Laila

Laila started on Staten Island and brought its Syrian cooking to the corner of 86th Street and Third Avenue, into a room of chandeliers and faux brick that runs at the volume of a family celebration. Begin with the dips — hummus, muhammara, labneh and baba ghanouj — and the fattoush that arrives under a dome of fried bread you crack open at the table.

Then go where Syrian cooking is most itself: kebbeh nayeh, the raw beef-and-bulgur tartare of Aleppo and Damascus tables; fried kibbeh with pine nuts; kabab banjan, lamb grilled with eggplant in tomato sauce; and stuffed cabbage filled with spiced lamb. A belly dancer works the room on weekend nights, and the enclosed porch is the calmer seat at a weekday lunch.