Whether you like middle eastern food or not, you’ll love Me Jana. I’ve been to a lot of the middle eastern restaurants in the area.. Lebanese Taverna, Mama Ayesha’s, Lebanese Butcher, Layalina.. and Me Jana is simply one of the best.
You can’t go wrong ordering a main entrée, but the best way to truly experience Me Jana is to share several of the hot or cold “mezza” plates, which are small appetizer portions. You can also even order a bottle of Lebanese beer for some cold and refreshing authenticity.
The staff at Me Jana must go through some sort of intense smile training, because all of them have the biggest, warmest, friendliest smiles in Clarendon, as if they are welcoming you inside their own home. Waiting tables is not just a job to them - it’s an art, a livelihood, and a source of pride.
After you place your order, a member of the staff will bring out a basket of the hottest, freshest, softest, puffiest pita bread you’ll ever have. Careful tearing into it because of the steam that will quickly escape. Alongside the pita bread, you will be served a quad-portioned plate with mixed olives, olive oil, a fresh herb mixture, and labna (yogurt). I tend to dip the bread first into either the olive oil or yogurt, and then into the herb mixture for a tasty coating of each bite.
In terms of mezza, there are a few that we order e.v.e.r.y. time. The first is the chicken shawarma. These consist of slider-size pita pockets filled with a finely minced chicken mixture, grilled, then served with an intensely flavorful garlic puree. It’s fabulous.
We also tend to go for the spinach pies, although I’ll be honest - they are not much different than the ones you can get at any other Lebanese restaurant or market.
The cheese rolls are also on our go-to list. The puff pastry is filled with a manchego and feta cheese mix, wrapped up like a cigar, then deep fried to a crispy finish. I love these things, and I like to think that they would actually taste even better if they were baked, not fried. Regardless of cooking method, though, they’re great.
This last time we went to Me Jana, we ordered something that we hadn’t ordered before, and that I suspect will definitely move to our permanent collection of mezza must-haves: the grilled calamari. Only two other times in my life have I been this impressed with grilled calamari: in Egypt at the Red Sea, and in Santorini, Greece. The grilled calamari at Me Jana is about the same size rings as the fried calamari you’d order at any other restaurant. Rather than battering and frying it, like most other restaurants would, Me Jana coats it in olive oil, garlic, cilantro, and other herbs and spices, grills it, then serves it with lemon wedges and diced tomatoes. It was a party in our mouths. If I was a calamari caught by a fisherman, this is definitely the way I’d want to go out. Not in a deep fryer.
At our last visit, we also ordered the falafel, which is served on top of ladled tahini sauce. Neither of us were greatly impressed, and in all honesty, we probably wouldn’t order it again. It was a little too hard and dry for our liking.
There are so many culinary adventures to be had at Me Jana, and I will continue to share my Me Jana ‘mezzadventures’ with you.
