On Liberty Avenue and Wood Street, Rosewater Middle Eastern Grill provides a quick and tasty bite to those who pass by, although it depends on what you order on the menu.
Apart from tables that were laid out near the front window with a noticeable light feature, the design was simple, although a little bland. Though, there was an unnoticeable digital ordering screen at the end of the counter like at Sheetz.
Behind a glass case, the food was laid out to be served like it would be at Chipotle.
In a cold display dessert case, a man pulled out two cold pies, one made of spinach for $4.49 and the other made of beef for $4.99.
Heated, the spinach pie was salty and the dough skin was moist. It was a pocket of salty vegetables altogether in one concoction. For a vegetarian, this would make for a tasty and filling meal. However, the spinach became overwhelming after too many bites and its stringiness reminded me of seaweed.
The meat pie on the other hand was dry and tasteless. Perhaps from the re-heating process. The meat had mild seasoning, but its lack of moisture hid that flavor. The dough on the outside was similar to soft pizza crust or pita.
If you decide to order this, which you shouldn’t, eat it with the cucumber sauce or ketchup. Because otherwise, the crumbly meat bits will feel like fat and dry grains of desert sand in your mouth.
Next was the Gyro Pita Wrap that unfortunately had raw onion slices inside that ruined the entire thing. The wrap wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t anything special either. With lamb meat inside, it was moist and met the mark to be considered a pita wrap, but wasn’t the best I’ve ever had.
It was a pita-tube full of meat, sauce and disappointment. The price was fair and, as for the portion, it was filling. Although, like you always should, make sure you know what the ingredients are going to be inside.
As for the last, tastiest and most expensive item on the menu, there I ordered Platter 1 for $15.99. The meat that came with this dish was delectable and cooked to perfection.
For the portion of the dish, it might have only been worth $13. But, the extra $3 compensated for its tasty and strong flavor that permeated the whole dish.
The lamb and chicken tikka were delectable, long sticks of meat on a stick. The outer skin had a smokey grilled flavor and was moist like a nice croissant inside.
Similarly, the rice was like a cinnamon roll, except without the sugar. It tasted very strongly of cinnamon with the rice’s oil that brought out its strong pungency. The yellow rice was moist and cooked nicely, but I couldn’t eat it all at once because the cinnamon flavor was too strong. There was just something about the way it paired with grain that didn’t sit right.
The yogurt cucumber salad that it came with was also just outright bad. Not because it wasn’t fresh, but for the vegetable combination, with raw onion, that created a sour flavor.
That night, after I finished the meal, my friend and I continued to take shelter at the Middle Eastern grill from a snow storm that prevented us from driving home. While we waited there I noticed two things. The soda fountain station did not work and the woman’s bathroom did not lock.
While those are two small things, they are quite important. They are the decision factor between what ultimately makes or breaks a restaurant by complementing its food.
