South Craig Street is the toniest street in Oakland.
With its cache of boutiques and excellent restaurants, it attracts Oakland's white-collar lunchtime crowd and graduate students who really don't miss their undergrad days spent settling for cheese fries at the "O," several blocks away.
Ali Baba is a quiet cafe serving Middle Eastern cuisine around the corner from the Carnegie Museums of Art and Natural History.
Despite being a narrow storefront sandwiched in the center of the block, Ali Baba gets a sufficient amount of sunlight coming in through the multiple skylights in the ceiling.
That's all the time one has to notice the decor before a server comes to the table, already equipped with glasses of water.
After she takes the order, there's a little time to check out the room: Subtle, Arabic patterns adorn the walls, and tapestries hanging on the ceiling help soak up the buzz of conversation in the room. Everything about the restaurant -- except the incredibly hard chairs -- is relaxing. The lunch clientele wears business-casual attire. Jeans, summer skirts, polo shirts and oxfords seem to be the norm.
Before further surveillance is made, whoosh! The server is back out with the food. She couldn't have been more than three minutes. And she has brought more water.
The Artichoke Salad ($2.95), a few artichoke hearts in tahini sauce, oregano and garlic, has more than enough tahini without drowning in it. And the Syrian Style Chicken Sandwich ($3.45) is like eating an empanada baked around chicken tandoori. A cup of the lentil-heavy Syrian Soup (cup $1.75, bowl $1.95) is denser than it looks, and it lasts the whole meal.
The food is far from bland, but it isn't too spicy. It's comfort food. Frequent ingredients include lentils, lamb, bulgur wheat and feta cheese.
For dessert, the Namora ($1), cake made from cream of wheat, honey and tahini syrup, is rich but not heavy. The Kanafi ($1) is like a giant Frosted Mini-Wheat stuffed with baklava.
The total bill for two people -- including dessert -- is less than $15. It's a college student price without the college crowd.
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