Marouch

🇱🇧 LEBANON / HISTORICAL: Armenian touches on Lebanese meals for over four decades running.

🇱🇧 LEBANON
📍 4905 Santa Monica Blvd.,
East Hollywood, Central Los Angeles.
🅿️ Plaza has a few spots
🥤 Full Bar

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📆 Original Article 17 December 2018

Marouch seems a bit out of place. It does not seem like it belongs in a strip mall of East Hollywood. It does not even seem like it belongs in the current decade. But the shot above is not old, the signs were made probably when it opened in the 1980's, and yes this fairly uninteresting stretch of Santa Monica Blvd is where the place has called home for almost four decades.

Open the door and the place is more expansive than it seems from outside. A bright, renovated, and comfortable dining room is surrounded by walls papered over with the patterns of ancient stones. Parts of the kitchen are open to the room, with spits of rotating meats visible when the restaurant is busy.

The largest selling point of the place is still the feeling of it being the family-owned operation it always has been. A warm welcome is always there.

They seem to do meze really well here, like the mouhamara (above), a combination of bright red Aleppo peppers, crushed walnuts, and olive oil. Fresh bread from their oven comes on its own to every table.

On this occasion the Lebanese kebab shish tawouk (above) was enjoyed immensely, grilled chicken served on a bed of rice and vegetables. Besides the fresh lemonade, try their homemade jallab (below, left), a raisin and grape juice spiked with rose water and honey.

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