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There! Up ahead!

Rising out of the desert landscape of the American mini-mall is the Casablanca Cafe, an oasis in an otherwise grim setting of Marine recruitment offices and mattress stores.

Casablanca cafe owner Rabih Baddoura offers exotic cuisine including vine leaves, fried kibbeh, humus, baba ghanouj, and a variety of soups and salads at 2223 Louisiana St..

The Casablanca is no mirage, but it can be a minefield when it comes to selecting your meal. The menu provides descriptions for patrons not conversant in Middle Eastern food, but even then it's a hit-or-miss proposition, since preparation ranges from really good to decidedly marginal.

Infusing the exotica of the Middle East into the cavernous space of a former bicycle shop can't be an easy project, and the owners "two Arab men who study at the university" are likely not pursuing careers as interior designers. Consisting mainly of fringed rugs, desert-themed paintings and the occasional camel statue, the decor is acceptable, but it reminds rather than recreates the lavish ornamentation of the region.

And while the booths and floor seating are comfortable enough, the coziness evaporates with the tables, which are exposed and uninviting. The chairs look as if they were picked up at a hotel clearance sale, prompting fears that maybe the restaurant is a mirage after all, and you've been snookered into a corporate dinner with a menu of chicken or fish.

Spicy and cool

Fortunately the food choices are more varied than that, and our meal started out well with a fatoosh salad that was generously heaped with chunks of cucumber, tomato and red onion. It's nearly marinated in dressing, but pairs well with the lentil soup, a thin puree of lentils and mild spices that maintained a personality without going the chunky-and-hearty route.

The salatet laban cucumber mixed with yogurt is categorized as salad but more closely resembles an enormous bowl of dip. This cool concoction would be particularly good in warm weather, and it's quite tasty. It's definitely preferable to the banadora bel toom; the tomatoes in this appetizer were grilled into mush and suffocated with a too-thick blanket of garlic spread.

Next up was the mixed appetizer plate, a selection of humus, baba ghanouj, grape leaves, fried kibbeh and falafel. The humus was smooth, and, I thought, a little dull, but I'm partial to garlic humus. My companion, who prefers plain humus, liked it very much. The baba ghanouj, a smoky concoction of baked eggplant and tahini, was delicious glopped on the warm pita bread. The kibbeh likewise tasted better than the ingredient list ground beef and cracked wheat would suggest; the pine nuts provided an interesting overbrush of flavor. And the falafel was moderately spicy and fried to be crispy but not tough.

Entrway

Standard American food has largely abandoned vegetarians (thank you, Beef Council), but Middle Eastern/Mediterranean cuisine has not, and the Casablanca offers nearly as many vegetarian sandwiches and entrees as those with meat. The falafel sandwich was hefty and packed with eggplant and spicy pickles. My companion quickly plucked those out, pronouncing them "overpowering," but keep in mind he also has been known to be overpowered by ordinary pickles, garlic humus and perhaps vanilla wafers from time to time. The sandwiches also come with french fries, but they're wrapped up inside the bread. "Back home," our soft-spoken Saudi waiter explained, "that's how we eat them."

The casa-maza entree was a basically mixed grill of shish kabab (beef), shish tawook (chicken) and kifta kabab (ground beef). Plenty of times I've had similar dishes which turned out to be a heap of sticky rice and dry hunks of meat, but these were tender cuts served on lightly flavored white rice. It was accompanied by several big slices of peppers, tomatoes and zucchini that supplied both color and a couple of my five-a-day requirement as well.

The couscous bel lahmeh entree, unfortunately, turned out to be an unappetizing combination of tough lamb chunks and soggy vegetables. The sauce flickered with some interesting taste, but it was too weak to do any good.

It's a shame when the Casablanca disappoints, because you really want to be forgiving of them. The service, while imperfect, is so sweet. Our waiter was homespun rather than formal, a completely unintentional attitude and consequently a very appealing one.

Despite its inconsistencies, the Casablanca is worth a visit. Unless you're arthritic or otherwise crotchety, sit in the traditional Arab seating that's the floor when you go. Shield your eyes from the glowing Pepsi sign in the kitchen, and settle back into the pile of pillows behind you. The Casablanca Cafe may not be entirely authentic, but it's less complicated than a plane ticket to Baghdad, and you won't have to eat airline food on the way.

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