Today was my son's pick, and I was excited that he was picking some place pretty interesting which we had visited just over a year ago, The Vine Mediterranean Cafe and Market in South Grand. As usual, it is hit and miss to find much parking on Grand itself, so my wife dropped us off while she went to look for a parking spot. Since last December when we visited they have shrunken the "market" side of their space to add more seating for diners, and we were seated at the same table where we were last time, in the larger dining area on the Southern half of their building next to Wei Hong.
Their menu has not changed much from our last visit, but this time we knew better what to order. My son ordered the chicken and beef Shawarma sandwich, his older sibling ordered the beef Shawarma sandwich and their friend ordered the Shish Kafka sandwich, all with fries. My mother-in-law again ordered the chicken kabob entree, my wife ordered the Beef Kabob entree (both with Fatoush salads and fries) and I ordered the Beef Shawarma entree. This time I knew to order it with the lentil soup and the rice! The service was quite prompt and we soon received our salads and my soup along with a generous basket of fresh baked pita bread.
My lentil soup was delicious and made an excellent dip for the pita bread. The lentils were all pureed and the soup was well spiced without being fiery hot. Everybody wanted to dip their pita bread in my soup. Luckily there was plenty of pita bread and they even replenished the basket once it was empty. The soup and bread could be a meal in itself.
Luckily I did not stuff myself with the lentil soup and pita bread since my Beef Shawarma entree was rather enormous. The beef was well flavored and lightly grilled and went very well with the flavored rice. Unlike our last visit, there were no bright red pickles, just normal green dill pickles and pepperoncini served on the side. They made nice accents for the beef and rice, as did the white tahini sauce.
My wife's Beef Kabob meat was again grilled to perfection and tender and not fatty at all. The fries were again nothing too exciting, and most everybody left some behind. Their pita bread is much better than the fries so why not eat that instead?
The food was again very high quality, with generous portions and reasonably priced as well. The service was responsive and polite, and they even have Diet Dr. Pepper in cans! So all in all, The Vine is a great place to find a satisfying meal in the South Grand neighborhood. We definitely need to try more places in the area. When we found our car, it was parked right in front of Pho Grand, after we had walked right by Wei Hong, the Tree House, the Basil Spice Thai restaurant and the Baida Moroccan restaurant. So many restaurants, so little time!!
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