14443 1/2 VENTURA BLVD. SHERMAN OAKS, CA 91423
818-789-0991
14443-12 Ventura Blvd, Sherman Oaks, CA 91423
Dinner, Lunch Specials, Mediterranean, Wraps
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Alcazar Fresh Mediterranean Food, slated to open by April 2014, will offer the same award winning food as the well-known original Alcazar of Encino, Ca. With 13 plus years of experience they have moved on to a new endeavor, refreshing its identity as a Mediterranean fast food restaurant, where everything is fresh, fast and fine.
Since its first start in 2000, Alcazar has become Los Angeles’ top Mediterranean/Lebanese restaurant, earning both popular & critical acclaim for its high standards.
During its 13 year tenure, Alcazar has been featured twice in 2008 & 2009, by Pulitzer winning food critic Jonathan Gold’s L.A.’s 100 best & 30 best restaurants, & is the only Mediterranean/Lebanese Restaurant in the U.S. rated by MICHELIN in 2009, as well as ZAGAT in 2012 & 2013. Not to be forgotten, Alcazar’s Hummus was rated #1 in a 30 restaurant survey by the Los Angeles Times, in a Sept. 2006 issue.
Alcazar Fresh Mediterranean food will continue to define authentic Mediterranean/Lebanese specialties by combining fine dining qualities and providing Fresh fast food.
The menu will be basic (Hummus, Falafel, Shawarma, Kebabs, Salads, etc….) & simple enough where you can customize your own meal, whether it’s a plate, a salad or a wrap with our fresh baked pita or sajj bread. You can order for sit down, take out, or delivery. We also offer catering menu for groups, events, luncheons & parties…
What separates the Alcazar brand name from the competition is our commitment to not take any shortcuts in the food preparation process.
We do not use canned products; all food is prepared from scratch using fresh & high quality ingredients.
We use choice grade Beef & fresh chicken breast only.
We trim, cut & grind all our meat & chicken.
We only use freshly squeezed lemon juice & extra virgin Lebanese Koura olive oil in our salad dressings.
WE BAKE ALL OUR OWN BREAD BOTH PITA AND SAJJ FRESH ON THE SPOT!
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Alcazar = Fresh, Fine, Fast ... no shortcuts
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Going to Alcazar with fewer than three dining companions can be frustrating. Sure, even if it's just two of you, you'll eat well at this popular six-year-old Lebanese restaurant in Encino. But Alcazar's huge menu, with more than four dozen mezzas (appetizer-size small plates) and a lengthy list of salads, soups, and main courses, offers so many delights that it's far more satisfying to go with a group of eager eaters.
For starters, you can't pass up the silken hummus or unctuous baba ghanoush; they're perfect for smearing on pita bread while perusing the menu. Since you'll probably want other cold appetizers, consider the vegetarian plate, which for $10.95 offers both of the above plus stuffed grape leaves, crisp-fried falafel, and zesty tabbouleh.
But here's where things can get out of hands, because no restaurant I know makes muhammara - the Middle Eastern pesto of walnuts, roasted red pepper, pomegranate paste, and spices- as intensely flavored as Alcazar's. And then you'll want the idea counterpoint, a dish of labneh bi toum, which tastes like mild yogurt whipped with clotted cream, garlic, and mint.
The Choices are no easier when it comes to the main courses. you'll want the quartet of marinated broiled lamb chops, which arrive nestled under wedges of antakali bread, wafer-thin with a filling of onion, pepper paste, herbs, and spices. There are other temptations, too, particularly the combination kabobs: skewers of beef filet, lula (spiced ground beef), and shish tawook (chicken breast) served with a ramekin of aromatic garlic sauce. As a side dish, don't miss the firik (toasted bulgur), a chewy, savory wheat grain that is perfect complement to this food.
And then there are a dozen desserts- exotic sweets flavored with rosewater, honey, nuts, and cinnamon- but I must confess I've never been with a group large enough or hungry enough to stay the course.
-Jean T. Barrett
Westways January/February 2007
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When it's pretty late at night, and you are half-woozy on arak and secondhand hookah smoke, and the fried mullet in front of you has long since been transformed into skeletons yet you can't resist swabbing bits of fried pita around the plate, hoping to pick up a stray puddle of tahini sauce — at these times, it is possible to persuade yourself that Alcazar may be the best restaurant in this part of Encino. The band stops playing. You can hear tiny crickets singing all along the patio. Life is good.
Los Angeles has a pretty good community of Middle Eastern restaurants, but there is no place quite like Alcazar, with its salad made with the wild thyme called za'taar; a half-dozen kinds of hummus; pungent shanklish cheese chopped into a salad; and a definitive version of sautéed chicken livers with fresh pomegranate seeds. Alcazar is one of the finest Middle Eastern kitchens in Los Angeles. The cooks are Egyptian and Lebanese, but the owner, a well-known Armenian crooner who sometimes sings here on weekends, is not above insisting on putting Armenian-style kibbe nayeh on his menus, to go along with the chicken kebabs, stuffed grape leaves and superbly crunchy boreg.
- Jonathan Gold
LAWeekly restaurants, Thursday, Nov 10 2011
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Alcazar is a slice of coastal Lebanon transplanted to the heart of Encino, a sun-dappled terrace perfumed with cumin, grilled mullet and the bright coals of apple-scented tobacco burning in brass hookahs. The cooks may be Arab, but the owner, a well-known Armenian crooner who sometimes sings here on weekends, is not above insisting that the chile-red Armenian version of hummus and the fluffy raw-beef dish kibbe nayeh share space on the menu with more traditionally Lebanese things like fried sea bass with fried pita and tahini; stuffed grape leaves and a wonderful dish of sautéed chicken livers with pomegranate. The shish towook, grilled kebabs of extravagantly marinated chicken breast, is as good as a kebab ever gets. On weekends, ultrathin sajj bread, like lavash, is baked on the patio over a vast heated surface, wrapped around grilled meat or made into the thin, crisp, thyme-scented Arab quesadillas called kl’leg.