Cheap Eats - Middle Eastern eats take wing at 5th Runway Cafe

5th Runway Cafe has an air of bygone days about it. Its checkerboard-tiled floor and plate-glass windows suggest a soda shop, or maybe an ice cream parlor. The high ceilings make the big space feel even bigger. One corner has been transformed into a lounge, with cafe tables and worn-but-comfy chairs. The rest of the space is an open dining room.

They’ve done a lovely job updating the interior: Black-and-white photos of Paris cityscapes hang from muted khaki walls, and milky glass pendants cast warm pools of light on tabletops. Middle Eastern touches are applied with a light hand, and if not for the sinuous music piping through the sound system, you might not realize it’s a Middle Eastern restaurant at all. Or at least, not until you look at the menu.

Kabob is King: Even your least adventurous friend will find little to balk at on the extremely accessible menu. The most exotic offering is kefta ($9), a sort of Middle Eastern meatball made of minced beef and spices. The meat is skewered and grilled until caramelized on the outside and just barely pink in the middle. The classic shish kabob ($9) — skewered beef tips charred to a leathery well-done — were outdone by juicy shish tawook ($9), skewered strips of grilled garlic-marinated chicken breast. The kabobs are served with grilled vegetables over a fragrant rice pilaf. The rice had been splashed with what tasted like balsamic vinegar, and it gave every forkful a lively kick.

Salad for days: It fails to say it on the menu, but the salads are big enough to serve several people. Unawares, three out of four of us ordered salads one visit and came face-to-face with more salad than we could consume in a week. They’re uniformly fantastic, though, from fatoush ($6), a green salad tossed in lemon vinaigrette with pieces of fried pita bread standing in for croutons, to a Greek country salad ($7), which features almost as much feta as lettuce. The 5th Runway Chopped Salad ($6) consists of hunks of tomato, cucumber, green pepper and onion, tossed in a heady cumin-scented vinaigrette.

Chickpea champions: 5th Runway’s falafel may be some of the best in the city. The breaded chickpea patties are served on a salad ($6), stuffed in a pita ($7), or on a platter with hummus and pita on the side ($7). They’re intensely aromatic and spicier than most I’ve tried. They’re perfectly crisp and not at all greasy. And speaking of hummus ($5), its flavor and texture are velvety-smooth. Another fun appetizer is the jibnee mishwieh ($6), grilled slices of halloumi cheese. When we ordered this, I was expecting something like saganaki, the Greek flaming cheese dish. But it was different — the cheese wasn’t on fire, for one thing. It was barely warm, and the grill had imparted a lovely smoky flavor.

Hit the road: College Park has had a bad run of luck lately, first with Oscar’s closing down, and then Kosmos. Restaurateurs opening businesses in the area are still urban pioneers, taking a chance on an iffy neighborhood. It’s a cool ‘hood, though. So next time a falafel craving hits, hop in your car and make the drive to College Park.