New North End Delivery Option: My Dad's Pizza

If you live in the North End, you know that your food delivery options are slim pickings. For the longest time Downtown's Tazza (near 5th & Church) has been the only eatery delivering to our neck of the woods. Beggars can't be choosers, but Tazza is only so-so in my book. Their motto is "It means fresh," but I was never particularly impressed with the freshness of their food.

And then there were two. And I like the second much better than the first. My Dad's Pizza (northwest Nashville on Buchanan near 14th) offers free delivery to the North End. Last week we had a pizza from My Dad's, which was good and had really fresh ingredients on an able crust.

Tonight we ordered a couple of their Mediterranean dishes, which they advertise as "signature tastes of Jerusalem," including the "Fattet Homos Feast" (which is only available on Mondays) and "Kofta Betheeni." The Fattet Homos is a layered dish, which has an amazing taste combination of ground lamb, roasted almonds, and parsley on the top. The middle layers are homos and yogurt, and I have to say the homos (or hummus) is as good as any that I've had in Nashville. Those topmost layers cover a bed of crispy pita wedges, which were my least favorite part, basically because they seemed to have a lot of oil (deep fried?). The Kofta Betheeni is a dish of meatballs smothered in tahini (sesame paste). This was the first time I've had warm tahini, and I was not disappointed. The meatballs were a little salty for my tastes, and I would probably settle for just one or two in the future, because I am not used to a lot of sodium. Both dishes come with kibbeh (a meat stuffed wheat pocket; cooked, not raw) and "tabooli," which is the best tabouli I've had in Nashville. The tomatoes were ripe, the parsley was fresh, and the lemon juice was tangy without being overwhelming. Fresh, undrenched, springy parsley is the key to excellent tabouli in my opinion.

So, I recommend My Dad's Pizza to my neighbors who are looking for a delivery option beyond mediocre Tazza. Be ready to be asked to call My Dad's back after you finish your meal, because they asked us on both of our delivery occasions to do so to give them feedback. That was also a fresh change of pace. Otherwise, it's nice to have a decent pizza delivery here and one that serves authentic Mediterranean is a big boost.