Syria!

This week's adventure featured some special guests: Jason's sister, Linda, and her two kids, Dillon and Dana. We decided to draw the country of the week from a hat and chose Syria. Luckily, there was a new Syrian restaurant I've had bookmarked to try so we were on our way! 

Damas Eatery has been getting favorable reviews from news outlets and Facebook food groups I follow, so I was excited to try it. It's located in Cleveland's Little Arabia in the former Somali restaurant, Kifaya's Kitchen. While I'm bummed to lose the only Somali restaurant in town, I love that it was passed on to another immigrant family.

The restaurant is in a strip mall, as some of the best ones are, and very clean and welcoming. Dana came back from the bathroom declaring it "the cutest little bathroom. It's so homey!" High praise from a 13 year old girl! The menu had lots of options to choose from and with a table of five, we were able to choose quite a few to sample. This review in Cleveland Scene made my mind up for me - I was getting the fatteh and goat meat mandi. Jason added in hummus and falafel, Linda chose the shawarma plate, Dillion went with the shawarma sandwich, and Dana picked the fried chicken sandwich. 

Order in, time to research!

Syria has been in the news for years due to the ongoing civil war. Unrest began in 2011 after the Arab Spring protests and escalated into an armed conflict after protests calling for President Assad's removal were violently suppressed. About 13 million Syrians are forcibly displaced, over half the country's population. Of these, 6.8 million are refugees and asylum-seekers who have fled the country. More than 70 percent of Syrian refugees across the world are living in poverty and have few prospects of returning home. Since 2011, the US has only taken in a little over 22,000 refugees and there are an estimated 190,000 people of Syrian descent living here currently (including my lovely ex-mother in law!). President Trump issued an outright Muslim ban, blocking Syrian immigrants from entering the US in 2017. But President Biden isn't doing much better, unfortunately. Only 41 Syrian immigrants were welcomed into the US in 2021 even though they make up 41% of all refugees in need of resettlement. 

A less depressing fact about Syria is that it is  home to one of the oldest civilizations in the world. Human remains dating back 700,000 years have been found in the region. It also is home to the oldest library in the world: the ancient city of Ebla was discovered in 1974 along with 1,800 clay tablets dating back to 3,000 BC. The Syrian capital of Damascus is the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world. 

You'll find many common Middle Eastern dishes in Syrian cuisine: stuffed grape leaves, kababs, baba ghanoush, falafel, hummus, kibbeh, shawarma, tabbouleh, etc. Cheese, dates, figs, and pistachios are also featured heavily. These are all my very favorite things, so I couldn't wait to dig in! 

Okay, that's enough research. Time to eat! 

First to arrive was a seriously impressive plate of hummus. It was creamy, well-spiced, and put my homemade hummus to shame. (How do they make it so fluffy and perfect? Please don't tell me it involves peeling all of those tiny chickpeas.) The pita bread here isn't the star; it's pretty flat and dry, but provides you with the excuse to really load up on the hummus. No complaints from me. 

Next up was the dish I was dying to try: fatteh. It's often found at extended family dinners, so it was perfect for our group that day. It's a casserole of sorts - crisp pita bread beneath creamy, warm chickpeas and a garlic-yogurt-tahini sauce that is garnished with hot ghee, toasted nuts, and chopped herbs. This was a showstopper! The waiter brought out the dish, which was impressive on its own, but then when he topped it with sizzling hot ghee from a tiny skillet? Come on now. We were all oohing and ahhing and wishing that we had caught it on video. But the taste! Oh my god, the taste! It was incredible. I don't know if it's intended to be scooped up with the pita bread, but I was scooping it up with my spoon and hoping that everyone else quickly got their dinner plates so I could finish it off. This was incredible. When you got the perfect bite - a little crunchy pita, chickpea, hummus, buttery ghee, and toasted cashew - you had to take a minute and truly savor it. YUM.

We also had the falafel which was your standard falafel. Nothing remarkable there. I had heard that the goat meat mandi was not to be missed, but honestly, I could have skipped it. They were out of rice (we got there an hour or so before closing) so it was served on pasta which was a strange choice. The goat was tender and well-spiced, but overall I wasn't that impressed. It did provide Jason and his nephew Dillon the opportunity to suck the marrow out of the bones though and that was worth it just for Dana's disgusted face. 

The shawarma crew declared it delicious with a great wrap and outstanding garlic sauce. I had to dip a fry into the pile of fluffy, garlicky goodness and I concur, it was great. I love a pile of pickles on a plate, too. 

The oven hasn't been installed yet, so we weren't able to sample any of the pies on the menu. Not that we had any room in our stomachs for pie anyway. 

This was a great sampling of Syrian foods and that fatteh is *definitely* worth a trip back. Next time I'll be catching the sizzle on video!

Five down, 47 to go! 

Damas Eatery
3650 W. 117th St.
Cleveland, OH 44111

Operating Hours:
WED - SAT | 11:00am - 8:30pm

SUN  | 12:00pm - 8:30pm

MON- TUES  | closed