Labels settle easily onto restaurants, and it would be understandable to think of Ori Menashe and Genevieve Gergis’ East Hollywood blockbuster as “the fancy kebab place.” It’s true there is nowhere else where meat on sticks is imagined quite like Saffy’s ground veal and Ibérico pork seasoned with floral-sweet baharat, lime and poppy seeds, or its lamb shashlik marinated in labneh and sparked with paprika and cumin. But the dozen-plus appetizers are equal portraits of technique and outside-the-box combinations. Roasted celery root set on a fluffy ring of allium cream, for example, is forested with curry leaves, strands of sauerkraut, spicy-sweet apple harissa and dried rose petals. The flavors and fragrances leap between India, Africa and Eastern Europe. Saffy’s also has quietly become a daytime restaurant: Breakfasts of shakshuka or smoked salmon tartine jump-start the day and, returning to the kebab theme, chicken shashlik zinged with herb chutney and tahini in a pita makes for fortifying lunch meeting fuel. — B.A.

4845 FOUNTAIN AVE., LOS ANGELES, (424) 699-4845 l SAFFYSLA.COM