The Flying Carpet Review

Like a lot of people after New Years, I'm trying to stick to a diet for the month of January to lose any weight I gained during the holidays.  (That's why I was busy making healthy tomato soup last weekend.)

When a friend wanted to get together for dinner on Wednesday, I was skeptical.  Can I really afford to eat out this week?  It's my first full week back from the holidays.....  My friend is super sweet, though, and had a Groupon she wanted to use at a new Turkish restaurant in my favorite part of town.  She wanted to treat me and she knows how much I love hummus; I couldn't say no.

I tried to eat healthy.  I had a bit of the hummus on my friend's vegetarian sampler platter.  It was good and second only to my favorite hummus in town.  I ordered what looked to be a healthy entree (and the only appealing thing on the menu) - the roasted chicken with collard greens.  The chicken was amazing!  I'd never tasted collard greens before but these were good, especially with the tomatoes they appeared to be stewed with.  When the waiter came by, my vegetarian friend asked him about the greens and he admitted there was some bacon in there.  Aha!  No wonder they were good!  Is anything bad with bacon as an ingredient?!

Before leaving, my friend wanted to try the Turkish coffee and baklava.  I had only a small piece of the baklava and it was good.  Yes, that's the extent of my baklava review; I'm no baklava expert!

If anything, The Flying Carpet suffers from a limited menu - and an expensive, limited dinner menu.  Even for the many vegetarians in this part of town, there are only one or two menu options.  I liked the atmosphere - a house made almost entirely of wood, tables surrounded by piles of rugs, and rugs hung on all the walls.  However, I don't think I'll return until a) they have more lunch menu options or b) they lower their prices.  Why go there when I can get much better, cheaper food - and many, many menu options - at King Tut down the street?

But, I'm proud of myself for not overeating while out at a restaurant.  And I made good diet food choices.  Success!