OLIVE AND THYME DESERT PLUS

The phenomenal spread includes accompaniments that make the feast even more fun to eat: a week’s supply of house bread ($4) and good saffron rice ($3.50) killer, salsa-like house hot sauce ($2.50) fluffy garlic sauce ($2.50) concentrated tahini sauce ($2.50) and house-pickled turnips ($2.50) with a horseradish-like kick.

OLIVE AND THYME DESERT PLUS

The $45 deal includes generous portions of (a la carte prices are given): smooth and sumptuous, lemon-brightened hummus ($4) tangy, gently smoky and uncommonly rich baba ghanoush ($4) juicy chargrilled chicken kebabs ($9) with real cookout flavor oversized sausage-like, crowd-pleasing chicken kafta ($9) and beef + lamb kafta kebabs ($9) boatloads of fragrant beef shawarma ($9) and tangy chicken shawarma ($9) plus a fattoush salad ($9) made with impressive ingredients that, unfortunately in my case, hadn’t been properly drained. The veggie stew-like Lebanese moussaka with rice and salad In fact, the “small” family platter - an immense and wonderful de facto buffet that could feed twice as many as the two to three diners it’s purportedly designed for - is one of the better values around. Consequently, items such as Olive’s house-made sturdy pita-style bread and its flavorful shawarmas and kebabs will please longtime Lavash fans (like me) sure to recognize fresh and healthful-leaning food cut from the same tasty cloth as Lavash’s There’s a reason for this: Olive’s chef-owner Rami Sabra is the former chef at Lavash, and Sabra’s core recipes haven’t changed dramatically. On the newcomer’s website, its food is described as “modern and traditional Lebanese-Mediterranean cuisine.” On a plate, the food evokes this description: If you like the fare prepared at Lavash Cafe (which is a couple of miles due south on High Street), you’ll like the food prepared at Olive & Thyme. Serving in Clintonville since November, Olive & Thyme occupies a big and bright space that still resembles the Panera Bread branch it previously housed. The small family platter at Olive & Thyme Cafe photographed on Wednesday, January 27, 2021. After sampling several of Olive & Thyme’s dishes, I’d gladly accept that challenge. Staring at that long document, I realized it would take months to eat my way through it.

The number of categories on the menu for Olive & Thyme Cafe stretches into double digits.

Olive and thyme desert