Al Jebal

Rating: Very good
Meal: Lunch for 3
Price:  $50
Payment: Credit cards accepted
Dishes:  Baked lamb, Tandoori chicken combo, tabbouleh, falafel
English Menu: Yes
Smoking: No

We were driving along the road in Corvallis the other day when my eye spotted a "middle eastern" restaurant and market sign.  We stopped and I bought some spices from the market which is very well stocked, and vowed to return to try the food, which we did today.

Falafel

The restaurant bills itself as "middle eastern" but the food is pretty standard lebanese/arabic fare, despite the use of words like "indian tandoori".  My son ordered the chicken tandoori combo which consisted of two different types of yoghurt marinated boneless chicken pieces on a bed of rice with a small salad included.  We tacked on some extras to each dish and to his we added labneh, a thick yoghurt sauce.  I had the baked lamb, which was very tender lamb falling off of the bone.  My extra was called baba ghanouj, but we would have called it moutabel in Kuwait as it was the roasted creamy eggplant dip.  Baba ghanouj is more the fresh, vinagery eggplant dip over there.  Anyway, it was delicious.  The rice can be either kabsa (based on a Saudi Arabian rice) or yellow rice, basmati either way.  The kabsa was the  more spiced and flavorful of the two.  My wife decided to eat off of our plates and ordered some falafel and tabbouleh salad, which we all agreed was unnecessary as the portions were so enormous, but it was nice to taste those things again as well.

Tabbouleh

Overall we were super thrilled with it and if we lived here we'd be eating there every other week probably.  Corvallis is lucky to have such a great spot in town.

Baked lamb with moutabel

Chicken tandoori combo with labneh