Located just down the street from Bossier City’s new Eask Bank District, at 1630 Barksdale Blvd., Al Noor is a new Middle Eastern grocery store and restaurant serving lunch and dinner. Most of the menu will be familiar to fans of Greek and Middle Eastern favorites like shish kebab, falafel, fried eggplant and hummus, but don’t let that stop you from visiting – everything about this place is a little different.
During a recent lunch visit, I had beef shish kebab ($13.99) served with silky, smoky baba ghanoush and a platter of bright red, spicy-as-all-get-out Turkish salad. The Turkish salad comes with an ambiguous warning on the menu, which cautions diners that the salad is “Served as is.” “As is” is really delicious, but spicy enough to open your sinuses for the remainder of the day. It goes great with meat platters or just as an accompaniment to a piping hot disc of pita bread. As simple as it is, the Turkish salad was my favorite thing at Al Noor. A platter can be ordered for $4.99 – seriously, give it a try.
Al Noor appears to specialize in Middle Eastern catering; they’ll prepare a whole stuffed lamb or a giant platter of Arabic lamb and rice called mensaf for your next party. In the appetizer section of the menu, ful medames (an Egyptian fava bean dip) is included alongside more common options like grape leaves and spinach pie. For dessert, you can have Palestinian Kanefah, a really unique dessert that consists of a thin layer of baked cheese topped with a mountain of shredded pastry dough that’s been dyed bright red using food coloring.
There’s a lot to explore here, especially if you wander the aisles filled with imported sweets, spices, clothing, and more. If you’re not feeling like Middle Eastern delicacies, you can also order a Philly cheese steak sandwich ($7.99), a cheeseburger ($6.69), or a shrimp po’ boy ($9.99). While I loved the beef kabob, I’m pretty sure that curiosity will eventually get the best of me. I’m going to end up eating a cheese steak sandwich from Al Noor eventually, I’m sure of it.
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