Rule No. 1 for aspiring Pittsburgh restaurateurs -- do not get on the bad side of Dear One of Munch. DOOM and the Bagged One made an evening drive into the North Hills for a visit to Tyma'z, a Syrian and Middle Eastern kitchen, on a recent Monday. Munch, doing my best impression of a professional journalist, even checked out the Web site to make sure that Tyma'z was open on Mondays. (I understand they call this sort of thing "research.")

Open seven days a week, the Tyma'z Web site said. But when Munch and DOOM arrived, there was an ominous sign in the window: Closed. And another sign: New Hours, Open Tuesday through Sunday.

Now, DOOM is a gentle soul with many fine qualities, but an ability to deal with an empty stomach is not one of them. There was grumbling. There was kvetching. There was wailing and fist-pounding. "Let's throw a rock through the window!" DOOM suggested.

Ha ha! Just kidding. DOOM did not suggest that, but then again it was dark out and rocks were not so easily found.

Tyma'z Restaurant is at 96 Rochester Road, West View, 412-931-9005. Want to be an FOM? Search Munch von Munchausen on Facebook.

So when Munch and friends returned to Tyma'z the next day (at the urging of several Munch tipsters who contacted us via e-mail), we were fully prepared to treat the waitstaff snootily and leave a bad tip. But it turns out that rooting against Tyma'z would be like rooting against your grandma during her triple bypass. You'd have to be a heartless cad to wish anything but many happy, profitable years at its Rochester Road location.

That seems unlikely, though, if more people don't start visiting. Tyma'z was empty at lunchtime, as it is during most lunchtimes, reports its owner (and cook, and waitress-in-chief) Radwa Ibrahim. Dinner crowds are a mixed bag -- some nights are crowded, some are not.

But what a lunch! What a dinner! The Tyma'z menu is familiar if you've ever been to a Middle Eastern restaurant -- rolled grape leaves, spinach pies, moussaka, and the like. Yet in Radwa's expert hands, the dishes were new again. Munch has eaten baked kibbee (ground beef, nuts, onions, cracked wheat, $10.95 for a dinner platter) a thousand times before, but at Tyma'z the kibbee is crispy and sweet, with shaved almonds rather than pine nuts. On the side was a lovely pile of rice, spiced with cinnamon and topped with toasted almonds.

The sleek (spinach, onions, black-eyed peas, served hot for $7.95) was freshly prepared, and better than the refrigerated stuff Munch bought from Pita Land in Brookline the other week (nothing against Pita Land -- it's a great store).

Groupie of Munch was also impressed. Her incisors have wrestled with many an overdone lamb kebab, even causing her once to choke on a first date. But at Tyma'z, the meat was tender and deliciously seasoned, served on thin pita with a sharp yogurt dressing, tomatoes and crisp lettuce ($13.95). She also ordered a tub of yogurt salad big enough to do the butterfly stroke in ($4.95) -- herbed yogurt with big chunks of cucumber. A chicken shawarma (grilled chicken and tangy tahini sauce over vegetables, served on pita, $6.50) also pleased the table.

Before the meals were delivered -- by Radwa, the only person working the kitchen that afternoon -- all of us took turns grabbing at a platter ($12.95) of Mediterranean favorites: hummus, baba ghanoush, feta cheese, olives and Munch's favorite, a minty stack of tabouli salad. And after the meals, Radwa brought us desserts on the house, four honey- and orange blossom-sweetened cakes, topped with shaved coconut. Just one problem -- not one of us had any space left in our tummies to try the cake. (But fear not, Munch had one later that night, and it was dee-lish.)

Maybe this place would do better in the East End (where Radwa Ibrahim lives), but before it can migrate from there to here, it has to survive long enough to pay off its loans. And the only way it will do that is if folks from the city, folks from the North Hills, and folks on their way to Nordstrom's to buy a $1,200 pair of shoes stop in, have lunch, leave a nice tip and tell a friend about Tyma'z.

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