San Francisco Chronicle (Sunday)
The Bay Area’s best new brunch restaurant welcomes the whole family
Lulu, a special destination for Palestinian dishes, is back in a beautiful new location
Perhaps I’m projecting, but I get the sense that it’s always Mother’s Day at Lulu.
Before recently relocating her restaurant from Berkeley to Albany, chef Mona Leena Michael became a mother herself, which informs the restaurant’s emphasis on family. At the cheerful new location, hand-drawn murals of Matilija poppies that resemble fried eggs and pots of real plants provide an aesthetic backdrop for the restaurant’s specialty: ornate trays filled with various dips, better known as mezzes, breads and fresh fruit.
Dubbed the “mezze brunch,” this dish possesses all the ritualistic gravitas of high tea.
That’s no coincidence: Michael was inspired by the previous occupant of Lulu’s former, much smaller space in West Berkeley, which, in another life, had been a tea house. Back in Berkeley, scoring one of Michael’s platters was highly competitive — available only by reservation, with wait lists that stretched weeks. Today, the mezze brunch is always available ($34 per person), only, this time, with an atmosphere to match its elegance.
No other restaurant in the Bay Area has as precise a vision of brunch as Lulu, a compound style of Palestinian flavors with Californian sensibilities. The snazzy new digs give the restaurant much-needed room to stretch its legs. While it strongly plays into its mighty brunch strength, dinner options don’t yet live up to their potential. Nonetheless, Lulu makes Albany’s food scene more attractive. With Picnic Rotisserie and the city’s culinary gem, Juanita & Maude, it’s in good company.
In my opinion, there tends to be a disconnect between the food and vibe at brunch restaurants, where everything else bows to ambience and mimosas. Both carry equal importance at Lulu. As far as brunch restaurants go, it punches way above its weight.
Many of the brunch offerings tend to be an assemblage of small dishes. Full table participation is required for the mezze brunch, but for those with commitment issues, try the sampler ($28). It’s an abridged version, with fewer dips, consisting of a stack of first-rate falafel, hummus, muhammara and labneh. The inspired Baba’s breakfast ($28) is equally sharable: a collection of savory scrambled eggs, nicely spiced lamb sausage, incredible crispy cubed tater tots and un-noteworthy pita — all gathered around a soupy rendition of fuul, a hearty mash of fava beans and lentils.
Several dishes employ labneh, and my favorite was the Turkish eggs ($16); the smooth, tart dairy was given salty, piquant direction by chili crisp made in-house.
The most realized (and flavorful) brunch item was the shuka-quiles, a wonderful play on the Mexican breakfast item. Instead of salsa is a fennel-laced Early Girl tomato sauce. In place of tortilla chips are pita chips, which impressively retain their delicate crunch. Chef Michael’s addition of crumbled feta, tangy zhough and spicy harissa, however, make the dish her own. I was also tickled to see the chef at the expo station, calling out orders to her cooks in Spanish. “Necesito dos chilaquiles y un pancake,” she said as she rained flowers over plates.
Those radiant flowers make it onto most plates at Lulu, like an insignia by way of a colorful garnish. I’m convinced Michael keeps some petals in her pockets, ready to sprinkle on anything at a moment’s notice.
Some dishes are festooned with an edible bouquet like the fabulous knafeh pancake ($20), a cake made of filo protecting a stretchy cheese center. Its crisp outer layer is graced with roses in two ways: a shower of rose syrup and dried petals strewn across. The baklava French toast ($20) — an egg roll-like dessert of walnut-flavored Hawaiian bread wrapped in filo — wasn’t the same slam dunk as the pancake, but you can still rely on it to put numbers on the board.
Larger entree dishes on the dinner menu showed promise but have yet to come together. For the tomatoes and labneh, the tang of the cream overpowered everything. The salads, a Caesar spiked with garlicky toum ($18) and another featuring wispy pita chips ($18), were a bit underdressed. The Arabi fish and chips ($30), made with gluten-free chickpea batter, didn’t quite measure up to the dish it’s remixing.
I’m a fan of the mansaf pot pie ($38) despite its flaws. Instead of a small hill of roasted meat and rice, the mansaf arrives in a silver pot covered with shatteringly crunchy roti — an addition that puts most puff pastry to shame. Beneath the flatbread brim, a creamy filling of rice and roasted lamb had good funk but was a little too soupy overall.
Still, something about the homey dish calls to mind a mother’s loving cooking — a persistent theme across visits. I first visited the restaurant with an expecting mother, who clued me in to the restroom’s changing table, stocked with complimentary diaper-changing equipment. In subsequent outings, I couldn’t help but notice the intention behind offering slick, blue leather-bound highchairs that come with tables attached. Each time I returned I saw mothers and daughters sharing joy; I saw dads and sons swiping pita with mezzes; and I saw families showing appreciation and affection for their parents.
Michael has been in the industry since 2011, working at spots like Jardinière in S.F. and Dyafa in Oakland before both restaurants closed. The seeds for Lulu began as a pandemicborn pop-up called Mana’eesh Lady, which the health department shut down. In 2021, she grew her business to a restaurant in Berkeley, where she introduced the mezze brunch, showcasing Palestinian tradition, combined with the customary feel of high tea and the free-form presentation of a charcuterie board.
In Lulu’s new Albany home, Michael has created a space where parents like her can be at ease with their children. It’s apparent that the restaurant deeply cares about cultivating memorable family moments.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I think I owe my mom a call.