Nuba
August 15th, 2010 by Randy 0Sure, Nuba has gotten its fair share of praise, but it’s for a reason. The food is GOOD.
You can read elsewhere about the reincarnation of this Dominion Building basement spot, from the total redo of the interior to reflect its Middle Eastern vibe, to the saving of the (I believe) Davide Pan-created security bars on the windows put up for a previous tenant, to the little garden out on the sidewalk tended to by Nuba staff, but the thing for me is the food.
There was a time when two or three times a week we would order lunch from Nuba, and it was usually the same thing: Najib’s Special and the lentil soup. Najib’s special is something that I have not seen anywhere else: it is deep-fried cauliflower. Sometimes a bit crunchy, but by the time we got it, it was a bit steamed, the deep-fried cauliflower is a little bit greasy (olive oil!) mouthful of that white vegetable that I remember eating raw as a child with French onion dip. It comes with a unique (for me) green hot sauce, and starch and veggie and salad, and lots of olive oil. It is crazy good.
Other things that are memorable include the roasted potatoes (yup, and with the hot sauce added — I see them making the huge trays of roasted potatoes when I come into work every now and again), the wonderfully crispy falafel balls, the Mjadra (mmm, the crispy onions on top), and the chicken and hummus. Basically, really, the whole menu is amazing.
They tried to serve breakfast for a month, but that didn’t last long. And they have since expanded to three locations now — the most recent opening being closeish to Casa Del Artista and the Narrow — but the spot in the basement of the Dominion Building is the one for me. Oh, and there is also a bit of a “cushion room” too.
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