Divane

It's amazing how good food can make up for a host of ills. After our meal at Divane last night I made a trip to the restroom. It turned out to be nicely designed, with one stall and three women squeezed into the tiny room in front of me. Plus it was about 30 degrees warmer than the dining room. The sauna-like temperature and the good meal made all the women talkative, so we chatted and laughed as we waited, complaining about the cold dining room and the scatty service (two different waitresses were trying to take our orders, and they were a little too aggressive about drinks and starters, which there were only four of, including salad, hummus, spicy lamb pita and something else).

The bad: the aformentioned service, the cold (which they couldn't do much about, it was 10 below outside), the vinegary-tasting shiraz that was their house red.

The good: the donor kebab with yogurt. There were three piles on a huge platter. To the left was a salad of sliced onion, cilantro and peppers. To the right, a shredded carrot salad that was really good, with a hint of something acidic but not enough for me to identify it (lemon juice?), and big round slices of some kind of watery-tasting radish. In the center was a huge pile of thinly sliced lamb with hot sauce and yogurt. Under the lamb, swimming in the yogurt and sauce, were these spongy, chewy squares that I couldn't identify until Todd said they were toasted pita, and then it was obvious (a great texture).

About $45 for two main courses and two drinks, but you could almost get away with just a starter and one main for two (I took home more of my dinner than I ate at the restaurant). I thought I didn't really like lamb until I tried this; it had a hint of that lamby-gamey taste, but just enough to be nice. Good stuff.