Byblos
When you think about it, Middle Eastern food is some of the best in the world. It is fresh, it is flavorful, it is healthy, and most importantly, it's absolutely delicious. And this is one of my all time favorite spots for fine Middle Eastern dining: Byblos in Norwood.
Byblos has been located here in Norwood center since 2002 it's owned and operated by Maurice Daaboul and his family. All you have to do is take a walk through this massive kitchen, and you can tell immediately that every single item here is made from scratch. They are rolling out the dough, simmering sauces, fire, roasting vegetables, flipping all those glorious meats on the grill. This is very labor intensive cuisine. Everything is made from scratch and made by hand. In fact, the name Byblos comes from an ancient city located between Beirut and Tripoli in Lebanon. So these recipes date back hundreds, if not 1000s of years, and after all that time, this restaurant has perfected the flavors on every single dish. Lebanese cuisine is famous for their incredible array of delicious grilled meats, and they do that here as good as anybody. But to start out your meal, you gotta dip and dip and dip.
The most famous Middle Eastern dip, of course, is hummus. Plated up simply with some fresh olive oil in the middle and some fresh herbs. Another popular way to dip into your meal is with the baba ghanoush. It's made with eggplant that they grill so it has a little bit of smokiness. It's a little chunky, and it is extremely flavorful.
Most people when they think about Middle Eastern cuisine, the first food they think about is falafel. They come out crispy, and then they smother it in that tahini sauce, pita bread, hummus, baba ganoush, falafel, incredible handmade grape leaves. This makes you feel like you're dining in Lebanon.
The salads here at Byblos are phenomenal. They do a traditional tabouli salad that is very popular. The one I recommend is definitely the Fattoush salad made with a combination of lettuce, tomato, cucumber, scallions, green peppers, radish, parsley, mint with a very simple dressing of just olive oil and lemon juice. The key to the Fattoush is the toasted pita bread, so you get a nice little crunch in every single bite. Super delicious salad.
If you're new to Lebanese cuisine, I recommend getting an appetizer sampler. These are all handmade, traditional and perfect for sharing. So you get a mix of cheese rolls, meat pies, spinach pies, and some kibbe. These cheese rolls are like a Middle Eastern mozzarella stick. You have phyllo dough on the outside stuffed with some feta cheese and a little bit of onion on the inside, super crispy, nice and gooey, just outstanding.
The number one reason why customers keep coming back to Byblos year after year are for the meats. We're talking about charcoal, grilled, skewered meats that are tenderized and marinated and served hot and fresh right off that grill. This platter right here has a combination of chicken beef and Kafta. Kafta is a combination of ground beef and ground lamb. They add some spices into it. This thing is packed with really distinct flavors and incredible aromas. The Chicken Kebab is extremely popular here. The number one seller here, though, is the steak kebab. We all love steak tips, right? It's sort of like that. You see those beautiful char marks on the outside. You get that perfectly red and juicy center. You take all of these incredible meats, serve it over a bed of really fluffy and delicious rice pilaf. This is a major league plate for Major League eaters.
And here's the kicker, every item that I just talked about, all the dips, the pita bread, the salads, all those appetizers, that huge platter of meat that's actually all one meal. It's known as the Mezza Platter. It's designed to feed four people, but honestly, I think it could feed about eight. It's basically an entire Lebanese feast. And I promise you this dollar for dollar, it's one of the biggest and best meals I have found anywhere in Massachusetts.
I got a couple desserts I want to recommend as well. You can get this one known as the ‘ladies arms.’ It's crispy with some cream cheese in the middle. My favorite dessert here are the Lebanese pancakes. The pancakes are nice and fluffy. They're stuffed with a combination of some ground walnuts and some sugar. They drizzle it with sugar syrup and rose water. It's basically a combination of a donut, a pancake and baklava. And if you ask me, that is the best of all worlds.
You can come in here for a business lunch. You can come in here for a romantic dinner, and on Friday and Saturday nights, you can come into their function room right next door, they have live music and live belly dancing. So you might come for the belly dancing, but you're gonna stay to stuff your belly right here at Byblos in Norwood.
