Zikrayet - Lebanese Restaurant and Lounge, Eisenhower Avenue, Alexandria

[Kibbee Nayee]

It's about time we had a topic dedicated to Zikrayet, which means "memories" in Arabic, and might be appropriately named. After all, the Washington Post restaurant critic recently broke his apparent disposition against Lebanese restaurants by reviewing Zenola in Vienna, and by my memory that was a first for him. So why not dip into a few others? The Washington DC area is slowly becoming one of the hot dining scenes for Lebanese fare, and there are many more to sample....let's start building some memories.

Zikrayet was a by-chance opportunity on a Sunday afternoon, and I can't say I did much more than give it a minor sampling. I had the kibbeh nayyeh for lunch (pictured), and I also took home a mezze sampler and an order of kibbeh balls. All of these were very good.

Let's start with the venue, which is spacious. I counted about 100 seats inside and at least 50 on the front patio. The waitress told me they get a good crowd on weekends for live music. Yesterday's band was from Iraq, last week's was from Lebanon, and so forth. The fact that hookah was available tells me that the clientele skews youthful. The staff, on a sleepy Sunday afternoon, paid more attention to each other than to the single customer, but that tracks with my observations of Middle Eastern hookah lounges. I'm sure they step it up a bit during the rush.

From the pictures, note that the seating is pleasantly uncrowded, and the bar is moderately stocked. I didn't see any arak, but that might have been my oversight. I noticed that al-Massaya wine is on the menu, along with a good selection of other Lebanese wines, and al-Massaya makes the best arak I've ever enjoyed. Next time, I'll make sure to seek out the arak, but that might require an Uber ride.

The staff confirmed that the chef is from Beirut, and the pictured kibbeh nayyeh was about as good as kibbeh nayyeh gets. Far more lamb than burgol, nicely seasoned but not overly so, and accompanied by fresh garnishes like toum (garlic paste), mint, sweet onions, jalapeños, and bread. Slight downgrade on the bread because it wasn't hot out of the oven like other restaurants, but it was fine. A few olives and pickled turnips would have also been nice, but were not served.

Having not visited them all yet, but based on reputation I'm assuming that Zenola, Albi, and maybe Ilili would join Me Jana at the top of our list of local Lebanese restaurants, but Zikrayet might not be far behind these places. I'll work my way selectively through the list and let you know.

[Bart]

Thanks for the legwork KN but why do these places always seem to only have vegetarian grape leaves!?!?!  Can I get some lamb over here, please?!?!  😃

[Kibbee Nayee]

1 hour ago, Bart said:

Thanks for the legwork KN but why do these places always seem to only have vegetarian grape leaves!?!?!  Can I get some lamb over here, please?!?!  😃

Some do and some don't. I usually find it as a special or as a dish that can be ordered a day or two ahead. It's labor intensive to roll those leaves, but it's no less labor intensive than making the vegetarian grape leaves. It's just that the meat stuffing is only good for a day or two but the vegetarian stuffing can last for up to a week in cold storage. Then again, the meat-stuffed leaves can be frozen, so I get your point.

A few places, like Ilili downtown, offer meat-stuffed grape leaves.