Rami's: Exceptional Israeli Cuisine

Brookline is a town that knows what it likes. Restaurants with good food win loyal regulars in a flash; those with not-so-good food usually end up relocating. So when you find a restaurant that has flourished in Coolidge Corner since 1990, with only a few tables and a very unremarkable exterior, you can be sure that it’s doing something right.

At Rami’s, the cuisine is Sephardic Israeli, and the menu is exactly what you might expect: hummus, falafel, Israeli salad, beef kebabs, and the grilled eggplant spread baba ganoush. There’s chicken grilled with onions, and turkey shawarma—marinated meat layered onto a spit and slow-cooked, rotisserie-style.

But within the expected comes the unexpected—the tastes and textures that whisper, this is how I’m really supposed to taste. The hummus is velvety, nutty, and heavy on the tahini. It’s made fresh, in-house, three times each day. The falafel are golden orbs of ground chickpeas and spice, deep-fried for a crisp crust, but fork one open and the interior will steam with moisture. The delicate little morsels of baklava gleam with honey and nuts. The Israeli salad is a beautiful jumble of color, the cucumbers, red cabbage, and tomatoes, shining under a layer of tart, spicy pickles and tahini dressing.Read the full review at the Brookline Patch...