Pita And Pizza At Mina's Mediterraneo | Upper East Side, Miami

We could spend most of dinner at Mina's Mediterraneo just tearing into the pita bread.

We were intrigued as soon as we smelled the warm rounds redolent of toasted cumin seeds at the airy new Upper East Side restaurant.

Order the floured flatbreads with dollops of besara ($4), a garlicky, slightly grassy blend of fava beans, caramelized onions, parsley and cilantro. The only catch: The pita are delivered in single servings. According to owner Yasmine Kotb, the new staff has not yet mastered a speedy hand-rolling process; a dough-sheeting machine is in the works.

Besara (fava bean) dip and aromatic cumin-laced pita bread at Mina's

While waiting for your next pita fix, peruse the rest of the menu, which dances around Egypt, Italy, Greece and Turkey. Try one of the excellent herb-crusted brick-oven pizzas, like the Moroccan ($13), layered with funky merguez sausage and punchy tomato sauce, or the Egyptian ($12), draped with pungent rumi cheese and basturma,–garlicky air-dried beef tenderloin popular in Egypt and Armenia.

Other mains we tried, like mahi mahi tagine ($16) and moussaka ($12), paled in comparison to the brightness of the pita, dips and pizzas.

Dough seems to be Mina's bread and butter.