Kobee Factory & Syrian Kitchen in Van Nuys — an amazing Syrian restaurant not much bigger than a walk-in closet — is the only Middle Eastern restaurant I know that spells “kibbeh” as “kobee.”
I’ve seen “kubba,” “kibba” and “kofte” — all of which qualify as fun with transliteration. And really, no matter how you spell it, it’s still a wonderful dish — a tasty appetizer made of bulgur wheat mixed with ground meat, toasted pine nuts and spices with a hint of citrus, deep-fried or grilled till it’s brown and crunchy and crazy delicious. And there’s probably no place in town that makes it better than the Factory, where it’s only the beginning of this tasty Syrian experience.
Despite the name, kobee is a small part of the menu. You can get it fried, barbecued (looking like something I’d make on my Weber), filled with veggies or ground meat. You can get it à la carte — but I suspect few do. The kobees are all served with a very good hummus, and a salad.
There’s also the option of “Kobee in the Pan” — a 12-inch kobee pancake that easily feeds two. Especially if you add on some baba ganoush, heavy with eggplant, and the addictive house-made pickles. They even do great french fries — and why not?
What they don’t serve is a longtime favorite of mine: kibbeh nayyeh, which is a Lebanese dish of raw lamb or beef mixed with bulgur wheat, the Middle Eastern version of steak tartare. I’ve read that in Lebanon, kibbeh is prepared 17 different ways, most of which don’t make their way to our shores. Kibbeh with pomegranate sauce? With cherry sauce? Sounds wonderful. But even fried and barbecued, I have no complaints. Kobee is a journey over there, from a mini-mall over here.
Show up early, and there’s a Syrian breakfast that should have you reconsidering the Wheaties with oat milk you had that morning. Msabaha is a dish of fava beans heavily laden with garlic, topped with tahini sauce. (Like all the breakfast dishes, it…
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