Rub your magic lamp and a genie grants everything you could ever wish for: Your better half cuddled up beside you along with your favorite bottle of red from home, surrounded by copious platters, making for a luxurious Arabian night fit for a sultan at Lincoln Square's Mediterranean Grill.

Dimmed recessed lighting and flickering brass smoked-glass lamps keep the intimate touch in tact, as do magenta beaded-oil lamps dropped atop tables. Tables suited with merlot and pumpkin spice-colored cloths magnetize chestnut chairs over mosaic tiling. Oriental drapery and rugs, Arabic scrolls and associated artifacts smack amber-washed walls. The foreign sounds, playing in the background, instantly teleport guests to a tin packed quarter in East Jerusalem, Damascus or any other dated Middle Eastern city.

Meals typically take longer making it to the table, compared with like-minded establishments. Prices are about average and quite a steal for an area stamped with high-end salons, fancy cafes and where residents pooch along with designer dogs in tow.

Ask Arthur Yousif, running the show, for a recommendation and he'll suggest the kabob combination ($15). However, he believes in the entire menu of Iraqi specialized meals.

My date and I began with the potato chop: airy breaded potatoes stuffed with beef and chopped onion sprinkled with cinnamon ($6). Eggplant soup, Persian tea and a helping of pita stretched the time before our lamb kabob and Cornish hen plates. Fight fat with flavor, a motto I'll forever live by after sampling both of the exquisite dinners.

Other twosomes made up the business, perhaps dropping in from the complex buildings nearby. Park your magic carpet out front, utilizing the pay box feature. The Davis Theater across the street caps the dinner-date escape.

Average cost: <$10

Centerstage Reviewer: David-Anthony Gonzalez