Eats Beat: Lebanese grill a simple, fresh choice in far south Fort Worth

Home-owned, unique, local restaurants are tough to find south of Interstate 20.

But three of the most interesting are packed into the 7600 block of McCart Avenue.

Between Tastebuds Eatery and the Sausage Shoppe, Gyro & Kabob Grill is an unassuming Lebanese restaurant and juice bar serving fresh Mediterranean dishes in big portions.

Abbas Fares’ restaurant has defied the odds, thriving in a drab shopping center space where several restaurants have faltered.

Families find it for the platters, such as a $39.99 combo for “three” that can feed many more: nine kebabs, three huge salads, rice or fries and hummus.

Entrees cost $10-$12. The $6.99 weekday lunches of kebabs, gyros or chicken shawarma (with garlic sauce) include fries or rice and salad.

Besides beef, chicken and lamb, the entrees include salmon, tilapia and swai. The appetizers include the traditional lentil soup, dolmades (meat or vegetarian), tabbouleh, baba ghannouj and kibbi, plus spinach, meat or cheese pies, a feta-and-olives dish (jibné-wa-zaytoon) and labneh dip.

Burgers are still on the menu, along with smoothies (pomegranate-mint-lemonade, $3.99) and raw mango, carrot, orange and apple juices.

Don’t expect a Terra or even a Zoës. The atmosphere at Gyro & Kabob Grill is less than zero. It’s a former burger-and-pizza grill in a strip center near a Wal-Mart at Sycamore School Road.

But along with Sausage Shoppe’s barbecued house-made sausage and Tastebuds’ desserts, it’s another reason to stay away from the freeway.

It’s open for lunch and dinner daily; 7660 McCart Ave., 817-346-7303.

Cracking a Yolk

Yolk, the new breakfast and lunch cafe for Sundance Square, is now expected to open in two weeks.

Yolk is part of a Chicago-based chain of contemporary cafes offering specialty juices and coffees. The red velvet pancakes are a spectacle, but there also are fresh choices such as a “South Beach” half-pineapple with yogurt, granola and walnuts.

It will replace the old Cowtown Diner in what is better remembered as a former La Madeleine space at 305 Main St.

By the end of March, a new It’Sugar specialty candy store will open at 503 Main St.

A new combo Nestle Toll House Cafe cookies-and-ice-cream shop and Red Mango yogurt shop is open daily at 124 E. Fourth St.; 817-782-9001, facebook.com/nestlecafesundancesquare/

No Mo

Mo’s Best Eatery, known for its housemade pastrami, is on the move to Mansfield.

Mo Zaben’s overachieving burgers-and-pizza grill left an ill-kept Arlington strip shopping center in favor of a former chain sandwich shop at 111 W. Debbie Lane. Watch for an opening.

Doughnut delay

We’ll have to wait a little longer for a Krispy Kreme in west Fort Worth.

The new Westworth Boulevard location (Alta Mere Drive) has been delayed by permitting problems.

Construction has been stop-and-go for more than a year, but it’s still scheduled to open in time for the company’s sprinkled Easter doughnuts and “the Egg,” a purple filled doughnut with green icing; krispykreme.com

This story was originally published March 2, 2016 at 3:46 PM with the headline "Eats Beat: Lebanese grill a simple, fresh choice in far south Fort Worth."