Family Offers Hearty, Cheap Middle Eastern

It doesn't have the widest selection, its interior design hasn't been updated since the 1970s and its bathroom isn't easily accessible.

But still, it's worth the trip to Skewers, a restaurant just below ground at 92 Mt. Auburn St. that features hearty Middle Eastern cuisine at decent prices.

Ranbir Singh, store manager, says customers say Skewers boasts the best falafel in town. They also praise its house special: baked chicken with raisins and mushrooms.

Singh and his family have managed the eatery for the past seven years, barely changing the menu that was first drawn up by an Israeli man who opened the store in 1980.

While the Singhs have added soups, grape leaves stuffed with rice and spices and taboulen (a parsely and cracked wheat salad) to the menu over the past few months, the overall selection is still mostly limited to Cheese-laden Greek salad, hummos, and beef, chicken or lamb shisk-kabobs.

Regular customers, like Boston cabbie Nick Carcia doesn't mind, because "the food is good consistently."

All selections are made fresh from natural ingredients and cost between $13 and $15 for a two-person meal. The takeout menu's entrees run from $3 to $6.

Portions are enormous--if you can bear Skewers' faded lampshades and windowless walls, adorned with tiles and bizarre 1970s wall hangings.

"It is not aesthetically pleasing but comfortable," says customer Mary Hahn. "The lampshades are pretty dated."

Skewers' vintage 1970s interior design compliments its 1970s architectural structure. It's tough to find the building's bathroom, and the entire restaurant is not handicapped-accessible.

After a customer navigates a narrow hallway to its inglenooked bathroom, he or she needs to take another three steps to reach the toilet.

Customers are attracted by the friendly service of employees like Martha Gutierrez, a native of Mexico who's worked at Skewers for eight months. Her smile graces sit-down customers daily.

Harvard Bookstore employee Hilary Brant says Gutierrez is always "smiling, attentive, and she kept pouring us water."

Brant pauses, grins and points to the tip lying on the table. "Hey," she says to a lunch companion, "let's leave her another buck."

Gutierrez smiles. Everyone comes to the store, located under the Harvard Provision Company and J. Press, for the food, she says, adding "my favorite is the rice."

Most undergraduates, no doubt, have passed Skewers and barely given it a second glance. But it's a fabulous restaurant, frequented by Cantabrigians and Bostonians from near and far.

If you dare to navigate the perilously steep stairs, you'll find the trip more than worth the effort. Singh says he's looking forward to meeting you.