Cafe Sham is a new restaurant serving Middle-Eastern food. This means that you can get a salad with feta cheese and a sandwich with mixed meat on a stick served in pita bread. It sounds like Mediterranean Cafe in theory, but isn't all that alike in practice.
There is no lack of opportunities for hummus in Madison. You can get it up and down State Street. Why then, did Cafe Sham come into existence? Well there are some things that set it apart. First, it has a full bar. That would seem to place it in the Amy's category. Here though the food is all made fresh'there are no tureens, except, of course, for soup. Then they have hookahs, all the rage in Madison, and quite fun to puff on. As if that wasn't enough, they also serve crepes, a dish which has its own restaurant on State Street. One last thing: They have live jazz some nights, which reminds me of good old Che's Lounge, which no longer features live jazz.
All of these familiar features are crammed into the space next to Badger Pantry. They have done quite a nice job redoing the former house of noodles and karaoke. The walls have been painted a dark blue and contrast nicely with a deep burgundy trim. The knick-knacks on the wall are all very tasteful and almost elegant. When you enter, a wicker screen on your left lists what jazz groups will be performing. Startlingly enough, there was a Cardinal Arts review of one of these bands. I looked down and good old Heather J. Ramsden was staring at me from her cramped mug shot. It was an omen of sorts, as I was with a Cardinal writer and the only people to enter while we were there were from the Cardinal ad staff.
We sat down at a smallish table and settled into the wood and metal chairs to order our lunches. I must mention that we were dining at an odd time, about mid-afternoon, so it's not so odd that no one was there. I ordered a savory crepe'tuna and mushroom, and the Sham chicken. As I already mentioned, there is a full bar. This means that we could smoke at our table, the action of which filled up the entire wait for food. The view out of the rather large windows is surprisingly good. Blues and some sort of music which seemed to be sung in Arabic played and I watched as people returned from class and motorcycles took advantage of one of the first nice days of the year. There were also some scruffy looking men buying beer for some scruffy looking kids. Like I said, it's located next to Badger Pantry.
The first courses were quite impressive. At $5.95, my crepe was a steal. The mushrooms were somewhat different from your usual store-bought variety'much deeper in flavor. The roughness of their cutting left them in near quarters, which was quite nice and robust. The tuna, cheese and mushrooms lingered in a creme sauce permeated with both the tuna and the mushroom flavors. The fillings occupy a complementarily robust buckwheat crepe. It's a little thicker than one you would get at the crepery. I like that. My compatriot's salad was similarly impressive. It was supposed to be small, but it was as big as any salad you would get at any other feta-wielding establishment. We both marvelled at the quality of the lettuce, which has tripled in price of late. (I work at a sandwich shop and he a grocery store.) The dressing was light and let the fresh flavors of cucumber, lettuce and parsley shine through.
Sometimes a salad like this gets bogged down with the combination of feta and an over-vinegared vinaigrette'not so here. Some could go for a little more dressing, but screw that.
The second course was less impressive. My friend's chicken shawarma wrap was good, but not great. I just had the same thing the other day at Mediterranean Cafe. The good thing here is that they don't include pickles like Mediterranean Cafe. My Sham chicken was flavored with what seemed like a nice simple citrus, oil and garlic marinade. It was generally tender with some crispy parts, and who doesn't like the little bits of chicken that get caramelized. My complaint, if it can be called such, is that the rice was rather bland. It was just rice with a little bit of tomato paste. Maybe I am missing some subtle spicing, but it's still a bit boring.
Cafe Sham is another restaurant that I would recommend trying out. Maybe the bar will develop a fun following ?? la Amy's. I really need a restaurant to love or loathe, but here on University Avenue is one which is just interesting and tasty enough.
