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Gazala Place

New York, New York, United States

Gazala Place, named after Chef Halabi Gazala, is a Druse restaurant located in the Hells Kitchen area of New York City. They offer typical middle eastern cuisine at reasonable prices. Everything we had was pretty good.

Dress

Quite casual

Cost

Most items are very affordable. Entrees are around $15, and appetizers are mostly around $5.

Items Ordered

Burekas

The Burekas were quite large - they were the size of a big bagel. They were available in two flavors - goat cheese and spinach, or goat cheese and tomato.

The pastry was excellent - it was buttery, flaky, and delicious. I felt that there was too much goat cheese, and the burek was too salty. I still enjoyed it, though.

I thought the $9.50 price tag was strange... everything else at Gazala Place was very reasonably priced. $9.50 for a bureka seemed like a lot for such a simple appetizer.

Cegar and Babaganush

Cegar: Rolled pita shell stuffed with meat, onion, and spices. Babaganush: Mashed charcoal grill eggplant with tahini sauce

The cegar was a neat appetizer - the pita rolls were hard, and possibly fried. There was a small amount of meat and onion inside. They were quite tasty. The appetizer comes with six of the little cigars.

The babaganush was pretty typical blended eggplant. It didn't come with anything, but was good for dipping with the free pita.

Pita and a Salad

Our table also received some "pitas" and a salad. The pitas were Druse style - it is a very, very thin dough. It's almost like a crepe, but not as sturdy. It is very thin, and mostly tasteless. It's not as easy to maneuver as a pita - it's difficult to stuff things in it, or roll it without it ripping.

The salad was very good. It was a sweet fruit salad, with pomegranate and cabbage.

Chicken Kabab

Tender chunks of chicken flame broiled on the grill. Served with rice and home salad

The chicken kabab was a pretty typical chicken kabab. I really enjoyed the combination of spices on it. It was served with rice and a salad (which we received earlier in the meal).

Lamb Kabab

Tender chunks of lamb flame broiled on the grill. Served with rice and home salad.

The lamb kebab was identical to the chicken kabab, except there was lamb instead of chicken.

The lamb was very flavorful, but it was quite tough. It required a fair bit of effort to cut it into bite-sized pieces.