Raffi's Place

BY: JENNIFER MORALES

This Glendale gem is your go-to Middle Eastern restaurant because you cannot go wrong when it comes to ordering anything off the menu.

Tadig is the two-stew appetizer offered at Raffi's Place

Raffi's Place. What else can I say, the name of the restaurant justifies the quality of its food.

Since our first visit months ago, we have returned five more times because this place is that great. We waited until our fifth time to write this review because we wanted to try almost everything on the menu to give you the most authentic review. Here we will give you our opinion on the dishes we liked the most. Grab a drink or snack because this is going to be a long post.

Raffi's Place offers Persian and Middle Eastern cuisine in the heart of Glendale, Calif. Their style of cooking is home cooking, which makes every dish taste like your grandma cooked it in her own kitchen. Thanks to their homestyle cooking, they serve hundreds of people a day that make reservations a must, if you do not want to wait 60 minutes or more for a table.

Design with Ease

"Our guests come to Raffi’s Place expecting the best kabob and Middle Eastern food in town. We’ve been able to hold up our great reputation by striving to make every guest leave feeling like they got what they came in for."

Shirazi Salad can be substituted into any entree, if you do not want rice.

Appetizers

The appetizers are delicious, but the ones we recommend are the ikra, mast moosir, tabbouleh and tadig (two stew). Don't worry we will explain each one because the title of each dish does not explain much.

Ikra is a grilled eggplant puree mixed with garlic and tomato puree. This tastes like buttery, smooth eggplant dip that pairs very well with ghormehsabzi stew, lamb, beef or eaten with the complementary pita on the table. The garlic taste is not strong, so if you do not like garlic, you can still try this out because the garlic is not overpowering.

Mast Moosir is a yogurt-based dip that is mixed grated shallots, salt, pepper, garlic and lemon juice. I absolutely loved this dip because to me the taste resembled to ranch. Pablo on the other hand, did not like this dip because it resembled a lot to ranch, but do not let that stop you from trying this. This dip pairs well with rice, pita, chicken and beef.

Tabbouleh is fresh side salad that pairs well with everything. This is made with parsely, tomato, bulgar, garlic and their house dressing, which tastes like olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper. This appetizer dish gives any dish freshness and a lemon kick to brighten up your meal.

Tadig is a great option because this appetizer allows you to enjoy two different stews that are offered as an entree, so you can have a taste test before ordering an entire bowl on your next visit. These stews are served over a rice crust, which is a bed of burnt rice. The rice is not burnt, but it resembles the rice that sticks at the bottom of the pan after you have cooked the rice over high heat.

The first stew is ghormehsabzi, which is a thick stew mixed of sautéed parsley, leek and fenugreek leaves; cooked with kidney beans, beef chunks and dehydrated limes. This stew is my favorite one out of all the stews on the menu because the combination of the beans and herbs create a mouth full of deliciousness. The second stew is gheimeh is another thick stew mixed with beef chunks, split peas, fried onion and eggplant. This stew is delicious but resembles a lot to lentil soup, so if you like lentil soup this is your soup.

"At Raffi’s Place, our passion is to provide guests with quality ingredients and outstanding service in an unforgettable atmosphere."

Soup and Salad

We honestly have not tried the soups yet, but we have tried couple of their salads. The Greek Salad is very delicious if you like the tangy taste of feta, the saltiness of olives and a olive oil-based dressing. The salad also includes fresh tomatoes, lettuce and sliced cucumbers. Aside from the tabbouleh, this greek salad is also a delicious side to any entree.

Another salad I would recommend is the Shirazi Salad because this is the salad I always substitute my rice with when I am counting macros and do not want to deal with trying to measure my rice portion because lets face it, the rice portion in the entrees are enormous. This simple, yet, delicious salad includes diced cucumber, tomatoes, green onions, mint, parsley, and house dressing, which to me tastes like a mixture of lemon juice, dash of olive oil, salt and pepper.

Entrees

For the entrees we have tried practically everything besides the seafood, we will eventually on our next visit, but we are taking a break from this restaurant because we have been here a little too much and we need a break.

We definitely recommend the beef. All the beef dishes are amazing. The beef is so tender and juicy that it practically melts in your mouth. Koobideh, a luleh kabob, is ground beef skewered and grilled. This entree is served with a bed of white basmati rice, lavash, grilled tomato and roasted pepper. I loved this plate a lot that I would order this over and over. Pablo ordered the Barg Kabob, which is grilled thinly sliced filet mignon served with a bed of rice, lavash, grilled tomato and roasted pepper. However, on this specific visit, he substituted the white basmati rice with the albaloo polo, which is white basmati rice mixed with black cherries. This rice is more the sweet side, so if you do not like mixing sweet and savory, we recommend you not substituting for this rice. I love sweet and savory together, so I loved it but he did not.

For those of you who do not eat red meat, we have chicken options for you. The Chicken Barg Kabob is grilled thinly sliced chicken breast served with a bed of white basmati rice, lavash, grilled tomato and roasted pepper. All the entrees are served with the same sides unless you substitute the rice for a salad or another type of rice. The chicken breast is not dry, which is a great relief because in most places chicken breast is over cooked.

Chicken Koobideh Kabob is also a great choice. This is ground chicken, a mixture of chicken leg and breast, grilled and skewered. This kabob is very juicy and filled with flavor that makes this a go-to dish to many. Another chicken recommendation would be the Chicken Boneless Kabob, which is grilled boneless chicken thigh. Like the breast, this is cooked to perfection. The dark meat is tender, juicy and not undercooked. Unlike the breast, the thigh is usually undercooked in most places.

Stews

We have tried all three stews offered at Raffi's Place. My ultimate favorite is ghormesabzi, which we described above in the appetizers. However, Pablo's favorite is the Fesenjoon, which is a chicken breast stew topped with walnuts, grilled onion and pomegranate sauce and served with rice. All the stews are served with rice. This stew is delicious if you like sweet and savory together, but be careful if you have a tree nut allergy because this stew contains walnuts in its ingredients. Even if you do not like the mix of sweet and savory, you should give this stew a try because the pomegranate is not as overpowering.

Desserts

Last but not least, dessert. We do not have dessert on every visit, but we have had dessert at least once or twice here and this specific cake is absolutely amazing. The Spumoni Cake is thee cherry on top of your entire meal. This is a layered cake that includes a layer of strawberry, pistachio and chocolate gelato. In between each layer either a layer of sweet cherries or almonds and a graham cracker crust. This delicious layered cakes is topped with sliced almonds and cherry flavored whipped cream. When we first read the description, we were hesitant to order it because there were too many flavors we though did not pair well together, but we were wrong. The flavor combination is hard to describe but trust us when we say you have to order this at least once.

Grab your phone, go to yelp and make a reservation because your perfect dinner night is waiting.