Dining Abroad at Home: Mediterraneo

There’s no butter, mayo or flour in the kitchen at Mediterraneo on South Broad Street.  Those ingredients do not fit Armenian Chef Michael Velicu’s goals for his and his wife’s restaurant—a tour of cuisines around the Mediterranean Sea. 

Velicu says he and his wife, Marilena, visit that region at least once a year to bring back new menu items, and three times a week, they get fresh fish flown in from the Mediterranean.  Neither one, however, began their careers in the restaurant business.  

Velicu moved to Ridgewood 18 years ago, commuting to his job as a structural engineer in Manhattan. Marilena is an accountant, and the two used to go to a restaurant called Istanbul in the same space on Broad Street. It was, obviously, a Turkish restaurant and, as we recall, had pretty good food, but a pedestrian décor.  

As Velicu—who had attended the French Culinary Institute for the fun of it—recounts it, “one thing led to another, and we decided to buy the place.” 

Velicu’s hobby became his—and his wife’s—career, and Istanbul was reborn as Mediterraneo with a warmer, more welcoming décor and a menu that has dishes from Greece, Spain, Morocco, Italy and the south of France.

The hit of the evening when we went to review Mediterraneo was a succulent lamb shank on a bed of spinach topped with arugula that my partner pronounced the best he had ever eaten.  And the recipe is an exception on the menu because Velicu uses his grandfather’s recipe—not one he found in Greece, Spain, Morocco, France or Italy.    

Velicu braises the shank in a special sauce for five hours. "To see if it is done, you shake the pan, not pierce it with a fork," Velicu says. "If it separates from the bone, it’s ready."

Though the beet salad has many fans, after sampling the always excellent hummus, we elected to begin with the Shepherd’s Salad—diced tomatoes, cucumbers and scallions in spiced oil and vinegar. A couple can split the large one and still have some left over for lunch the next day. And because we can never resist them, we also had Mediterranean cigars—phyllo rolls stuffed with cheese and herbs. 

For the other main course, we tried the Sultan's Delight, which consisted of grilled chicken over an eggplant puree. The eggplant and other vegetables were flavorful and filling but the chicken was on the dry side, and not up to the standards of the restaurant’s chicken kebabs, a favorite with a four-year-old we know.   

To put children who want nothing but chicken nuggets at ease, Velicu says, "I have a trick. I tell them we have chicken fingers but they look totally different."

What they get are chicken kebabs, marinated and cooked on a metal skewer so they cook from the inside out as well as the outside in.   

Mediterraneo welcomes children in the afternoon and early evening but not after 8 p.m., when the restaurant fills with parties of friends who come to drink wine, share tapas and talk, sometimes until after midnight.  

Velicu says customers are never hurried out of the restaurant. To explain, he translates an old proverb, "When we sit down at the table, we not only have to fill our bellies, we have to fill our souls." 

Week days, Mediterraneo, situated right across from the train station, is open from noon to 3 p.m. and from 5 to 10 p.m. Weekend hours are from noon to 12:30 a.m. Reservations are suggested—201-447-0022. 

Food: Excellent

Service:  Excellent

Entrée Price Range: $16 to $26

Atmosphere: Welcoming

Kid Friendly: Before 8 p.m.

BYOB

Credit Cards Accepted