SLCeats: Highlighting the best restaurants in Salt Lake City and Park City
A food blog about restaurants in Park City and Salt Lake City, Utah. Ryan Kendrick's words and photos.
As you may have seen on social media, Guy Fieri and his hit show “Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives” recently passed through Utah, stopping at Hruska’s Kolaches, Proper Burger, and Laziz Kitchen. The Laziz episode airs Friday February 8th, and Laziz is hosting a party to celebrate. Tickets are $45.
From their Facebook Event page:
Laziz Kitchen opened this week. The restaurant, located just off 9th South on Jefferson (next to Jade Market), is the next culinary step for Moudi Sbeity and Derek Kitchen, the brains behind the popular Laziz Foods (specializing in hummus, muhammara, and toum spreads). Moudi and Derek have always strived to be active participants in their communities. Their new Middle Eastern-focused restaurant is their next step to further their community involvement.
Over the years we’ve found ourselves in a unique position of bridging our passion for food with community engagement. Whether it’s advocating for social justice, or our involvement in local political office, or to early mornings with our neighbors at the farmers market, we’re driven by our love for the community. We’ve knocked on doors, talked to strangers, and told our story, and now we invite you into our kitchen – to gather around our table. We hope you feel at home. -Moudi and Derek
The space itself is beautiful. As a side note, I am so thrilled with all of the new restaurants popping up that understand the importance of a cohesive dining experience: atmosphere, service, and food. You need all three, and it seems like many of the newcomers get it.
Back to the space. Nice and open, but not too loud. Beautiful copper chairs provide nice contrast to the white, gold, and green found throughout the space. Servers bustle about in beautiful green aprons. Upon entering, you will be greeted by a small area dedicated to selling middle eastern products as well as some products from our very own local producers. Their small marketplace offers specialty olive oils from the West Bank, unique spice blends such as zaatar, and orange blossom water.
They were busy, but not overwhelmed. Our server was very friendly and very happy to explain different menu items to us.
After seeing some photos online, I knew we had to try the fried cauliflower florets, which arrived perfectly golden and cooked just right. The cauliflower was accompanied by a tahini dressing topped with parsley, which could have used a bit more punch. Lemon juice and maybe a hit of salt would have helped boost it up enough to stand up to the cauliflower. I ended up dipping the cauliflower in some toum (an absolutely wonderful garlic sauce), and it seemed a better match.
Laziz offers many different small plate/appetizer options, including hummus (of course), Baba Ghannouj (eggplant), grilled Halloumi cheese, fries, and an olive and pickle plate, among many other dishes.
Entrees range from hummus wraps to Man’Oushe Zaatar, a stone fired flatbread stuffed with zaatar, olive oil, cucumbers, tomatoes, olives, and mint.
My entree of Shish Tawook ($11) was a very nice portion of chicken, rice, and a basic (and forgettable) tomato, cucumber, and lettuce salad. The chicken was perhaps the best cooked chicken I have ever had–perfectly moist, which just the right amount of char and flavor. The rice was cooked well, but needed something else along with it to make it not so one dimensional. The toum, once again, saved the day. You can order the Shish Tawook as a sandwich as well ($10) if you aren’t interested in the rice and salad. I would go that route next time.
A kafta wrap (beef and parsley skewers with onions, tomatoes, pickles and hummus) also found itself lacking a bit in flavor. When mentioned, the server quickly went and consulted with the kitchen, and brought out a sauce that rounded out the dish very nicely. I’m excited to return to try their Clifford Farm Egg wrap, the Pepper Tajen, as well as some delicious desserts.
Laziz is a fantastic addition to the SLC dining scene. Derek and Moudi have always created deliciously vibrant and flavorful spreads and dips which have been so very popular, and I think with a bit of time, that same focus on bright, contrasting flavors found in their muhammara, for example, will make their way into the dishes offered at Laziz Kitchen as well.
Laziz Kitchen
Tuesday through Friday 8am-6pm
Saturday through Sunday 9am-4pm
912 South Jefferson Street, Salt Lake City
(801) 441-1228
SLCeats: Highlighting the best restaurants in Salt Lake City and Park City 