Cheap Eats 2011: Hush Hush Cafe

This Palestinian-owned corner bistro has an entryway every bit as quiet as its name, its view blocked from the sidewalk by a broad support pillar. The decor is also unremarkable—colorful but Spartan, and a bit cramped during busy hours. The food, however, makes Hush Hush one of the best Middle Eastern lunch spots in a downtown already packed with Lebanese options. The lamb and chicken shawarma plates ($7.50), tender-cooked and thickly sauced over basmati rice, are probably their best-loved items; the falafel, also, is crisp on the outside, flaky on the inside, just on the right side of moist. It's the bread, though, that takes the proverbial cake; you can watch the cooks roll out their unleavened wares from scratch, if you want to make the kitchen nervous. Accordingly, I favor the pita wraps ($5.25-$6.50) and especially the sfiha ($6), a personal-size pizza topped modestly with lamb, onions, tomato and "secret spices" that (to this palate) seem to involve a healthy dose of coriander and cumin. Thick, flattened dough, soft but firm, forms the base; it is a foundation I would build nations upon.

WWeek 2015

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