by MARK SLUTSKY

There's something special about the freshness and variety of Lebanese cuisine. It's a great food to share, with all those dips and small dishes and that distinctive lemony zing. But in the sea of cheap falafel joints in this city, really good Lebanese food can be hard to come by. It's a real shame how microwave-dependent most of those places are; a mushy nuked falafel just doesn't compare to the real thing fresh out of the fryer, and many of the places share an unfortunate reliance on over-vinegaring their food, especially the tabbouleh.

That's why it's so nice to eat at Aux Lilas, a cozy little place next to the YMCA on Parc that has attracted a quiet following in the almost 25 years it's been open. Aux Lilas bills itself as "fine Lebanese dining," but that shouldn't scare budget-conscious eaters away: it's as easy to eat for relatively cheap as it is to splash out on something fancy.

There are a few ways you can eat here. The most obvious, and least fun, is simply à la carte. Then there's a more adventurous menu where you can order pretty much anything available in the prix fixes section. You've got two basic types of prix fixes to choose from. The first, the tazka, is a meal made of appetizers, available in both vegetarian and non-veg versions. There are also three more traditional fixed menus, the mezzes, which come with appetizers, main courses and dessert (these are a little more expensive). The catch is that the tazkas are designed for at least two people, or multiples. The mezzes also need to be ordered for at least two people, though you needn't have an even number of diners.

For a satisfying and surprisingly inexpensive meal, the regular tazka ($24.50 for two) is hard to beat. You get a very long list of tasty appetizers: baba ganouj (the menu charmingly notes that "our baba ganouj always contains a generous proportion of tahinah, despite its ever-increased price"), two large, fried falafel balls, fatayer (spinach pastry), hummus, mdardara (a lentil, rice and onion dish), qebbeh (a breaded fried mincemeat dish), sfiha (a meat pastry), and tabbouleh. It's a mouthful! Nearly everything is delicious - though I suspected the fatayer and sfiha had seen the inside of a microwave. The qebbeh and the falafel were particularly memorable. And the hummus and baba ganouj weren't bad either.

If you're feeling more expansive, try one of the mezzes. Most appealing to me was the lys rose ($25 per person), which included a selection of six appetizers, the house speciality (chicken aux lilas), and a second main course of qaftah, a grilled ground-beef dish. The chicken aux lilas (available à la carte for $13.50) was delicious, three grilled filets of chicken with a slightly spicy lemon sauce. If you do order the chicken on its own, I suggest you also go with an appetizer of mouhammara ($5.50 for the half portion, $9.50 for the full), a spicy paste of breadcrumbs, walnuts and olive oil. The mouhammara was also dotted with pomegranate seeds, which pleased me to no end.

There are also vegetarian and fish mezzes available, if that's more to your liking, or you can go for a cous-cous ($11 for the vegetarian, $12.75 with beef, chicken or Lebanese sausage). And for the veggies, the restaurant guarantees the stuff will be meat-broth-free.

I'd also suggest ordering a bottle of Laziza ($2.80) with your meal. Meaning "the tasty one," this Lebanese malted beverage is a sweet cross between apple juice and beer. It's available in both alcoholic and non-alcoholic versions, both for the same price. Even getting plain ol' tap water is entertaining at Aux Lilas, as the waiter pours it out of a traditional pitcher, holding it several feet above the glass, skillfully creating a neat-o stream effect.

Got beef? Or chicken or fish or some vegetarian alternative?
E-mail eattothebeat@gmail.com

Aux Lilas
ADDRESS: 5570 du Parc (just up from St-Viateur)
PHONE: 271-1453
HOURS: Tue-Sun, 5:30–10:30 p.m.
BEST FEATURES: The seemingly limitless permutations of fresh Lebanese food, and watching the waiter pour water
ALCOHOL: Yes
WHEELCHAIR ACCESS: There's a small flight of stairs at the entrance
VEGETARIAN FRIENDLY: Yes
CREDIT CARDS: Yes
NO-SMOKING SECTION: Yes
PRICE: $10–$30 per person, before tax, tip or booze
RATING: *** out of ****