When you go to Langer’s, you order pastrami. Howlin’ Ray’s? The fried chicken sandwich. Ignoring a specific dish at a certain restaurant can be blasphemous. Here is the dilemma with Bavel, Genevieve Gergis and Ori Menashe’s Levant-spanning Arts District restaurant. To experience it best, you need as large a group as you can manage. I wouldn’t dream of starting a meal without swiping a hot puffy pita through silky hummus blasted with spicy duck paste. The natural next course is oyster mushroom kebabs tart with lemon and sumac. The malawach bread, with its abundant flaky layers and side of strawberry zhoug, is nonnegotiable. I crave the breaded fried quail painted with chile oil more than I do some of this town’s best fried chicken. I still see stars when I take that first bite of lamb neck shawarma. Whatever seasonal fruit Gergis has turned into a tart, cobbler or ice cream is the one to order. Bavel, the name on everyone’s lips at launch, is still a tough weekend reservation seven years later. — J.H.

500 MATEO ST., LOS ANGELES, (213) 232-4966 l BAVELDTLA.COM