Zoorona: Contemporary Middle Eastern Dining

(Chyn Wey Lee/Western Herald) Zooroona restaurant & lounge located in Tiffany's Mall of West Main in Kalamazoo

By Jonathan Chong
Western Herald

This week, my group of friends and I ventured off from the typical Western and Asian cuisines to experience a new Contemporary Middle Eastern restaurant called Zooroona, which is located on West Main Street in the Tiffany’s mini-mall.

Zooroona, which means, “come visit us” in Arabic, is a new venture by brothers Rafat, Habib, Saad, and Talaat Mandwee who are also the owners of Tiffany’s Wine and Spirits Shop located diagonally opposite from Zooroona.

Talaat Mandwee said that Zooroona is unique from other Middle Eastern eateries in Kalamazoo because they bring together a variety of food from Lebanon, the Mediterranean, Syria, Iran, and Turkey and make them fresh everyday.

When you walk into Zooroona you feel like you are taken to a whole different place.

You are hit by the aroma of different spices, and you can almost taste the different flavors in the air.

The charming dining area is lit with soft lights bright enough to see your food, and low enough to keep the place feeling romantic.

There are two seating options available as well. Instead of the typical table and chair style seating arrangement, our party opted to sit at one of their two curtained booths.

In the booth, we sat on the floor with pillows and ate on a traditional wooden table, which gave us a whole new dining experience.

Once we were seated, we had a good look at the menu, which consisted of an array of hummus, kebobs, pitas and sharing platters.
By our waitress’ recommendation, we decided to try the Dolmeh for our appetizer. Dolmeh includes refreshing grape leaves stuffed with rice and vegetables, topped with a little lemon juice, olive oil and seasoning, and served with a tangy yogurt sauce.

As for our main course, we ordered a House Tray that consisted of Falefal, Kafta Kabob, Lamb Shawarmah, and Chicken Kafta Kabob. It was served with fragrant rice, hummus, pickles and pita bread, along with light yogurt and garlic dipping.

The taste of the Dolmeh appetizer gave a delicate tickling sensation to the pallet due to the lemon juice and texture of the grape leaves, and was very enticing.

The main House Tray really epitomizes the food that they served, which was seasoned well, and full of flavor. One of my friends said she really loved the Falafel, fried minced lamb with garbanzo.

The fragrant rice paired with the succulent ground chicken, lamb, and beef seasoned with herbs and spices was the highlight of our meal.

Some might find the chicken to be a little dry because of the roasting. Nevertheless, it was flavorful and left me wanting more.

In summary, Zooroona provides a great romantic atmosphere for a quiet night with the special someone, or even a cozy night out with the family.

The different flavors and aromas convey a different kind of Middle Eastern dining you will not find anywhere else in the Kalamazoo area.

Totally worth an adventurous food night out with the friends.

I bid you Good Eating…

Jonathan Chong is a junior majoring in marketing at Western Michigan University and can be reached at chinern.chong@wmich.edu.

Short URL: http://www.westernherald.com/?p=11779

Posted by heraldstaff on Nov 12 2009. Filed under Special Issues. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

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