If you want food that’s unique, fresh, healthy and all around tasty, eat at Sanaa’s. If you don’t, stop reading now and hit up the McDonald’s drive thru.
The delicious Mediterranean restaurant is housed in the 8th and Railroad building, which is in Downtown Sioux Falls. The inside is very large, with an aqua marine colored ceiling and bright decorations. I have never been to the Middle East but I felt as though all that was missing was a snake charmer. The owner, Sanaa Abourezk, is a native of Syria and brings a flavor to South Dakota that even meat-and-potatoes Midwesterners can appreciate.
Sanaa herself is no stranger to good food — she has a master’s degree in nutrition and a degree in agricultural engineering from California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, Calif., as well as training from Le Cordon Bleu in Paris. She uses these skills, paired with her Syrian background, to create the dishes at the restaurant.
I visited Sanaa’s on a Friday evening, in order to sample the weekend buffet. Sanaa’s is open only for lunch Monday thru Thursday and Saturday, but is open all day Friday with an evening buffet. The buffet, which is about $11.95, is also offered on Saturday afternoon. Main dishes run about $8.95.
This isn’t your typical buffet. The spread came with a beverage and offered two kinds of bread, about five different entrees, hummus and a few other random dishes. I love hummus, but that was the extent of my knowledge of Mediterranean food up to this point. For the sake of writing, I sampled everything.
While it was all delicious, a few dishes stuck out above the rest. The chicken shish twook had generous chunks of chicken, bathed in a unique orange sauce. It wasn’t overly spicy, but definitely didn’t lack flavor. Sanaa said that it is one of her most popular dishes. It most closely reminded me of Chinese food, but even that is a stretch.
One thing that struck me was the creaminess of all of the white sauces. The ingredients were obviously fresh and clearly cooked with care.
Probably my favorite dish, the fatat hommous, starred garbanzo beans and pine nuts. The sauce was also quite creamy, with a very nutty flavor. The garbanzo beans were soft but not mushy, and the pine nuts added a crunch that was just right with the basmati rice. Much like the rest of the food, it was very rich. The buffet was perfect for sampling each dish bite by bite, since the intensity of the flavors got a little overwhelming at times.
If you’re a fan of tomatoes, Sanaa’s also offers a few dishes for your delight. The Greek eggplant mosakaa had a wonderful tomato-based sauce, which was not dissimilar to goulash. I’m not normally a fan of eggplant, but it was skillfully used in this dish. It was also heavily laced with onions, which added a good flavor to the entire thing.
A must-try is the hummus. It is phenomenal.
I finished my buffet with a dessert (unfortunately, not included) of namorra, which was very similar to cornbread with sugar, honey and coconut. It was very rich and a little dry, and I could both taste and feel the coconut shavings. It wasn’t the best dessert I’ve ever had, but it certainly wasn’t the worst either.
Vegetarians rejoice. As you may have noticed from the descriptions, Sanaa’s has several dishes that are meat free. Over half of the buffet was vegetarian. Sanaa also posts a menu of her upcoming weekend buffet every Thursday on her website, www.sanaacooks.com,with special note of the dishes that are vegetarian or gluten-free.
Whether you are a meat eater or vegetarian, you need to eat at this restaurant. Even if you’re not that adventurous, there are several “safe” foods for the wimpy pallet. With Sanaa, you’ll feel like you’ve found a new Mediterranean home away from home.
Ratings for Sanaa’s (out of 5 stars)
Atmosphere – 5
Food – 5
Price – 4
Service – 5
Overall – 5
Photos: (Heather Mangan/ThePost)
