By Gretchen Webster

WESTPORT–A new restaurant is joining the array of Westport eateries offering international cuisine this week. NAYA, which offers “Middle Eastern goodness” in the build-your-own style of dining, opens at 413 Post Road E. in the Compo Shopping Center on Wednesday. 

A New York City-based restaurant group, NAYA’s Westport location is the second in Connecticut, with another store in Darien. There are also branches in New York, New Jersey and Boston, according to Westport general manager Christopher Vasquez.

To start off their Middle Eastern dining experience, diners can choose a NAYA roll which begins with a pita, a Naya bowl based on rice and vermicelli or grains, or a NAYA salad built on lettuce and seasonal greens. Next, customers “pick your protein” of chicken or beef shawarma, a lamb or chicken kebab, or the vegetarian choices of falafel or cauliflower florets, he explained.

Then comes one of the most popular aspects of this style restaurant, according to Vasquez. “You can have unlimited toppings,” he said – and there are 16 of them including dips like hummus, cucumber yogurt, or the famed Lebanese baba ghanouj; vegetable, including tomatoes and olives; cheese, and finally to top it off, spicy red pepper, jalapeno or lemon tahini sauce.

“Welcome to our Lebanese home,” Vasquez said.

Middle Eastern-style salads and cold appetizers are also available, including stuffed grape leaves, and hot appetizers such as falafel, which are fried chickpea croquettes, and beef dumplings called kibbe. And, what would a Middle Eastern restaurant be without sweet baklava for dessert?

A new addition to NAYA menus are “pantry items,” Velasquez said, which means fans can bring home the seasonings they enjoy at the restaurant. He said the NAYA-branded products are quite popular, including red pepper seasoning, pomegranate molasses and za’atar, a special blend of Lebanese spices. 

Customers can order from NAYA for pickup or delivery; NAYA also offers catering.

For the grand opening, the first 50 guests on Dec. 17 will get a free bowl or roll.  

NAYA

432 Post Road E
Westport
Daily 10:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.
203-293-0436
www.eatnaya.com

Gretchen Webster

^{_{Gretchen Webster, a Fairfield County journalist for many years, has reported for the daily Greenwich Time and Norwalk Hour, the weekly Westport News, Fairfield Citizen and Weston Forum. She was editor of the Fairfield Minuteman for ten years. She has won numerous journalism awards over the years, and taught journalism at New York University and Southern Connecticut State University.}}