Mediterranean food in Van Nuys has a Syrian accent at this restaurant

Kobee Factory & Syrian Kitchen in Van Nuys — an amazing Syrian restaurant not much bigger than a walk-in closet — is the only Middle Eastern restaurant I know that spells “kibbeh” as “kobee.”

I’ve seen “kubba,” “kibba” and “kofte” — all of which qualify as fun with transliteration. And really, no matter how you spell it, it’s still a wonderful dish — a tasty appetizer made of bulgur wheat mixed with ground meat, toasted pine nuts and spices with a hint of citrus, deep-fried or grilled till it’s brown and crunchy and crazy delicious. And there’s probably no place in town that makes it better than the Factory, where it’s only the beginning of this tasty Syrian experience.

Despite the name, kobee is a small part of the menu. You can get it fried, barbecued (looking like something I’d make on my Weber), filled with veggies or ground meat. You can get it à la carte — but I suspect few do. The kobees are all served with a very good hummus, and a salad.

There’s also the option of “Kobee in the Pan” — a 12-inch kobee pancake that easily feeds two. Especially if you add on some baba ganoush, heavy with eggplant, and the addictive house-made pickles. They even do great french fries — and why not?

What they don’t serve is a longtime favorite of mine: kibbeh nayyeh, which is a Lebanese dish of raw lamb or beef mixed with bulgur wheat, the Middle Eastern version of steak tartare. I’ve read that in Lebanon, kibbeh is prepared 17 different ways, most of which don’t make their way to our shores. Kibbeh with pomegranate sauce? With cherry sauce? Sounds wonderful. But even fried and barbecued, I have no complaints. Kobee is a journey over there, from a mini-mall over here.

Show up early, and there’s a Syrian breakfast that should have you reconsidering the Wheaties with oat milk you had that morning. Msabaha is a dish of fava beans heavily laden with garlic, topped with tahini sauce. (Like all the breakfast dishes, it comes with nice warm pita bread, and a heap of house pickles.) Hummus is served with meat and without meat, with yogurt, and with crunchy fried pita bread — which puts our own potato chips to shame.

There’s also mfarakee, a choice of two eggs or three eggs, with fried potatoes and onions. For 50 cents more, you can add bacon, the only pork product on the menu.

As we slide into lunch, there are sandwiches as well — made on pita, rolled into wraps, packed with falafel and veggies, shawarma chicken or beef, garlic chicken, beef kabobs, chicken shish kabob — or the fermented, highly spiced beef and lamb sausage called sujuk.

These may be the best sandwich rolls in town — and trust me, the competition is stiff.

For a restaurant that’s so spare it verges on being a pop-up, the main entrées are generous and then some. You order at the counter, grab a seat at one of the few tables (a lot of regulars opt for takeout), and wait to wonder how you’re going to finish such a large plate of beef kabobs, chicken kabobs, or a mix of beef and chicken shawarma.

The falafel plate with hummus and Syrian salad edges into the realm of perfection; it’s a reminder that Middle Eastern cooking may be the best vegetarian cuisine in the world, despite its many beef and chicken and lamb dishes.

And, speaking of meatless dishes, the mujadara is a granular feast of bulgur, lentils and fried onions, lots of fried onions.

There’s also an option for hummus with crunchy grilled meat, which like the falafel plate is a personal greatest tastes combination, a visit to my culinary happy place. There’s a lamb shank as well, which was being consumed at an adjacent table, and filled with air with an aroma that gave me dish envy.

There were lamb chops as a special, which had a spicy crust that turned them into yummy lamb-sicles.

The baklava was pretty great — though if there had been an ice cream place next door, I would have been there in an instant. The sour yogurt drink came close. But not close enough.

Not that it mattered, really; the tastes are meant to stay with you for a long time after. This is food that fills the senses. It perseveres.

Merrill Shindler is a Los Angeles-based freelance dining critic. Email mreats@aol.com.

Kobee Factory & Syrian Kitchen

• Rating: 3 stars
• Address: 14110 Oxnard St., Van Nuys
• Information: 818-909-2593; www.kobeefactoryla.com
• Cuisine: Syrian
• When: Breakfast, lunch and dinner, every day
• Details: Soft drinks; no reservations
• Atmosphere: One of the smallest mini-mall restaurants you’ll find in the San Fernando Valley, sandwiched between a liquor store and many blocks of car repair places, this place has only a handful of tables — and a large following for its wonderfully authentic Syrian cooking.
• Prices: About $15 per person
• On the menu: 5 Breakfast Plates ($8.99-$11.99), 6 Sandwiches ($8.99-$9.99), 3 Salads ($4.99-$10.99), 13 Entrée Plates ($10.99-$16.99), 12 À La Carte Orders (95 cents-$16.99), 4 Sides ($2.99-$10.99), 3 Desserts ($3.99)
• Credit cards: MC, V
• What the stars mean: 4 (World class! Worth a trip from anywhere!), 3 (Most excellent, even exceptional. Worth a trip from anywhere in Southern California.), 2 (A good place to go for a meal. Worth a trip from anywhere in the neighborhood.) 1 (If you’re hungry, and it’s nearby, but don’t get stuck in traffic going.) 0 (Honestly, not worth writing about.