Shazaam!

Mazen Iskandrani later told me that the most popular dish at the restaurant is the meat kebab combo, a hefty platter of grilled lamb, beef, chicken, gyro meat and ground-beef kifta. "If you like meat, you'll love it," he said.

I do and I did. Sidonie and I were impressed that Aladdin Café's concept of gyro meat isn't the papery, compacted meat found in fast-food Mediterranean joints but thick slices of startlingly tender lamb and beef. We both piled it on wedges of soft pita and doused it with yogurt-and-cucumber tzatziki sauce.

Wendy had to pass on dessert, but the rest of us took tiny bites of a flaky but unremarkable wedge of baklava. Our real discovery was the rice pudding, flavored with rose water and served in an elegant chilled glass. Even Wendy broke down and plunged a spoon into the satiny confection. "It's too lovely to pass up," she said, licking the spoon. "And I don't even like rice pudding."

It was just another example of the kind of magic that happens on West 39th Street.