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Photograph by Katherine Bish

Zaytoon will definitely stay on my mind. I’ll mention the new Lebanese lunch spot to my fellow downtown dwellers, even though its limited hours (at press time, it was closing at 2:30 p.m. on weekdays and staying closed through the weekends) gear it more toward the nearby office crowd. I’ll root for its success, hoping it eventually expands its hours and gussies up its clean–but–bare-bones décor. I’ll keep telling myself that I’ve gotta go back to check out their daily specials, which they started offering in February, about a month after they opened; last I was there, the meat-and-tomato pie certainly sounded tasty.

And I hope that soon, Zaytoon will prove to be better than when it opened. Zaytoon’s bill of fare is as brief as its hours of business: six sandwich wraps, two salads, hummus dip, baked pita chips and French fries (huh?). Definitely a serviceable menu for the quick business lunches it’s geared to serve so far, and ridiculously reasonable, with no one item costing more than six bucks. But in fact, the most significant setback at Zaytoon is that the dishes themselves can suffer from that same succinctness.

Take, for example, the shish touk, made from chicken breast “marinated in olive oil, lemon, garlic and spices” but that, when I tried it, boasted no visible seasoning. The menu goes on to say that the meat is “wrapped in fresh pita bread with toum [a lemon–garlic–olive oil sauce] and Lebanese-style pickles.” But unwrap it, and you’ll find that this sandwich may be less than the sum of its parts. Mine contained two thin pickle strips and a bordering-on-invisible smear of toum, which did deliver its promised sting of lemon and garlic. It was a monochromatic-looking lunch: the chicken was the same whitish-beige hue as the also-thin pita and could have been given some much-needed oomph with some fresh lettuce and tomato, and perhaps a bit more toum. No matter how inexpensive and no matter what the ethnic cuisine—and especially in this day and age of gourmet and specialty sandwich shops—nobody wants a sandwich that comes across as just a sandwich, like something you might slap together at home, with no perceived abundance of ingredients, flavors or toppings. And ironically—given the fact that Zaytoon is a Lebanese spot—all the wraps were beleaguered by the house’s choice of pita; I couldn’t shake the sense over two visits that it tasted stale.

That’s the bad news. The good news is that the beef-based wraps, shwarma and kafta, possessed a richer flavor and moister texture in the meat, which was much appreciated. Happily, the brightness of lemon juice, such a key ingredient in many Middle Eastern cuisines, made for a delicious tabbouleh, a traditional salad of chopped parsley, cracked wheat and chopped tomatoes, also treated with some fresh mint and olive oil. Tabbouleh is one of my most favorite things to eat, ever, and Zaytoon’s did not disappoint. Hummus, meanwhile, is one of those foods like pizza or bread pudding (to use two from-left-field examples) that everyone likes a different way. If you like your hummus on the more heavily puréed side—with some liquidity to it, like baby food—and a lighter garlic touch, then this is the hummus for you.

It’s hard not to root for Zaytoon; despite being a counter-service operation, it has a real family-business feel, and they couldn’t be more personable or attentive. All they need is to show that same generous spirit in the kitchen—a little more gussying up of the food—and they’ll be firing on all cylinders.