West Roxbury's second Lebanese restaurant opens

The other night, we checked out Fairouz, which recently took over from Cristelle's at 5268 Washington St. in West Roxbury.

To start, this is not a competitor to Al Wadi on VFW Parkway. It's nowhere near as fancy and the menu is far less extensive. Although owner Fadi Metri has upgraded the interior a bit, you can still see its sub-shop origins in the counter where you used to place your order (but they do have a waitress now).

There's no fancy bar that changes color, although they do have a beer and wine license (and recently got permission to serve arak).

Think of it as a good, solid take-out place - with prices to match (we left feeling quite full for $30 or so). It's a decent addition to the collection of international take-out places near the intersection of Washington and Grove streets.

We ordered fried kibbe as an appetizer and the beef kabob and chicken shawarma plates. The fried kibbe was, possibly, the best part of the meal - there was a subtlety to the spices that was great.

The entrees both came with rice, rather than the french fries listed on the menu (fine by me). Nancy's beef was well done, which would have been fine if I'd ordered it, but she prefers hers medium. The shawarma was decent; I'd order it again.

As mentioned, we had no room left for dessert, which was just as well, since they don't have any yet (dessert is on the way).