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Gazala Halabi, chef-owner of Gazala Place in Hell's Kitchen, likes to brag that her tiny spot is the country's only Druze restaurant. With her expansion to the Upper West Side, make that two. The Druze, an ethno-religious group scattered through Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Israel, have a cuisine that's similar to standard Middle Eastern fare, with slight differences in the details — instead of pita, for example, there's a paper-thin crêpe called sagg. Look for the uptown branch to closely resemble the original location, with a few changes: The space is larger, for one, and the menu slightly expanded.
— Helen Rosner