America’s Best Restaurants. Best Middle Eastern Chefs. Restaurants of the Year. These are a few of the prestigious lists on which Maydan has landed over the past few years, curated by the likes of Bon Appetit, GQ, and Food & Wine magazines. That’s thanks to the overall experience cultivated at Maydan, which is named for the Arabic word meaning “town square.”
The team strives to recreate the community atmosphere of a true Middle Eastern town square at each of its “tawles,” or tables. To that end, the chef highly recommends you go with the prix fixe menu. Picking and choosing from a brief selection of options for each course ensures that your meal flows easily, which is exactly what the chef has in mind when crafting the food. Start with a kitchen appetizer, like the honey-soaked dates or the herb pate, and your choice of freshly made spreads—you can’t go wrong with the hummus. Then pick a few small plates “from the fire,” such as the seared halloumi cheese with wildflower honey or the zil zil beef kabob with Eritrean spices. For the main course, choose one “center plate,” like the heart-roasted whole cauliflower seasoned with turmeric, zhough, za’atar, and tahini.