I rarely go to the mall. When I mean rarely, I mean that I have been to West Town Mall exactly 11 times during the whole time I have lived in Knoxville. That 11 times in 13 cumulative years and less than once a year. Why don't I go there more often? Well, I'd love to chalk it up to my distaste for West Knoxville, in general, but, to be honest, it is that I feel totally frustrated every time I go into a mall because of my inability to get my bearings in the enclosed space. I can't find anything, and what gets my back up is that malls are designed to be difficult to get around in, to change capriciously, to be confusing. Why? To get you to stay longer to "happen" upon shops, to force your foot traffic around the building. Even if you are completely conscious of the social psychological design of the space and try to fight against it, you find yourself even more frustrated by bumping into people who are completely bound up in the thrall of the mall. So, I avoid the place like the plague except when I need to get a gift for a kid or the wife at the last minute.

I had to make one of those trips the other day for one of the kids' upcoming birthday. My wife and I set sail on I40 westbound and found ourselves in West Town Mall. It was around lunch time (after mulling over about 1000 different gift choices) and we realized that we were not going to make it back to downtown for another meeting concerning our business, so we had to eat in the dreaded food court. I am a food lover. I do not eat at places like Chick-Fil-A (the worst of factory chicken slathered in high fructose corn syrip and GMO breading) or Sbarro (an abomination before the Lord as far as pizza goes). So I was resigned to just getting some fries at one place and an ice tea. We walked into the food court and, boom, there it was "K Town Kebabs." WTF? Shawarma at West Town Mall.

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My wife has various food sensitivity issues and this was a total match for her. She also went to college in New York City and is a shawarma fan. I got addicted to it when I was attending seminars at NYU's Center for European and Mediterranean Studies. After the seminar was over, we would pop down Thompson St and tucking into Mamoun's falafel (and their equally good kebab). Anyhow, good shawarma is hard to find. I understand that there is good stuff at Ali Baba's way out on Kingston Pike somewhere, but these gentlemen at the mall have it perfect.

I got the mixed beef and lamb plate ($6.99). The rice was perfect and was supplemented by perfectly roasted and seasoned red potatoes. The shawarma sauce, which is what separates it from doner kebab, was light and tangy. The proper, very thin pita slices were not moist, and held all of the plate's offerings together nicely. My wife went with the straight lamb and declared it heavenly with a moist texture and perfectly seasoned as well.

It doesn't look like it has been open very long and I hope they can make a go of it. I would like to travel back out to the Mall, just for the shawarma, but if they can't get the mystified folks who were walking up to their counter to understand that lule is always going to be better tasting and better for you than anything that Chick-fil-a offers, it might not work out for them. Maybe they'll open up a spot downtown if the incongruous shop in the mall (a place, by definition, without any taste) doesn't work. Late night shawarma just off Market Square? Until that dream happens, I guess I will have to get frustrated by the mall more often.