One Dish Quickie at Spitz

Don't you have those days sometimes when you're kind of hungry, but not really, when you don't know what you want to eat, but know what you don't want to eat? You know? Those kind of days? Well, I was having one of those days when I stopped by for dinner with a friend at Spitz, self-proclaimed Home of the Döner Kebab in Eagle Rock. For those of you who don't know, the Döner Kebab is a Turkish dish made of meat cooked on a vertical spit and sliced off to order. The meat may be lamb, mutton, beef, goat or chicken. Anyway, after perusing the menu, nothing was really grabbing my attention, but the hollow spot in my stomach wanted to be filled. Finally, I settled for the The Döner Plate.

So what's the Döner Plate? It's practically everything but the kitchen sink. The ingredients were as follows: mixed chicken and half-lamb/half-beef on a bed of sweet potato fries and topped with Tzaziki and chili sauce. It's also served with lettuce, onion, tomato, cucumber, bell pepper, Feta cheese, pepperocini, Kalamata olives as well as falafel balls, hummus and two lightly fried pita chips. I'm getting exhausted just reading through all the ingredients. In my head, I was just thinking that with all these choices, I'm bound to find something tasty that would satisfy my hungry, yet not hungry self.

Finally, it landed on my table and my, oh my, what a cornucopia of ingredients. There was a lot to this dish so I decided to just dig in and worked my way from top to bottom. First, the pita chips were light and crispy and dipped in the hummus were a tasty combo, while the falafel, being a bit dry though had some nice flavor, also went well with the hummus. The lettuce was crisp and both the lettuce and tomatoes were really fresh. The salt of the olives and the dill topped Feta cheese mixed well with the veggies.

Before digging my way down, I enjoyed the papery thinness of the chicken and felt it was seasoned just right. Further down into the dish, the lamb and beef were quite salty. At first, I thought it was just me, but my friend had ordered the Classic Döner sandwich with a half beef/half lamb mixture and also found it over salted. I eventually made my way all the way to the bottom where the sweet potato fries resided. Light and crunchy, they were the highlight of the whole dish.

Since this Döner Plate was really made for two, I barely even made a dent in it. What I did have was okay. For the most part, it satisfied my weird on-off physical hunger. Maybe, if there was something extraordinary about the meat, which is really what Spitz's bread and butter is all about, I would have felt my palate hunger for something to tantalize my taste buds realized and it would have broken me out of my foodie funk. Alas, it wasn't to be.

Would I go back based on this one dish? I wouldn't make a special trip to Spitz, but if I was in the neighborhood and if I was in a better foodie mood, I might stop by to give it another shot. This time, I would definitely go for something much simpler than the every ingredient Döner Plate.

To see pics, go to:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/la_addict/sets/72157605446395641/

Spitz
2506 Colorado Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90041
(323) 257-5600

www.eatatspitz.com