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Very Best Restaurants: Lebanese Taverna

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Lebanese Taverna **
Washington, $

While the overall quality of the cuisine is appreciably better at Bacchus, the Lebanese Taverna earns its two stars with a combination of attractiveness of setting, above-average Middle Eastern cooking, and the sort of hospitable service that makes a newcomer feel like a regular and a second-time visitor feel like a friend of the family.

This high-ceilinged, courtyard-like dining room offers plenty of good main courses: aromatic pilafs topped with the diner's choice of chicken or lamb; sausage-shaped kebabs made from a mixture of ground beef, onions, and parsley; and spit-roasted chicken wrapped in paper-thin Lebanese bread. Or you can do as the Taverna's Middle Eastern regulars frequently do: make an entire meal of three or four appetizers. Try to include spicy grilled sausages with tomato sauce, small fried turnovers stuffed with spinach and pine nuts, and what is listed on the menu as "moussaka," a delicious layering of eggplant, chickpeas, and tomato sauce. If there are four at your table, you might consider a small Lebanese "pizza" baked in the Taverna's wood-burning oven.

Lebanese Taverna , 2641 Connecticut Ave. NW, Washington; 202-265-8681. Open Monday through Saturday for lunch and dinner, Sunday for dinner. MapIt!

QUALITY: ****Excellent; *** Superior; **Very Good; * Good
PRICE RANGE: $$$= Very Expensive; $$ Expensive; $=Moderate; ¢=Inexpensive

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