Named after the city where Jesus supposedly worked his first miracle, Qana Café and Hookah doesn’t offer miraculous food. It’s just really good Middle Eastern cuisine, and while its lack of prominent signage and its location next to a pool service shop make it difficult to spot if you’re driving by on Chapin Road, it’s well worth seeking out.
Qana’s walls are lined with bookcases filled with books, vases, candlesticks, and hookahs. The cash register/host table in the center of the space greets you as you walk in. The interior is large and airy, which prevents the décor from coming off as cluttered. One end of the place has couches and comfortable chairs arranged around a coffee table and a large-screen TV, which, on the occasions that I visited, was playing softly enough not to disturb the diners at the other end. It all makes you feel like you’re eating in the dining room of some well-to-do family’s house.
An unusual lime, cabbage, and ground beef soup made a fine soup of the day on one of my visits. The regular soups include a meat-and-potatoes bowl that features that same ground beef with chunks of potatoes. This item is based on broth rather than cream, which makes it a satisfying first course without being too heavy for the spicy food to come later.
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Qana Café and Hookah
7860 Chapin Rd, FW. Sun noon-10pm, Mon-Fri 8am-10pm, Sat 8am-midnight.
817-862-9768.
All major credit cards accepted.
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That would include the kibbeh. Stuffed with ground beef pungently spiced with cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice and then fried to a delicate crisp, the three croquettes were a little light for a dinner entrée (which is how I ordered it), and I might have appreciated a sprig of peppermint to provide the final touch. I couldn’t raise any complaints about the quality, though.
Even more delicious was the kafta plate: three sausage-like links made out of spiced ground beef and not served in a casing, to keep everything halal. You can order this as a sandwich, but it’s better as an entrée, where the delectable meat is served with a tangy yogurt sauce, pickled red onions, and an attractive presentation of basmati rice with saffron and tiny chunks of diced potato.
If Middle Eastern food isn’t your thing, you can still come here for the regular sandwiches, which are, like everything else in the restaurant, very reasonably priced. My guest had a Lebanese chicken sandwich with a delectable tahini sauce brightened considerably by lemon juice. I had a French dip with the best jus I’ve ever had. Most other French dips I’ve eaten have been accompanied by brown liquid that tastes like hot water with a bouillon cube dropped in. This one has a deep beef flavor that might tempt you to just drink whatever’s left over in the cup. The small salad that came on the side was made with cabbage, which proved to be a welcome astringent touch for the dish.
Smokers with a taste for the unusual can smoke hookahs at the restaurant, with tobacco coming in such flavors as chocolate, apple, citrus, and mint. If you don’t partake, you can get frappes and smoothies to top off your meal, though these are no better than the ones Starbucks will whip up for you. You’re better off ordering a proper dessert, either the house-made baklava (made with traditional pistachio filling and so dense that you might have trouble cutting it with a fork) or the pastry triangles, which are also wrapped in phyllo dough but instead are filled with pillowy, warm, sweet cheese and dusted with ground pistachios. Either of these will pair up excellently with the restaurant’s coffees, which come in regular, espresso, and Arabic varieties. I had mine with the spicy chai that Qana serves as an iced tea, and it came off perfectly. Snacks like these make Qana possibly even better as a coffeehouse than it is as a restaurant. The next time I’m in the mood to relax on a slow afternoon, I just might make it down there.
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Qana Café and Hookah
Meat and potatoes soup $4.99
Lebanese chicken sandwich $6.09
French dip $5.99
Kibbeh $6.99
Kafta plate $7.95
Baklava $2.30
Triangles $2.29
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