Osta's Lebanese Cuisine

I grew up outside of Detroit. There, falafel, hummus (not humus, dammit) and tabouleh are food staples. If you haven't had a Fatoush by the time you're in 1st grade, there's probably something wrong with your parents (check on that, please).

So it was, in the early 90s as I adjusted to living in West Michigan, that I discovered one of my very few complaints about West Michigan life: The sheer dearth of quality ethnic restaurants. Kalamazoo was great for gourmet breakfast, but a good Gyro was a scarcity (save for Theo and Stacy's) and a anyone searching for quality middle-eastern fare was even more dissapointed (though I understand things have improved slightly in the last year or two).

I spent 8 years in Kalamazoo, pining for trips to La Shish and wishing Hella's would open a West Michigan extension so I could get a decent Greek meal (though my Greek friends tell me Hella's isn't that great either).

Flash forward to 2005. We moved from Kalamazoo to Grand Rapids which is a vastly larger metro area. For the size of the town, I still maintain Grand Rapids is rather bland when it comes to dining options, but there are a few oases in this desert (not dessert, dammit) full of Olive O'Chilibee's Roadhouse and Grille.

Osta's Lebanese Cuisine on Wealthy Street in the supposedly-arrogant East Grand Rapids is one such oasis. First off, it's tiny. There are maybe 10 tables in this place. Don't let that dissuade you from visiting. Osta's appears to do as much carry-out business as it does sit-down so the food is fresh, the service is supurb and while it may not be La Shish (my personal gold standard for Middle Eastern food), it's damn good (and 130+ miles closer than the nearest La Shish, I might add).

If you go, I recommend trying the Labnee as an appetizer. This is not something I've tried anywhere else, but on a warm day this might be manna from heaven. It's a chilled cheese+mint+cucumber dip into which you sink wedges of pita. I could eat it until I passed out, and I came close last night. With my Labnee I had a Falafel sandwich (Megan had a Chicken Tawook) which was better than Sam's Kitchen on Kalamazoo Ave. (which is saying something) and certainly held its own against falafel I've had around the midwest.

In short, it's worth the trip to enjoy some good, garlic-laden lebanese food. Your stomach will thank you.