Taste In Mediterranean Food
1199 Broadway, Burlingame, CA
http://www.tasteinbroadway.com/ 
Review date: October 2013

Carlos and I needed to consult his mom's tax advisor in Foster City, so we decided to see if there were any interesting South Bay restaurants we could try. Inez is out of town so we had more freedom to pick someplace unusual.

Although Carlos likes to say that he doesn't care for Mediterranean cooking, there are certain dishes he adores from the region – which is a very big one, touching as it does not just Italy and Greece but also Spain, Lebanon, Tunisia, Morocco and Turkey. The latter cuisines he likes very much. When I checked out the menu of this part-deli, part-restaurant, I decided to choose it for lunch.

Downtown Burlingame is noticeably less crowded than San Mateo's central district, although you can get from one to the other in less than 10 minutes by car. We parked on a quiet side street and walked into this tiny shop.

There's two big display cases set at right angles to one another, shielding the open kitchen which is a whirlwind of activity. Like all delis, you pick up a menu, read it (preferably without standing in the way of the cognoscenti who already know what their usual order is going to be) and wait patiently in line at the cash register. There's a small refrigerator case opposite the register which holds a modest assortment of sodas and water. 

An older man takes down your order – and yes, his English is very good but the place is noisy, so do point on the menu to what you want, just to be on the safe side. They take credit cards, which is helpful; then ring up the sale and hand you a numbered stand. You find a seat – most of the tables are four-tops, but can be split into two-tops – and wait for them to bring your food, which they do with brisk efficiency.

If you're like us, you'll order way too much. The Yelpers who guided us here raved about the smoked eggplant dip (babaganoush), but I was lured by the potato-vegetables latkes, being very fond of the Turkish mucver and hoping they were similar. Carlos and I ordered separate platters, and that was a mistake. One platter would have been enough for both of us, because these are very generous plates. 

I also ordered a side of the cacik, that luscious thick yoghurt/cucumber dip. It comes with a tiny side of small housemade pita chips. We will warn you now that tortilla chips are nothing compared to Taste In's pita chips. These crispy chippies are seductively addictive and possibly habit-forming!

The cacik is beautifully presented in a bowl, with alternating slices of cucumber and fried pita chips set on top like numbers on a clockface. In the middle is a drizzle of olive oil and a single unpitted black olive. The yoghurt dip is very fine, and we both heartily approved of it, whether by itself or with any of the foods we ordered.

Despite the Yelpers' recommendation I didn't order the babaganoush as a side. But as it turned out, a dollop of it is served with the latkes. The latkes turned out to be heftier than I expected: over-browned, 3/4"-thick patties, good but a little greasy, not exceptional by themselves. But smeared with that babaganoush and the cacik, every bite was heavenly. 

I've eaten babaganoush at many restaurants – I love eggplant – but this is possibly the best version I've ever encountered. It is smooth and very smoky from the eggplant being properly grilled first. Whether you eat it with the latkes, or with the pita chips, or with the raw cabbage slaw it sits atop, or the cacik or....well, pretty much anything and everything could be improved by Taste In's babaganoush. Even Carlos found it exceptional, and he is not usually a puréed eggplant fan.

Although the latkes are listed as an appetizer, with two patties (each cut in half) for a modest $5.99, it's a substantial plate big enough to serve as a vegetarian entrée. There's a modest amount of raw cabbage slaw topped with that amazing babaganoush, and if someone is willing to share the cacik yoghurt dip with you, it's a perfect cheap vegetarian lunch. I liked the latkes more than Carlos did, as I expected.

Taste In offers not one, but three daily soups. Carlos opted for the one he was least familiar with: pounded rice and green onions in broth. He got a cup of what could best be described as Turkish congee. Outside of the odd sweet spice it was dusted with – which might have been allspice, we think – the taste was very good. Carlos likes congee so he was fine with this. They also offered a red lentil soup, which would have been my choice if I were picking a soup.

Watching the generously filled plates go by, I wisely put one of the latkes to the side to take home as leftovers. Carlos finished all his soup, and we had already wiped out a third of the cacik when the platters arrived.

The #1 Mixed Grilled Kabob Platter has lamb, chicken and kefta (aka kofta, the lamb-beef ground meat mixture) kebabs with grilled tomatoes, onions and peppers over saffron rice, drizzled with a dark tasty housemade garlic sauce. The lamb was good but the chicken and kefta, as is often the case, were overcooked. All the platters come with a side of hummus, raw salad, and a small order of fresh warm pita wedges. 

Fortunately, we had all that lovely yoghurt dip. The rice was soft, which we loved, and the slightly overdone chicken and kefta were fine when lavishly anointed with sufficient cacik. The lamb kebab was good, but was overshadowed by the lamb chop platter, below.

The salad was more of that cabbage slaw, but there was the addition of a slight touch of fresh mint. Carlos doesn't always care for mint, but he really liked this slaw, and so did I. The hummus was very good, full of lemon flavor but well balanced. 

I had ordered the #19, lamb chop platter. Three small porterhouse chops were cooked a lovely medium pink, and the flavor was slightly different from the lamb kebab. Both of us just took a single bite from the chops to compare it to the kebab meat, then we set them aside to bring home. We both agreed the chops are preferable to the kebabs.

I had the same rice, hummus, and slaw, but to my surprise, my rice was topped with a dollop of the Mediterranean eggplant stew, which is available separately. This has a lovely depth from the grilled eggplant, which dissolves in the cooking to flavor the tomatoes, well-caramelized onions, and small red beans (like miniature kidney beans, but lighter in color). Except for a slight overload of sliced green peppers which I fished out; just the rice, hummus, slaw and eggplant stew were lovely together, especially with a few dollops of the yoghurt dip.

There aren't many cuisines where Carlos and I love the vegetarian dishes so much we could easily skip the meat. Taste In's food, however, is definitely one of them. The vegetarian dishes and sides we tried were varied and exceptionally tasty. Interestingly, they don't use a lot of salt here, but everything is well-flavored despite that.

We ended up with so much to bring home, I didn't have to make dinner that evening and we finished off the leftovers.

Taste In had a marvelous array of desserts. They had eight different kinds of baklava, with your choice of walnut, pistachios, or cashews; with or without rose syrup. There were at least four different nut-topped single-layer cakes, halvah, and two kinds of pudding (rice or halvah). They had knefe, the Lebanese cheesecake with a bottom and top crust of filo shreds, rarely seen on our side of Alameda County.

Unfortunately, we were so full we couldn't try any of them. But we will definitely return, and get an assortment to try. Carlos is enthusiastic about the idea of coming over to have a burger at Vault 164/San Mateo, and then zipping up the 101 freeway to Burlingame to Taste In, to fill up a cooler with their various offerings for dinner at home!

We really enjoyed Taste In Mediterranean Food, and wish we had them closer to our home. It's a small, plain, simple deli that morphed into a bare-bones restaurant. But they care about what they serve, and that little extra bit of caring sets them apart from most of the Middle Eastern delis we've been to. Their vegetarian dishes sound yummy – I definitely want to try the Cauliflower Stew with garbanzo beans, garlic and onion. 

It would be nice if they didn't overcook their meats – although with the super-salmonella strains that seem to be evolving, that's a forlorn hope. But those fabulous dips are worth the drive across the San Mateo-Hayward bridge and the mess that 101 and 880 always are...and we don't say that lightly. For that cacik and babaganoush, along with that rice and the eggplant stew? Yeah, I'll drive 75 miles round-trip a couple of times a year. Yum!

Two people, lunch – but it was enough to feed four: one cup soup, one appetizer dip, one appetizer plate, two platters, two beverages, was around $48. Stick a few dollars in the jar by the cash register if you want to leave them a tip, which they richly deserve.