FOOD

“Mediterranean” covers an enormous geography, but the focus at Dimassi’s is the eastern Mediterranean and the Levant: Lebanese, Palestinian and Jordanian traditions, with neighboring Greek and broader Middle Eastern influences. The buffet makes that distinction visible. This is not simply a line of grilled meat beside hummus. Its real foundation is the combination of bread, dips, salads, grains, vegetables, legumes and sharp, cooling condiments that give the richer dishes their balance.

Fresh pita is the natural starting point. Tear it for hummus, the chickpea-and-tahini staple brightened with lemon and garlic, then compare it with baba ghanouge, where roasted eggplant gives the same creamy role a smokier character. Tabouli is another bedrock dish: a parsley-forward salad with tomato, bulgur, lemon and olive oil rather than the grain-heavy interpretation sometimes encountered elsewhere. Fattoush brings crunch and acidity to the table, while stuffed grape leaves, falafel and za’atar introduce three more recurring Mediterranean ideas: rice wrapped in tangy leaves, crisp chickpea fritters, and an herb-and-sesame seasoning whose tartness often comes from sumac.

The vegetable and grain dishes deserve equal attention. Rice with lentils and onions sits in the same comforting family as mujadara, pairing earthy legumes with sweet browned onion. Okra and green beans cooked in seasoned tomato sauce show how vegetables can function as full dishes rather than obligatory sides. Potatoes with garlic, lemon and spices are simple but essential, while eggplant finished with pomegranate molasses brings a sweet-sour edge that is much less familiar to many first-time visitors. Cucumber-mint yogurt and the whipped garlic sauce provide the cooling and pungent counterpoints that make a mixed plate work.

On the meat side, kafta kabob is one of the useful dishes to know: ground beef seasoned with parsley, onion and garlic, shaped and grilled rather than served as a conventional steak or burger. Chicken kabob supplies the familiar anchor, while chicken with sumac shows what a single spice can do. Sumac has a bright, berry-like tartness that reads almost lemony without actually being citrus. Lamb shank moves in the opposite direction—slow-cooked, rich and deeply savory—and gyro adds a recognizable Greek-adjacent bridge for anyone easing into the buffet.

The dishes that make Dimassi’s especially educational are farther from the standard American shorthand for Mediterranean food. Makloube, also spelled maqluba, is the “upside-down” rice dish of the Levant: chicken, rice and vegetables are layered together and traditionally inverted for serving. Dimassi’s version brings chicken, potatoes, eggplant and cauliflower into the rice with spices and nuts. Mansaf reaches toward Jordanian celebratory cooking, pairing lamb and rice with a tangy yogurt component; traditional mansaf is closely associated with jameed, a preserved fermented yogurt, while the buffet uses a more accessible yogurt blend.

Dessert keeps the same regional logic. Baklava is the familiar flaky pastry of nuts and syrup, but namoura is the more revealing choice: a dense semolina sweet made here with coconut and yogurt, from a family of cakes typically soaked with syrup. Rice pudding offers a softer finish. Together they show why the buffet format suits this cuisine so well: a meal can begin with foods almost everyone recognizes and, one spoonful at a time, move into an entire regional cuisine.