I gotta tell you something. One of the best things I've ever eaten in my life is Knafeh. It's a glorious cheese dessert unlike anything we have in traditional north American food culture. It's this magical gooey cheese with a buttery crust that can be either a semolina cake or a crispy shredded filo dough, but it's always topped with a sweet syrup and pistachios. As you can imagine, I will go out of my way to get my hands on some of this stuff, and that's how I found Habibi's.
I've been to places that I thought had knafeh, but once I got there, I was left disappointed because it was untrue or they only made it on holidays. I learned, so I called Habibi's first and verified that that they had it every day, which was awesome. Next step was to loop my better half into it and make a day out of the adventure, so off we set to get some cheese dessert.
The drive was lengthy, but it was interesting to drive through some of the cities between Newport and Habibi's. One of the cities was literally over 300 years old! That's almost as old as my dad! Parking was easy and plentiful on the main street where the restaurant was located, and was free of charge.
Inside, the restaurant is eclectic. The first room is more of a small café, and the second room is a mishmash of a very large bar, an entertainment area, and some banquet space. Also, they weirdly have a lot of jewelry on some stands in the café area, which was super strange to me.
We were the only ones in the restaurant, and were seated promptly. The menu is huge, and the only thing I knew I wanted to order was the knafeh. The waitress, although very nice, was very persistent in trying to get our order, which made me feel rushed. Finally we decided just to get it out of the way.
We started with a spiced cheese roll, which looked like an eggroll but had cheese instead of veggies. It was good but nothing great, and I got bored with it after eating one. After that I ordered some hummus for the table, which was the most tahini-forward hummus I've ever had, and pita which was cold, inflexible, and pretty lackluster.
The entrees were a lamb kofta wrap with fries for him, and the falafel plate for me. His wrap was very standard, and the fries were nothing special. My falafel came with a salad which was very brown and not appetizing at all, as well as virtually flavorless rice, but very zesty pink pickles and decently flavored falafel.
For dessert I ordered a glass of Merwah Lebanese wine, which was not as good as my favorite Lebanese wine, but that's rough because Chateau Musar is some of the best wine anywhere and it's tough to compare anything to it. For him, we had some baklava which was crisp and yummy, and the star of the show was the knafeh which happily did not disappoint. Oooey , gooey, sweet, crunchy and perfectly hot! Delightful.
Prices were fair, servings were plentiful, but overall seasoning and quality left gaps. The lettuce issue was something they absolutely could have seen and not served, and leads me to believe they need to implement more quality assurance between cooking and serving. Dessert is the real star, and is the reason that I will return. I spoke with someone over the phone and they said I can order a whole TRAY of knafeh, and I probably will in the future. Habibi's is a mixed bag; they lack in taste testing and QA, but shine in dessert! read more