Javan Restaurant

I met a friend for dinner at Javan Restaurant a couple of days ago and have been trying to think of ways to go back ever since. Javan is a Persian restaurant in West LA. There is plenty of street parking as well as a lot nearby. Even though it is right on high-traffic Santa Monica Blvd, it blends in so with the other buildings that I passed it twice before finding it on the corner of Butler.

My friend and I decided that even though we weren't hungry, I should try everything and therefore we decided to over-eat from the get go. We ordered the sampler platter as an appetizer. This could easily feed four people appetizers, but we were just two. The sampler platter came with a variety of fresh salads made with cucumbers and tomatoes, homemade pickles, dolmahe (which are like Greek dolmades), a potato salad variety, and a bunch of fresh herbs with lemon. There was already some crispy bread similar to Indian Rhoti on the table. The herbs and the potato salad were my favorite parts of the appetizer plate. I never thought of eating fresh herbs before, but it's not unlike eating salad. Ever since, I have been mixing a variety of fresh herbs in salads I make at home and it really spices them up. I am especially enamored by lemon grass.

You'd think that after we devoured the entire plate of appetizers for four we wouldn't have even been able to think about dinner, but we thought about it. I ordered the Albalo Polo which is tender dark meat chicken on the bone served with a huge portion of sweet and sour cherry basmati rice. The chicken was red because of the way it is cooked but it just fell off the bone. The huge pile of rice was colored partially pink. It had chunks of cherries in it. At first I was a little nervous but once I tasted it, I knew nothing else. Rice is filling, so I saved half my meal to take home. My friend ordered the Zereshk Polo, which was just like mine except her rice had currants instead of cherries.

The servers were very attentive to us but we did stand out in a restaurant full of regulars. When we asked for dessert, they offered us menus showing different ice cream choices, had my friend not been there before, I do not know if we would have been offered the regular dessert menu. I imagine that when most people see noodles listed on the dessert menu they reel back and order the sorbet.

My friend urged me to get dessert because she was saving room her favorite. Faloodeh is a starchy noodle frozen with sugar and rosewater. Noodles for dessert sort of turned me off. I couldn't imagine how that would taste. These noodles, however, are more like sprinkles or Jimmies as some people refer to them. They stuck together during the freezing process and reminded me of a refreshing granita or crispy sorbet. I ordered the Zoulbia which was described as flour, sugar, honey and rosewater in a pretzel shape. It turned out to be a crispy friend dessert that looked like a thin funnel cake more than a pretzel. I broke off a piece and with each bite hone oozed out of the middle of the crunchy dough. It was delicious, but eating more than two bites was difficult because it was so rich. In the end, we had eaten a lot.




Javan Restaurant
11500 Santa Monica Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90025
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