Return
to Restaurant Reviews MenuThe People’s Restaurant
Middle Eastern Food
2829 River Road (Niagara Street)
by Laura McClusky and Mike Niman – Buffalo Gazette
Culinary Arts Critics
The People’s Restaurant has been open for less than a
month, but we’re pretty excited about it.
It’s just what we’ve been clamoring for: delicious healthy and
inexpensive Middle Eastern cuisine. Fantastic! The menu is primarily Lebanese,
with other regional treats available as well.
Actually there are two menus. When
you sit down the waitress will ask if you want the English or the Arabic menu.
Go with the Arabic menu. It’s
bi-lingual with everything listed in both Arabic and English – but the array
of Mid-Eastern is wider.
We tried the Kafta dinner ($4.99) and the Galaba dinner
($4.99). Both were served with pita
bread and a delicious seasoned yellow rice, cooked with tomatoes and an array of
spices such as turmeric. If
you’re not a rice person, the Kafta is available with French Fries, but French
Fries are French Fries no matter where you get them. Try something different!
Kafta is ground rolled lamb seasoned with celery, onion and
a medley of Middle Eastern spices and flame broiled. The waitress described it as a sort of meatloaf, though it
has the complexity of a sausage, minus the skin.
It was the high point of our meal, moist and packed with flavor.
The kafta meat, like all the ground meat served at People’s, is freshly
hand ground daily in their expansive kitchen. Mason, the owner of People’s,
buys entire racks of meat and custom butchers it.
He uses only top quality Halal meat, raised and butchered in accordance
with Islamic kosher law. It makes a difference. Halel meat is tastier and
fresher than meats produced in factory-like agribusiness farms, where they
“grow” chicken instead of “raise” it.
The kafta was served with a side of taboulee, described on
the menu as “parsley salad.” People’s
makes it Lebanese style, light on the grain and heavy on the fresh parsley.
Wonderful. It’s seasoned with fresh squeezed lemon and bits of tomato and
onion. It’s both delicious and
extremely healthy.
Galaba is a spicy Mid-East lamb curry, replete with a small
smattering of potatoes, onions and tomatoes, and the fantastic tang of cinnamon.
It’s served over a generous portion of People’s yellow rice.
The lamb was chewy, which is usually the case with lamb stews, but the
toughness of the meat is offset by the fact that it is wonderfully flavorful and
unique. You can get it mildly spiced or a bit on the hot side. We chose hot and
really enjoyed it.
We also had side orders of Falafel (75 cents) and Sambusa
(75 cents). The sambusa is much
like an Indian samoza, a small deep fried pocket filled with a delicately spiced
ground meat and bean filling. It’s
a nice little appetizer. Falafel is
ground fava beans spiced primarily with cumin, rolled into a ball and
deep-fried. Both were good. Oddly, People’s does not have a falafel sandwich
on the menu, but they have all the ingredients, including tahini (ground sesame
sauce). Everyone at the restaurant
from the wait staff to the owners are extremely friendly and if you ask, I’m
sure they’ll fix you a falafel sandwich – and probably add it to the menu if
you come back again.
People’s is new. They’ve
only been open for a short while and are still working the kinks out of their
service and menu – but the food comes out quickly and is delicious.
They definitely have the most important part of the business down – the
food!
People’s has a homey comfortable feel to it and the food is prepared with home cooked care and freshness. The homey feel comes from the fact that everything is made with care and the kitchen’s poetic rhythm is audible in the dining area.
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