Sarma Makes a Night of Small Plates in Somerville

A table at Sarma can begin with Black Sea cornbread and quickly turn into a full-scale tasting session: Brussels sprout bravas on one side, avocado muhammara on the other, perhaps a plate of lamb sliders arriving just as everyone is deciding what to order next. The Somerville restaurant builds its meals around Mediterranean and Middle Eastern-inspired small plates, with enough range and personality to make passing dishes around the table the natural way to eat.

This is food meant for comparison. One plate may be smoky, another bright with citrus, another rich with lamb or duck, and the fun is in moving back and forth among them rather than settling into a single entrée. The dishes are carefully composed but not precious about it; a group can keep the conversation going while the table gradually fills.

Sarma’s menu changes frequently, which gives the restaurant a useful advantage over the usual special-occasion standby: a return visit need not be a rerun. Familiar favorites may appear again, but dishes, drinks and combinations can shift, so the meal retains a little element of discovery.

The Black Sea cornbread has earned plenty of attention for its layered, intricate flavor. It is the sort of opening dish that can slow a table down for a moment, with everybody reaching back for another piece before the next round lands.

Brussels sprout bravas are another often-mentioned choice, while avocado muhammara stands out for an unexpected pairing of avocado with the peppery, nutty character associated with muhammara. These are good examples of the restaurant’s preference for recognizable ingredients treated from an angle you may not have tried at home.

Lamb sliders, also listed as lamb köfte sliders on some menus, bring a more compact, hearty option into the mix. Harissa BBQ duck has offered a richer, more concentrated direction, useful when a table has begun with vegetables and bread and wants something deeper.

Vegetable-forward diners have a real field to explore here. Vegetarian dishes are clearly labeled, and plates such as sunchokes, garlicky broccolini, sugar snap peas and Meyer lemon potatoes show up among the dishes that have made an impression.

The point is not to treat vegetables as a dutiful side order while everybody waits for meat. They can carry their own weight in the progression of a meal, offering crispness, garlic, lemon, spice or a bit of char between more substantial plates.

Other savory possibilities have included Cajun lamb kebabs, mushrooms manti pasta, eggplant, brisket, crab cake, chickpea fritters, lentil nachos, pumpkin fritters and spinach-artichoke dip. Not all will be available at once, but the breadth explains why a table can order broadly without feeling as if it has chosen the same dish in several forms.

Sarma can be particularly good at tossing a curveball into a Middle Eastern and Mediterranean-inspired meal. A buckwheat bagel with apricot butter has appeared as a memorable bread-course or brunch-style option, balancing its earthy grain with a sweet, fruity spread.

Gyro bread has also been paired with an avocado-based spread or a fish dish, making it more than an accessory on the table. Bread here can become another vehicle for trying the sauces and spreads that make the menu so easy to share.

Then there is the house-special fried chicken, an unexpected small-plate surprise that has at times been passed around the dining room. Its appearance is not a nightly promise, but it captures Sarma’s willingness to put a playful, crowd-pleasing dish beside more intricate plates.

The most satisfying approach is to order several dishes and give the table room to sample across categories: bread or a spread, a few vegetables, something seafood- or meat-forward, and eventually dessert. A family of four has shared eight dishes and two desserts, a useful illustration of how much ground a group can cover.

Food arrives in a sequence rather than as one synchronized round, which suits the format. There is usually another taste to discuss, another sauce to swipe up, or another plate to move closer to someone who has not yet tried it.

The evolving menu also makes knowledgeable service especially valuable. Servers are attentive and helpful with recommendations, and asking what is especially good that evening can be more productive than trying to decode every intriguing combination on your own.

The dining room is lively, energetic and visually engaging, with decor that helps the evening feel more dressed up than an ordinary weeknight dinner. It suits birthdays, reunions and other occasions when a plain meal out would seem a little underpowered.

Sarma can be loud when the room is busy, so this is not a hushed white-tablecloth setting. Still, the seating arrangement and relatively restrained background music have allowed tables to keep up an easy conversation amid the surrounding chatter.

For a birthday, dessert has been presented with a candle, a small gesture that fits the festive mood. It is a nice touch, though not something to regard as automatic.

There is no need to end the meal with a conventional slice of cake. Chocolate halva, mint froyo, peach froyo, mango-pistachio tacos and baklava tacos are among the desserts that have appeared, carrying the menu’s interest in texture and unexpected combinations into the last course.

The taco-shaped desserts are particularly in keeping with the rest of the restaurant: familiar enough to prompt immediate curiosity, but not quite what the name first suggests. Two desserts for a larger table can be a sensible way to keep the tasting going without asking everyone to commit to a full individual finish.

The drinks menu includes cocktails as well as nonalcoholic choices, and cocktails can rotate with the seasons. Names that have appeared include Better on Holiday, First Appearance, Latest Contender, Bang Bang, Going Platinum and Penthouse Suite—an appropriately lively list for a restaurant that does not take a static-menu approach.

Indoor seating includes tables, booths and bar seats. The bar is first come, first served, with a waitlist for bar-area seating, so it provides another way into the restaurant for a smaller party when a reserved table is not in hand.

Reservations are strongly recommended and can fill well in advance. Cancellations may open up opportunities, while early arrivals sometimes seek bar seating instead.

Parking near the restaurant can be difficult, making transportation worth sorting out before dinner. Larger parties may also follow a different reservation process than smaller tables, another reason to settle the logistics before turning attention to cornbread, bravas and whatever new plate the kitchen has on offer.