Description
The Syrian restaurant Sham is another one of those restaurants that are easy to overlook, a dingy-looking storefront on a block of discount podiatrists, its faded sign easy to speed by on the way to the flashier pleasures of the Santa Monica Promenade. But inside, the restaurant is almost palatial, sweet-smelling and sparkling clean, all high ceilings and intricate tile work, vaulted Arabic arches and grand photographs of Muslim sites. It comes alive on Sundays at noon, still early enough to catch crunchy, spice-crusted disks of warm za'atar bread from the Arab brunch menu, but late enough to make a lunch of shish kebabs and lamby lake kebabs a possibility; relaxed enough for a glass of ice-blended lemonade but still with the edge of the Turkish coffee's industrial-strength caffeine. Sunday mornings are the only time of the week you will find fateh, a gooey mess of yogurt, mint, chickpeas, pine nuts and shards of toasted flatbread. Are there better Middle Eastern restaurants in Los Angeles? Lots of them. But Sham is a solid restaurant, a pleasant place to hang, with great kebabs and decent grilled quail, lots for vegetarians to eat, tapes of the latest Middle Eastern dance music, and daily specials. See full review.
