...Mediterrano [off-topic]

I made new friends this year, thanks to blogging.

One of the best blogging friendships that I have made has been with Food Collage, who started it all with inviting me to check out Aji Picante with her.  The rest is history - we have had many meals together, attended many events, and soon, I get to share in one of the biggest days of her life.

So when she asked me to help her with a project for that day, of course I said yes. It was also a great excuse for us to get together for dinner afterwards in the North Hills, which is normally a foreign land to me (not her).  Another friend, FoodBurgh, had raved about Mediterrano, and I remembered seeing them on Pittsburgh Today Live to promote Pittsburgh Restaurant Week...all signs pointed to Mediterrano as our food destination for the evening.

So we went:

Mediterrano

I've become more interested in Greek food the more that I've tried it.  I became enchanted after having a huge Greek platter at Kennywood on Greek Day, then trying many different types of hummus, babaganoush, and tzatziki, from It's Greek to Me in Brookline on our 'Burgh Bits and Bites Food Tour to Pitaland (same tour) to Labad's in the Strip District to Greek Gourmet in Squirrel Hill.  I've always been a fan of gyros, especially the ones from the cart in The Strip to the ones made in the Team Member Clubhouse at Kennywood (by a guy - Tony of Tony's Gyros - who knows what he's doing, not by a kid that I probably taught at some point!)

We were first presented with a basket of hummus and warm pita bread - this is so much better than the traditional basket of bread with butter.  Give me warm pita and hummus, and I'm sure to tear it up, especially if it's yummy - and this was:

Hummus and warm pita

 Our enthusiastic waiter rattled off the specials, which included a sugar-crusted lamb shank.  Food Collage was hesitant to order it, because to her, lamb is hit or miss - good sometimes, terrible others.  The waiter assured her that it was a quality dish, made from lamb from a local PA farm.  She had been swayed and ordered it:

Sugar-crusted Lamb with root vegetables

I also wanted lamb, but I decided to stick with the Arni Souvlaki, "Lamb, skewered with onions and peppers, and grilled, served over rice pilafi", served with more warm pita.  I figured of all of the lamb dishes, this would probably be a healthier choice (if that's possible?):

Arni Souvlaki

I was very satisfied with my choice - I didn't feel super-guilty about eating lamb, and the rice and pita made for light side options (although I know that there had to be some butter lurking in the rice).  Food Collage and I each tried a bit of the others' dish, and it was interesting how different our lamb dishes were.  I definitely liked mine better than hers - wait for her review to get her opinion :-)

Mediterrano was a fantastic choice for dinner that night.  My only side observation is that the parking situation is not fantastic - slanted parking on the side, and to get out, you are slanted the wrong way.  You cannot go around the building to get out, so you have to do a 3-point (or however many points it takes you) turn to get out of the lot, without much room to do so.  I have a small car, so this wasn't too much of an issue, but I can't imagine how people with SUV's fare in the same situation.

The North Hills has quite a gem with Mediterrano in the neighborhood.  I hope that they will participate in Pittsburgh Restaurant Week's summer week, as they did in the winter!

In addition, I hope that Food Collage and I continue to have many awesome meals and food adventures together, as each experience has been enjoyable!

Mediterrano

2193 Babcock Blvd.

Pittsburgh, PA 15209

Website: http://www.mediterranocuisine.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mediterranogreekcuisine