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Location: 6828 San Pedro Ave., 210-598-1662, atlasgrillsa.com
Hours: 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Monday-Thursday; 11 a.m.-2 a.m. Friday-Saturday; 11 a.m.-midnight Sunday.
On the menu: Appetizers (hummus, baba ghanoush, grape leaves, etc.), $3.99-$7.49; salads, $4.99-$9.29; soups, $3.99; sandwiches and wraps, $5.99-$7.99; entrees (shawarma, kebabs, gyro), $8.99-$15.99; desserts, $3.99-$4.99.
Fast facts: On San Pedro, there’s room for every kind of food, but tacos most of all. And so it was a brave stroke for Atlas to bring a taste of the Mediterranean when it opened in January. With a random decor of red-and-white vinyl booths and paintings of London, Paris and the Taj Mahal, Atlas chooses instead to frame its identity with a menu of Greek and Middle Eastern standards.
Impressions: Taquerías have al pastor trompos and tortillas; Mediterranean cafés have shawarma rotisseries and pita bread. I call that culinary diplomacy, and the gyro wrap at Atlas is a good ambassador, built with a half-pound of ground lamb and beef shaved fresh from the rotisserie, brought to life with salt, pepper, garlic and a pantry of spices like good sausage for $5.99. Built on a fresh, pull-apart pita, it’s dressed with lettuce, sliced tomato and a bright cucumber-yogurt sauce with crispy seasoned fries for $1.29 extra.
Atlas also makes its own stuffed grape leaves, irregular in their hand-rolled leathery cocoons, filled with spiced rice and meat, which will come as a surprise to vegetarian dolma fans.
For an operation so small, Atlas suffers from some big problems. In a city where Andrew Weissman’s Moshe’s Golden Falafel works from a gourmet assembly line of fermented vegetables and spreads for less money, Atlas will have to step up its game. I enjoyed the tender beef kebabs on a tikkah plate, but the runny hummus and flatline spread of pickles, lettuce, olives and cabbage didn’t support the almost $13 price. It came with a pita the size of a steering wheel and almost as tough to pull apart.
Dinner finished with halfhearted Turkish coffee spiked with cardamom and a pair of diminutive rolled baklava with aromatic honey and ground pistachios overpriced at $3.99.
Most of all, I’m bothered that a Mediterranean kitchen would send out tabbouleh with no bulgur wheat. Just parsley and tomatoes. Did they run out, or did they think nobody here would notice? Either way, it would have been better just to say, “We’re out.”
msutter@express-news.net
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