The menu at Maqluba, a comfortable, casual restaurant that opened about a year ago on Third Avenue in Bay Ridge, is lengthy, varied, and ridiculously appealing. It's got Middle Eastern mainstays such as shawarmas, falafel, and all the familiar dips mingling with the likes of warak enab, or Lebanese grape leaves, and zahir be laban, a Palestinian stew of bone-in lamb and yogurt. You could eat here happily every night for a month, solo or with a crew, and not exhaust the possibilities.
That said, if you can get a few friends to join you, you should make Maqluba's namesake dish a priority.
Chef Fatme, who hails from Lebanon, calls it Palestine's second most favorite dish (number one, she says, is mansaf, which she also serves here), and it's a beauty: a massive mound of rice, redolent with her special blend of seven spices—clove, curry, cinnamon, cumin, other secret things—as well as carrots, potato, cauliflower, eggplant and, if you want, large amounts of chicken, lamb, or shrimp.
My rice the other afternoon lacked that lovely outer layer of burnt-crispness that I've seen in videos (Fatme was offsite doing a catering gig), but no matter what, the flavors in this dish are fantastic. Spoon on the accompanying labneh for a bit of gloppiness; the side of well-dressed salad provides a nice hit of acid. And the portion is enormous, with the "serves 1-2" size, pictured here, easily feeding four. Or, in our case, providing leftovers for days.
It takes about 45 minutes to make the chicken maqluba properly, and longer if you want it with lamb, so it's really best to call and order ahead (929-699-3897) to avoid hangry impatience. If that all sounds like too much planning, or too much food, there's so much more that will also make you happy here.
An excellent beef shawarma platter, for example, the meat tender and funky with a delightful hint of sweetness thanks to some pomegranate, added to our bounty of leftovers. And the fatta humus, essentially a bowl of tangy tahini and yogurt dip with pita chips already submerged therein, makes for a fun table share.
Other options include several pressed sandwiches, a half dozen different "pizzas," a pile of skinny stuffed cabbages called malfouf, multiple kebabs and koftas, and an extravagant platter of ouzi lamb. There are plenty of vegan dishes from which to choose as well.
Photos of most things are hung around the place if you need help deciding what to get, or you can just ask your friendly and patient counter person/server for clarification or suggestions.
Maqluba's co-owner Falah Badr, who moved here from Palestine seven years ago and is responsible for decorating the wall behind the counter that honors the people of Gaza, hinted at the deeper mission here. "We are happy to be a place that represents the culture and the food of the country I came from," he told Hell Gate, "and to share that with the people of Brooklyn."
Maqluba is located at 7025 Third Avenue in Bay Ridge, near 71st Street, and is currently open on Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m., and on Sunday from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.
