Dining Review – Sitti in Raleigh, NC

If you find yourself in downtown Raleigh, North Carolina you can be sure there will be no shortage of restaurant choices when you get hungry.  There are a lot of them, representing every type of cuisine.  We had to make that difficult choice last week and opted to try something a bit different, Sitti.  This restaurant bills itself as serving authentic Lebanese food.  The word “sitti” means grandmother, and this restaurant is a family affair.

In what looks like an old clothing store space, the restaurant has a very open and airy interior.  It’s right downtown, with a decidedly middle eastern menu offering a lot of choices, including many vegetarian ones.  One

Dumplings

appetizer we had was the Kibber Mikli, fried beef and lamb dumplings stuffed with ground meat, spices and pine nuts.  This was served with labneh, which is a Lebanese mixture of yogurt, salt and olive oil.  It’s sort of like their version of cream cheese.  The dumplings displayed lots of clove and cinnamon spice, and the labneh’s creaminess goes perfectly with that.  We also sampled the veggie tray and hummus.

Orange and goat cheese salad

Our entrees included the goat cheese and orange salad, with the additional falafel.  This was fresh and the goat cheese was soft and tangy.  The chicken artichoke dish (with basmati rice, sun dried tomatoes, capers and lemon butter) was in a very flavor packed sauce and delicious.  We also tried the chicken shawarma, thinly sliced and served with sitti rice, grilled tomato, pickled cucumber and garlic whip.  The sitti rice is a restaurant staple, and I found it smooth and almost creamy with a touch of honey, some vermicelli was also mixed in.  Lastly, our vegetarian diner ordered the falafel with veggies.

Everything here was quite good.  The goat cheese was incredibly fresh.  The dates on the orange salad were perfect and not too sweet.  Cheri’s chicken artichoke was wonderful, sporting big flavors.  The sitti rice indeed reminded me of something a grandmother would make, and a family would cherish.

Sitti is highly recommended.  Our wallet is out here when we are in downtown Raleigh.  If you like Lebanese food you should definitely go.  If you don’t know whether or not you like Lebanese food, Sitti is a great place to figure that out.

The particulars:

Sitti  

137 S. Wilmington Street,
Raleigh, NC 27601

Phone: 919.239.4070    Web: (http://www.sitti-raleigh.com/)

A votre santé!

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