THIS RESTAURANT IS CLOSED Tabouleh

THIS RESTAURANT IS CLOSED Tabouleh Restaurant Review:

It has taken Westerners some time to embrace the rich, comforting flavors of Lebanese cooking, or so it seems. And though this gentle cuisine lacks the bold dash of, say, Thai cooking, it offers an array of healthful options often lapped with thick yogurt and sprinkled with abundant chopped parsley. We delight in finding a Lebanese option as far afield from D.C. as Gaithersburg's Kentlands development, where along its main street, strollers can drop into this unadorned eatery for a platter of lamb kabobs served on rice or a chicken shwarma sandwich. We found the former far more appealing, and the latter, with the chicken overcooked and the sesame dressing far too skimpy. Starters are better choices---make a meal of these, we suggest---and we can recommend the kibbeh, nuggets of seasoned ground beef wrapped up with cracked wheat, and the falafel, deep-fried patties made from ground fava beans. Desserts are the best bet here, though the waiter admitted that none of the pastries were made in-house. Never mind: the unusual knafe, a semolina cake baked with cheese and sweetened with a sugar syrup, is outstanding.