indeed very refreshing, a lighter version of a bellini. I could probably serve this if ever I have friends over for brunch.
The staff was friendly but also very proper and polite, as one would expect from a neighborhood restaurant on Beacon Hill. Henster joined me for a drink at the bar and unlike other restaurants, they waited for us to finish our drink (at our own pace). That was one of the nice things I noticed about this place, no one hovered and rushed you to decide on your drink and your dining options- which surprisingly still happens in a lot of these so called high end places. The place was surprisingly not full (maybe just 75% to 80% of capacity) on a Friday night. (sign of the times?)
The second thing I noticed was the wine cellar, which was located in between the main dining room and the smaller private dining room. One can't help but be impressed with a restaurant that has a well stocked wine cellar.
Third, lala Rokh may look very small from the outside. It is in the basement of an old mansion. But inside, it's huge. There are probably 3-4 dining areas. The decor (yellow) and ambiance (dark carpets and small tapestries and paintings sparingly hanged on the wall) reminded me a lot of a family restaurant that I tried with some colleagues in Kuwait, many years ago. I suspect it is a cultural thing. Perhaps middle eastern and arab culture are not big on open seating, so the more traditional restaurants have small individual family-style dining rooms for their patrons.
I already mentioned that the wait staff was very polite, formal but friendly- no airs nor pretensions whatsoever. We were seated in one of the smaller private function rooms. There were 2 families, a gay couple on a date (i spoke to one of the guys in the bar while he was nervously waiting for his date who was late), as well as, group of girls in their mid to late 20s getting ready for a night out in the city. It was an eclectic crowd, but definitely no business diners that night.
The food was heavenly! If you love mediterranean and middle eastern cuisine, you will enjoy dining at Lala Rokh. I ordered something from the restaurant week menu. But next time, I will probably round up a big group and organize a family-style dinner here. Mediterranean, arab and north african food, I believe, is best enjoyed with a large group of friends and family, family style.
While we were waiting for our appetizers, the server brought us the breadbasket (hard, plain tasting bread) and a white fava bean hummus. I found the hummus a tad too salty for my taste. I would have preferred it if it had more lemon, tahini, and garlic.
For appetizers, I had the Mirza ghasemi- grilled eggplant dish that was cooked with , garlic, tomatoes, eggs, and spices and garnished with local yogurt. (I remembered tasting a similar dish at a Turkish restaurant in Singapore). I could taste the delicate blend of the roasted eggplant, the sweet tanginess of the fresh tomatoes, blend of spices (cumin, saffron, cardamon, paprika, salt and pepper?). Adding the cucumber-yogurt as a topping was a fantastic way to balance out the tanginess of the tomatoes and spices. We ate this with Persian bread, which i decided i don't really like- it was too hard and tasteless for me. Pita would probably be a better match for this dish. Hensters ordered the same appetizer and she loved it! We commented on how much it reminded us of the little turkish hole in the wall we (and our friends) in singapore frequented.
For my entree- I had the swordfish shish kebab with a small green salad. It was delicious- nice delicate blend of lemon, garlic, and spices- but perhaps a tad overcooked, and therefore hard. Henster gave me a bite of the Ghormeh Sabzi (persian beef stew) and that was tender meat-off-the-bone and melt -in-your-mouth good! I would have gone for this or the lamb dish but I already had braised ribs for dinner at BanQ the other night, hence, i decided to give the seafood a try.
Dessert was cardamon ice cream. YUM! YUM! YUM!
The bottle of a 2007 Paso Robles Viognier was the perfect pair to the mirza ghasemi or just on its own! I would have preferred a nice claret to go with Henster's ribs (but she's allergic to reds) and a crisper sauvignonc blanc or chenin blanc to go with my swordfish kebab.
Towards the end of the evening, Henster and I were laughing at how ridiculously spoiled our lives have been and how often we take it for granted. New York, Boston, Singapore, Penang, Hong Kong, and even Kota Kinabalu...Not a lot of people can claim to have hang out and dined with friends at all of those places during the course of ones friendship. We also laughed at how the topics never changed despite the variations in locales- career, relationships, our parents, and men. LOL!
