Cuisine at the new Jamjar worth sharing
It can be a bit of a squeeze at their new South Granville location
There was a time a song of the sirens lured diners to wonderful Indian food on West 11th Avenue. That’s when Vij’s and Rangoli were attached at the hip, in a side-by-side operation.
After Vij’s moved on to Cambie Street, the music changed. Rangoli moved into the larger Vij’s space, ramping up its allure as I described in a story last month. And Jamjar moved into the old Rangoli and now it’s Indian and Lebanese food, side by side. And what’s not to like about diversity?
It’s Jamjar’s second location, run by Fadi Eid. The first one, on Commercial Drive, has been busy since opening in 2014. (The name refers to a Lebanese custom of sharing jam with friends and neighbours.) At this new location, you’ll find a few more dishes thanks to a larger kitchen that, by the way, takes up a lot of real estate. It’s plunk in the middle and tables loop around it in an L-shape. One side is so narrow that servers and patrons squeeze between tables, and sometimes diners must face a server’s bum attending to patrons on the other side. The bench seating on one side of some tables is higher than the chairs on the other, and I found myself in the unusual position of peering down at my husband, who’s taller than me by almost a foot. This side of the “L" is not a relaxing place to be.
The room is a pastiche of contemporary and rustic with barn doors, wooden industrial window panes enveloping the kitchen, concrete floors, a cool modern reception desk left from Rangoli and a front entry door floating in glass. In short, I’m partial to the lived-in feel of the Commercial Drive space where the kitchen is open and the roomy is cohesive.
Dishes are categorized as cold meze and hot meze and most are for sharing. Most cost an average of $10 to $15. You can order a sharing platter for two, which would run $41 or $65 if you prefer.
My meal came with pluses and minuses. Jamjar’s hummus is good and they’ve been selling it retail (in jars), along with eggplant, pepper, spinach and garlic dips. The retail section will be expanding at this location. Right now, you can buy beef kibbeh, Lebanon’s national dish, a lamb and bulgur wheat pie with the seven spices that characterizes Lebanese food — cumin, paprika, coriander, cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, cardamom. They’ll be adding other ready-made like lentil stew and eggplant stew.
I started with a fattoush salad, with torn saj (a flatbread-like pita but without the opening). I found it too vinegar-forward and wet. An order of falafels was attractively plated on a wood tray; it’s crispy outside and tasty but perhaps could have been more lightly packed.
Lamb shank Moghrabiech was beautifully tender and served with Israeli couscous in a light broth; everything was great except for the extremely mild flavours. It was braised with the Lebanese seven spice mix but they were underwhelming. Even salt would have brought out the flavours.
Shish tawouk was the star of my dinner — Rossdown Farms chicken breast was skewered and grilled. The yogurt-marinated meat was moist and tasty with scrumptious grill marks. It came with a whipped garlic dip. When I mention that it wasn’t offensively garlicky, Eid replied that my sense of smell must be deceiving me. “I try not to eat (the garlic dip) if I’m going out to a social occasion,” he chuckled.
And at this location, you’ll find dishes not available at the Commercial location, like samkeh harra, or Pacific cod with tahini, cilantro, green peppers and tomatoes.
For dessert, we went straight for the ma’amoul with frozen yogurt because I love ma’amouls. It’s a shortbread pastry with a filling — nuts or dates usually. These were so yummy I baked some of my own the very next day. I filled them with a date paste and couldn’t keep my hands off them.