Ever have African food?

Nomad Restaurant
78 2nd Avenue
New York, NY 10003
(212) 253-5410 ~ Link

This restaurant advertises Northern African food, think Morocco. A very crowded dining area, its like they crammed as many tables in as they could fit, with barely enough room to fit in between them. Gold was a prominent color, gold padded seats with the backs like lattice work, painted gold. Little statuettes with tile on them, tile on the table. The water bottles were square, rather a nice touch, the service was pretty good. I thought our waiter was this quiet nice looking young black man, instead it turned out to be a tall rather thin guy, that looked a little like a Disney villain.

Kasey said she wanted to try hummus, she had always been afraid to but since I liked it she wanted to get the Nomad Trio Dips, crispy pita with 3 dips, hummus, cucumber yogurt and bissara (fava beans). She liked the hummus (we now have some in our refrigerator) and the cucumber yogurt, she didn’t give an opinion on the bissara. I only liked the hummus, cucumbers are yucky and I’m not crazy about fava beans. Kasey had another appetizer as her meal, Chicken Briwats (fillo pastry stuffed with chicken and almonds). She couldn’t get over the flavor, she couldn’t describe it but they disappeared rather quickly. I got the Black Vegetable Burger (eggplant, portabella mushrooms, beluga lentils, black beans, coriander and cumin), served with fries and salad. I didn’t eat the salad as it had some kind of dressing on it, the greens looked fresh though, and I forgot to ask about sauce on the burger, which there was, which meant I had to get rid of the top bun, tomato and onion. The lettuce was rather limp. The bun looked more like one of those sandwich rounds then a regular bun. Anyway, I ended up eating the burger off the bottom of the bun with my fork, and it kept falling apart. The flavor was good, all I could really taste was black beans. Overall, it was a new experience and not unpleasant. Bottom line if you’re in the East Village and want dinner, check it out.

Reservations are encouraged but not necessary. Appetizer and dinner for two, no dessert, no drinks between $30 and $40.

From BigBooks.com:

At Nomad you’ll feel the charm of the Mediterranean Cuisine and the North African desert. The fire of the people, the warmth of the hues and the passion in the cooking.Fittings and ambiance are a combination of the artwork of Alex Weiss’ wall paint sceneries, imported artwork from Morocco, and the carved Iron work of the Steal Neal creating an authentic outpost of North Africa in the heart of the East Village in NYC.You’ll be surrounded by ochre walls, Berber pottery and hand carved wooden screens while relaxing in Berber script, candlelight, and nomadic tunes.