After Tuesday’s lunch disaster in Chicago Michael and I scouted out the dinner options near our hotel. Again this is not the ideal area to eat in but through my various searches on Chowhound the restaurant, Sayat Nova, kept popping up. Michael and I like to stay close to our routes and on that night our hotel, so we made our way over.

The nice thing about eating three meals a day is you don’t have eat as much as you can at each meal. As bad as lunch was we were not starving at dinner time so we ordered three appetizers and shared an entree. The restaurant itself was dark and definitely more romantic than Michael and I needed at this stage of our relationship. Not that this was a negative thing.

The three appetizers we ordered were Labneh Cheese, Hummus, and Lamajoun. The Labneh and Hummus were pretty standard. They came with a side of warm pita which tasted store bought. Store bought pita is a real shame because there is no fluffiness to it. It would be better just to cook the pita like a pita chip if you are going to use store bought pita. Some of the best pita I have ever tasted is at Papas Tavernas in Petaluma, California and oddly enough they ship it in from Chicago everyday. You would think Sayat Nova would have got the message.

If you were wondering what Lamajoun was Sayat Nova described it on the menu as baked Amernian thin crust pizza. Inside the “pizza” was ground lamb, minced onions, pepper, tomatoes, and spices.  The Lamajoun sounds great on paper and coming out of your mouth but was too dry. Michael made a bold move and dipped the Lamajoun into the Labneh and instantly a classic appetizer combo was born.

For our entree we ordered the Lulla kebab, which was a ground beef and lamb mix. It had a nice spice to it and was not overcooked. I do hate though that all Medditeranean restaurants think the customer wants rice pilaf for there starch. Every time I go to a restaurant like Sayat Nova and get the rice pilaf it is bone dry. To make matters worse grilled meat has no sauce to be absorbed so the rice you eat is just plain rice. A good solution would be to add give a side of tzatziki so you could soak up the rice with it.

Sayat Nova was not remarkable by any means but it was good meal. At this point Chicago was not living up to my expectations but that was also my fault. While we waited for the check Michael and I plotted out the next day of meals because we had some serious ground to cover.