A spread of flatbreads and other dishes at Manakish Oven & Grill in Walnut Creek.

Colors and flavors pop with Technicolor clarity at Manakish Oven & Grill, an easygoing Mediterranean restaurant in Walnut Creek. 

Before you even walk in, you're met with a blue-and-yellow color scheme between the logos and color-coordinated furniture. By the register, blue-and-white tiles and Turkish chandeliers engage the eye. It’s an inviting setting for the briefest of lunches or a full-on meal.

After immersing myself in Walnut Creek’s dining scene for The Chronicle’s first Top Restaurants devoted to the city, Manakish was one of the most buoyant, floating to the top of my list. It is an original restaurant in a city where many — though not all — of the better dining options were propagated from restaurants that already existed elsewhere. Manakish feels focused and casual but does not obscure flavor in favor of recognizability among a mainstream American audience.

Manakish Oven & Grill is a delightful and easygoing Mediterranean restaurant in Walnut Creek.

Nabila Salem opened the restaurant in 2019, naming it after manakish flatbreads. The restaurant is billed as Mediterranean but there’s a Lebanese, or Levant region, inflection. The closest contemporary would be San Francisco hit Reem’s California, though Manakish seems more zoomed out in scope.

The restaurant’s eye-pleasing presentation extends to the food, too. The namesake manakish are constructed on pillowy dough across four categories: traditional (olive oil), hummus, mozzarella and piquillo tomato. 

The most colorful variety is the hummus, where each flatbread sparkles as if topped with precious gemstones made of marinated and pickled veggies: neon-pink pickled turnips, yellow-green cucumber spears, opaque-red tomatoes, emerald green cucumbers. But the adornments aren’t just superficial and bring out more in the other toppings, regulating the salinity of the ropy, spiced tri-tip shawarma ($17.50) and adding tang to the craggy falafel ($15.50).

Or you can go full-on pizza mode with the Sujuk Supreme ($15.50), which utilizes the fermented sausage to great effect. Sujuk hits those same indulgent notes as pepperoni, enhanced here with charred bell peppers and onions and a dusting of dried herbs.

Manakish chef Martin Hernandez makes a za'atar flatbread.

I was just as impressed with the flatbreads with fewer components, in particular the fragrant lahm-bajin ($13.50), which is topped with ground beef flavored with a dump-truck load of cardamom. The za’atar and cheese ($12.50) brought back the childlike wonder of pizza parlors with stretchy, spiced cheese.

Manakish has a bit of fun translating, or analogizing, dishes for American audiences. In an earlier menu, a tomato and cucumber salad was described as “Greek pico.” The menu frames the manakish flatbreads as comparable to pizzas. Other snacks like the loaded fries with, say, chicken shawarma ($12.50) feel like they could fit right in at a local burger joint — only these are much better.

Kebabs grilling at Manakish in Walnut Creek.

The spuds get a drizzle of sharply nutty tahini, a sprinkle of cheese and your choice of protein. But what makes them sing are the sauces, one garlic and one harissa, which come with every order. The creamy garlic sauce is like activating a cheat code in a video game to enhance the experience — adding nimble acidity and enough garlic kick to kill the final vampire boss. The harissa is a piquant zap of heat and brightness, akin to trusty old Sambal Oelek. These two sauces act like taste boosters for anything they come in contact with, whether that’s a flatbread, bowl or wrap.

For something lighter, try the falafel bowl ($13.50), which presents the crumbly orbs with tomato cucumber salad, rice and a fat scoop of hummus that’s thoroughly creamy and bright. But it was the kefta bowl ($16.75) that swept me off my feet. These kebabs look a bit like short sausage links, such as Salvadoran chorizo, except they’re made with a mixture of ground beef and lamb seasoned with cardamom and sumac. These kefta possess the golden ratio of fat: just enough to prevent dryness and encourage some scorched bits that result from the lick of a flame.

Manakish Oven & Grill manager Nadeem Fouad pours syrup over kanafeh, the must-order dessert.

Manakish is casual and inviting, which means that on weekdays it’s a frequent haunt of locals on their lunch break looking for a quick wrap or bowl. On weekends, the shaded outdoor area fills up with families, influencers (who also appreciate the color coordination) and locals sharing flatbreads or loaded fries out of cardboard boxes. Order your food first, then find an open spot or take it to-go. 

To end a meal at Manakish, a dessert punctuation, in the form of kanafeh, is crucial. This exemplary kanafeh ($11.50) is a tangle of crispy phyllo over stringy, tangy cheese, soaked in syrup and topped with crushed pistachios. The crunch of phyllo dough harmonizes nicely with the clubby tunes of Moroccan pop star Saad Lamjarred, who you’re likely to hear when visiting.

Manakish Oven & Grill. 2905 N Main St., Walnut Creek. manakishoven.com

Cesar Hernandez is The San Francisco Chronicle’s associate restaurant critic. Email: cesar.hernandez@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @cesarischafa