Lubbock, an apparently very hungry city, is ranked fifth for most restaurants per capita to choose from in the state, according to Lubbock Business Monthly.

Everywhere you turn, there are signs advertising Mexican, Italian, Chinese, and American eateries with pictures of their tempting entrees and daily specials. One type of cuisine you don’t usually see advertised on large billboards is one most people rarely visit, or are afraid to, for fear of trying new things. Meet the Mediterranean marvel.

Litebite Mediterranean Café, located at 3624 50^th St., in Lubbock, is a casual restaurant/grocery store that serves Mediterranean delectables at desirable low prices. Having heard good talk of this establishment before, I decided to give my taste palette a trip to the east.

Upon entering the business, I had no idea what the menu was planning to offer me, since I was not familiar with Mediterranean cuisine. Not a fan of restaurant urban legends, I didn’t walk in with an image in my mind of a dog on a platter, but with an excitement, curiosity and hunger in my stomach to try something new.

The large and spacious room that I had walked into contained plenty of tables at which to dine at, and a bar that wrapped around half the wall. Light Indian dance music played from the speakers overhead, and the atmosphere had a very casual feel to it. Out of the corner of my eye, I glimpsed shelves upon shelves full of groceries and cooking utensils, and a few hookahs on top of that. I’d have to investigate later, for my stomach didn’t want to wait much longer to be pleased.

A huge menu hung on the wall, behind the counter, listing its many authentic dishes and agreeable prices. From their options, I concluded that this Café was pretty much a middle eastern Deli. They offered calzones and pizzas, both made with a cracked wheat dough, and a large selection of sandwiches and salads, just with a little middle eastern twist. One word, I noticed, appeared many times throughout the menu. Gyro (pronounced Yee-roh)is a mixture of beef and lamb meat that could be put on just about anything on the menu, if the item didn’t already have it. Gyro meat could also be substitued for chicken, if desired.

Other items caught my eye, such as the Labni sandwich, a pita bread sandwich with a cream cheese spread served with olives, olive oil, mint, lettuce and tomatoes. There also is a falafel, a pita bread sandwich with a blend of legumes and vegetables along with the marinated fava bean dinner, which contained fava and chic peas, marinated with garlic and olive oil, served with vegetables and pita bread.

All these entrees sounded scrumptious, but there was no way I could eat one of everything and still be able to walk to my car. My wallet didn’t like the sound of getting one of everything, so I selected the Greek cucumber yogurt salad (it sounds odd, I know, but I wanted so to see what exactly was included in a Greek cucumber yogurt salad), a vegetable pocket pastry (an invention that is a close relative to the calzone), and a 99-cent piece of baklava (a flaky pastry with nuts and honey) for dessert.

I had spent a total of $5.65 for my meal, including drink, an excellent tender amount for a three-course meal. Before taking a seat, I looked at the menu for the rest of the pricing. The prices ranged from $2.25, for the appetizer baba ganoush ( a dip of broiled eggplant, served with olive oil and pita bread), to $8.99, for the dinner Mezza plate ( a sampler plate of Falafel, baba ganoush, humus, grape leaves, tabbouli, and lain served with pita bread ), with $4.50 sandwiches here and $2.99 calzones there. They are all reasonable prices for the tight spender, or the just-received-my-income-tax-return customer.

After sitting down, I sipped my iced tea and took in the décor that surrounded me. Hand-painted murals of dancing women and men covered the walls, and one wall had clocks set for the different time zones all around the world. Hanging near the entrance were at least six Food For Thought Top Performer awards, dished out by Lubbock’s KCBD-TV station for restaurants who achieve high scores when being inspected by the Lubbock Health Department.

Across from where I was sitting were the shelves I had spotted earlier, bursting with a variety of goods. Next to the shelves was a hallway that led into a completely different room. It appeared to house rugs and carpets that seemed to be on sale. Before I could explore this mystery room, a woman in a Litebite hat and an apron brought me my cucumber yogurt salad, not five minutes after I had ordered. Excellent, fast service.

At first glance, you would think the yogurt salad I had in front of me was some sort of pudding with medium-sized, cut-up-pieces of cucumber mixed in, with a few slices of pita bread on the side. At first taste, I was amazed at how much flavor was contained in such a simple looking dish. It is a tangy, semi-sweet combination that tastes even better when eaten with the warm pita bread.

Two bites into the salad, my pastry pocket was brought to the table. A large melted medley of cheese, onions, mushrooms, and green peppers, wrapped in a crusty, wheat bread competed against the cucumber yogurt salad for my attention. I chose to give each equal treatment.

Finishing all the food in front of me was a challenge. It tasted so good that I kept shoveling mouthful after mouthful, until my stomach called it quits before I could eat the last few scraps left on my plate.  Even with my stomach protesting, I couldn’t leave the delicious looking baklava uneaten. It was just as tasty as it looked.

I decided to take a gander at what looked like a mini grocery store, across from where I was sitting. On the shelves were all sorts of imported desserts, syrups, Mediterranean cookbooks and other goods I assume you would need when cooking Mediterranean style. Lined up on top of the shelves were the many hookahs(a form of a smoking pipe with hoses that you inhale from), in many different shapes and colors.

Another room connected to the dining area contained more shelves full of eastern groceries. Barrels of fresh, assorted olives and beans that you could buy by the pound lined the hallway, and there were also jars of flavored tobacco to smoke with the hookahs. It is a plethra of culture, all concentrated in one room.

The next day, I had an interview with the owner, who is also one of the cooks, Sam Shoujaa.

A native of Lebanon, Shoujaa moved to the United States in 1993 with his wife, Farah, in order to create and provide a stable atmosphere and education for their two sons. Opening a restaurant seemed the best way to make money while getting their sons through school.

Not many Mediterranean restaurants can be found in Lubbock, maybe a total of two very small ones, giving Litebite a small edge on introducing this new, authentic food to hungry and curious Lubbockites. Getting the people to actually come and try this eastern wonder was a problem at first, and is still a small problem now, according to Shoujaa.

“The new customer is afraid or scared of trying our food,” said Shoujaa, shaking his head sadly. “What they don’t know is if they don’t like the food the first time, our policy is they get their money back.”

It ‘s not too shabby of a deal for those interested in trying something different. While there are still some people out there who are unsure about tasting something they are not familiar with, over the years Litebite has accumulated many regular customers, becoming pretty popular around town for their gyros and homemade specialties.

“We make our own pizzas, different kinds that you won’t find in a market,” said Shoujaa.

Pizzas are not the only things made to order. Every dish, save the baklava and the pita bread, is made fresh daily, adding quality to the authenticity, a value Shoujaa holds high.

“[It is] not easy to make people happy. We work hard to make people happy,” said Shoujaa.

When asked how he liked his job he has been working at for 12 years, he replied, “If I didn’t love it, I wouldn’t be successful,”.

With so many “everyday” restaurants to choose from, why not try something different? Litebite Mediterranean Café brings to Lubbock a large menu full of tasty, cheap, foreign food that makes its score, for this review, as one of my favorites.

If you ever get a hankering for something with a twist, why not try some Mediterranean munchies provided by Litebite Mediterranean Café, “a fun and healthy alternative to fast food”.