Dining Out:

Nestled among the dealerships on the Brand Boulevard of Cars is a cute little place called the Rush Hour Café & Grill. It specializes in Middle Eastern cuisine, but it ventures into Greek and Mediterranean territory as well.

While there are dozens of other restaurants in Glendale that offer similar cuisine, done better, this place has a couple of advantages — location and price. If you’re shopping for a car or you work in the area, it’s a good place to drop in and get an inexpensive bite.

Rush Hour Café’s top seller is the shish kebab sandwich, which comes in chicken ($5.49) or beef ($5.99). It’s a tasty combination of garlicky grilled meat, lettuce, tomato and mayo on a toasted roll. My chicken was a little tough but had a nice grilled flavor, and the roll was unexpectedly delicious. It cried out for a tahini sauce, but none was available. Instead they suggested the huge bottle of Tapatío hot sauce on the table. It was actually a nice complement.

They also offer beef and chicken lule kebab sandwiches ($5.25), which are similar to the above sandwiches but with long patties of ground meat and other Mediterranean spices. I think the shish kebabs are a little better. I ended up supplementing my lule with spoonfuls of tabbouleh, my favorite item on their menu. In its simplest form, this cold salad has softened cracked wheat (bulghar), parsley and tomato in an olive oil/lemon dressing.

Rush Hour Café’s tabbouleh ($3) also has a copious amount of sliced green onions, lots of sea salt and the surprising texture of bulghar cooked “al dente” (the Italian term works best here). I recommend it as a side order for any menu item. Not as interesting a side order is the eggplant caviar ($2.50). It tastes like a cross between marinara and bean dip but is made with eggplant. It should be chunkier and not so sweet.

I was also disappointed with the gyros ($4.50). I became quite a connoisseur of these lamb and yogurt sandwiches on our family trip to Greece last year. They should be a tangy, minty, garlicky explosion of flavors. The one at Rush Hour was uninspired.

All of their sandwiches come as plates as well ($6 to $8.50). This means you miss the crispy roll but instead get the meat on a plate with salad, rice, hummus, roasted tomatoes and peppers and pita bread. They give the pita a quick flip on the grill so it comes to your table nice and warm.