According to its website, Mumtaz is owned by Hiam Jamell, who grew up in Lebanon not far from the Mediterranean coast, and operated by her and her family. It is located at 588 US 287 #100, just north of the intersection of Baseline and 287. It is an outlier in this portion of the project because it is not a new restaurant—it will turn 15 in April. However, when we were wrapping up the original LRP back in early 2020, it closed temporarily owing to pandemic shutdowns just a week or so before we would have gotten to it. It reopened a while ago, but with somewhat shorter hours—10 a.m. to 4 p.m. every day except Sunday (closed). I have been there before, but it had probably been a couple of years.
My friend Deb and I had a lunch date, so we decided to
incorporate it into the LRP, but we stuck to takeout. Deb picked it up on her
way over and kindly took some restaurant photos for me. I remembered that the
gyros pita wrap is very good, but that is usually my go-to at Mediterranean
places, so I decided to get the grilled chicken pita wrap instead. Deb had the
kefta pita wrap (something none of us had tried before), and G had the gyro
pita wrap. We all added the feta cheese option to our wraps. We also got a
basket of fries to share as well as an order of cheese sambusek, a side of two
falafels so we could sample them, and two kinds of baklava for dessert.
I thought G’s gyro was delicious, as always, but my grilled
chicken wrap was probably just as good, although I might favor the tzatziki
sauce over the zesty garlic sauce that came on the chicken and kefta wraps. The
kefta didn’t look as we expected it to—the menu describes it as seasoned ground
beef minced with parsley, onions and spices, so we thought it would be loose,
but it is apparently re-formed into a sort of log shape before being wrapped
(probably so it won’t fall out). I had a small taste of it and thought
it was good, but I liked the other two better.
We all liked the sambuseks (“A mix of feta and other
Middle Eastern cheeses, parsley and spices wrapped in a noodle then fried”)
very much; they are sort of like Mediterranean wontons. I am not a falafel conoisseur,
but I noticed that these falafels were a bit different than what I have had in the past,
chewier and with a thick, crisp shell. The fries were basic but good. The
baklava seemed fairly typical—again, it is not something I have eaten a lot of,
but we liked that the filo pastry was crisp even while it was oozing the rich honey
filling.
There are many more options on the menu to try—I would like
to order the mezza sampler another time to try a taste of several things that
we didn’t get to today!
* Lafayette Restaurant Project Redux: visiting all the new places that have opened since the ending of the previous round of the LRP.
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| Deb said there was a fair amount of lunch traffic, even though she was there on the early side. |
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| The seating area of Mumtaz. We didn't dine in today. |
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| Our takeout haul. The wraps all look the same because the meat is on the bottom! However, from top to bottom, they are gyro, grilled marinated chicken, and kefta. The other items are two falafels, a basket of fries, cheese sambuseks (looking like wontons), and two kinds of baklava. |
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| Two kinds of baklava |
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| Me with my chicken wrap, some fries, and a cheese sambusek. |
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