Sunnin Cafe

Sunnin Cafe: Truly one of the reasons to live in Santa Monica is the access to a multitude of delicious restaurants/bakeries/etc. Found this Lebanese restaurant via yelp.com while looking for someplace to get takeout and was just blown away at how good it is. We couldn't decide what to order so I just asked the maitre d' and I am so glad that I did. The restaurant has parking, not too many tables, though around 6 pm there were plenty available, and is very casual with the chefs (linecooks? it's really not a pretentious place) almost in the center of the room, not hidden behind a wall. Got falafel, fool (fava beans in good olive oil), chicken kebab (oh my goodness the garlic...fluff(?) was amazing!, and the chicken was tender and tasty), beef kebab (great flavoring on the beef and the hommos was good too), and rice pudding (that first bite with the cinnamon/pistachio fading to cream and then giving way to a burst of orange water(?)...). The kebabs both came with an excellent little salad, and almost everything came with pickled radishes that were quite tasty. A pack of very thin pita bread was also provided. The result of so much good food was gorging and then lethargy and happiness, the way good meals ought to be. Furthermore, later on there was no immense thirst due to excess salt...it seems like maybe the falafel has quite a bit of salt, but the rest of the meal didn't seem to. I'll definitely be going back.