Try the koshari on Makani’s patio
Amy Drew Thompson: Egyptian dining and hookahs on I-Drive.
It was the most glittering ghost town I’d ever seen, a bright, gleaming restaurant anticipating diners who would seemingly never come. Gold accents, ornate chandeliers, neatly set tables beneath — all empty. It looked like the start of a cautionary Halloween tale. Or perhaps its denouement.
This emptiness, however, was not a reflection on Makani’s food or vibe or propensity for ostentatious light fixtures.
It was because everyone was out on the patio.
Now, it’s true that Makani, a new Egyptian venue on I-Drive, bills itself with the tagline, “Good Mood Food & Hookah,” but half the folks in the space around me (most notably the family with a stroller) weren’t smoking the shisha at all.
The patio has festive Middle Eastern music. It has the narrow, cozy feel of urban al fresco spaces where close quarters are simply the norm of the culture. It has a staggering view of the towering StarFlyer — so close you can hear the delighted screams of its passengers. But here, you’re not contemplating your life choices whilst whizzing around a 450-foot phallic symbol on the end of a chain.
Here, the big decision is hummus or mombar ($12.99).
I went with the latter. It was the simple description that lured me: cow intestines stuffed with a rice mixture and deep fried in oil.
I know. I know. Some of you are reading that and having an equal and opposite reaction, so let me write my own Makani menu copy for you: Mombar is what happens when