Khashoka’s Authentic Jordanian Comfort Food is Exactly What North Dallas Needs

North Dallas doesn’t just have grand openings of H-E-B or rumored White Castles to get excited about: In November, a Jordanian restaurant, Khashoka, opened its first U.S. location in Richardson with a promise of authentic Jordanian and other Middle Eastern cuisine. Our curiosity, along with a gentle prod from our food editor, was enough to get us out of the house for another adventure in a long line of food explorations and discovery.

The dining room is well-lit and wrapped in warm wood tones with vases, large wooden spoons, brass containers and Arabic writing everywhere. But upon entering, the first thing you notice is the savory aroma of the grill. So much of the food, but especially the lavash bread, is prepared on a tava or saj, a wok-like iron cooking implement with a long wooden handle, usually wielded over an open flame.

We had planned on starting with some makdous, a starter of eggplant, walnuts, chili and local olive oil, but alas they had sold out that evening, so we dived right in with our mains: chicken sajia and fatteh with beef and nuts, along with a side of rice. We asked if the bread was included with what we ordered, and indeed it was. Just to make sure, we asked again.

We wanted that bread.

The rice was slightly sticky and saffron-colored with a generous addition of slivered nuts and was enough for two people (and is not included with the mains).

The chicken sajia arrived in a gleaming stainless-steel plate atop a stand with a heat source underneath. It was a wonderful mish-mash of grilled seasoned chicken, grape tomatoes, onions and green bell peppers. Not at all spicy but whose seasonings clearly fall within a typical Middle Eastern flavor profile.

We were still anxiously waiting for the bread to arrive when the fatteh was served. Fatteh is a dish that can be traced to the era of the Egyptian pharaohs and consists of pieces of fresh, toasted, grilled, or fried flatbread covered with other ingredients, in this case beef and nuts. We were asked if we wanted olive oil or ghee added, and we said ghee, because why wouldn’t we?

This was served in a bowl with the hummus bread on the bottom and everything else on top. It was great. It was rich. It was different. We’d order it again in a heartbeat, and try the other varieties offered that substitute the beef for stuffed grape leaves, eggplant or chickpeas. Yes, please.

At last (sing it like Etta James), the bread arrived: two decent-sized pieces, puffed up into pillows by the heat, which escaped as steam as we tore off a piece to dip into the fatteh. It lived up to our self-induced hype, warm and soft, with some sort of seed in the dough, with a great chew and grill-fire flavor throughout.

We jealously portioned out the bread piece by piece so we’d have enough for both dishes, but in the end, that wasn’t necessary: as soon as we finished it off, they brought us another basket with two more.

We were won over.

Oh, the menu is pretty big, with starters like labneh in several forms (shanklish, mudahbara), hummus, ful medames (fava beans), falafel, mutabal (grilled eggplant), as well as a few desserts such as kunafa pastry and umm ali (puffed dough with cinnamon, raisins and nuts), as well as teas and Turkish coffee, so there’s plenty to explore.

And we do love exploring.