Well, I am a Persian or Iranian if you will and have seen and tasted the food that my mother and her family use to make as well as the authentic Persian cuisines of the late Shah of Iran's era.
In addition I have tasted the cuisine in all the major cities of the USA and say that Alibaba is not authentic at all, the ingredients are of cheapest quality and the food is not fresh, I think they reheat the left overs of the buffett for the next day as they sit on the bar for 10-11 hrs a day.
Yes the food is not hot and when they get busy the cooks cannot keep up with the demand.
The owners are rude and they give you a dirty stare as you enter and leave and never ask if everything was satisfactory or not.
The price is also too high for their poor qaulity of service and food.
I think the new owners are in a wrong type of business, the kitchen workers are Mexicans, Persian food must be made of by the ethenic Iranians and the native people of Persia, not Mexicans, last I heard they don't have kebobs in their cuisine.
I will never go back, if you want a good place go to Clearwater, it is called Mirage.
Kevin Taheri
I wish I could give this place negative Stars!! It was really bad, and really expensive. The pita bread they brought to the table was hard and cold, along with the items on the buffet that were meant to be hot. We literally took one bite of everything, didn't mean to be rude, but got up to leave almost before our drinks even hit the table. I will never return! Our dinner night out ended up being really expensive paying close to $70 for 4 people at Ali baba's, then heading down the street for Mexican. And one more thing ......I don't get why some of the other reviewers keep saying  "They always get the buffet" THATS ALL THERE WAS!! They didn't hand us any menus to order fresh from the kitchen. (Though I doubt it would have been fresh any ways!) Quick Tip: Save Your Money!! Don't be like us and pay double for dinner because we had to go somewhere else with in the same hour to fill our appetites!
Review Source:I love Ali Baba's, although the food can sometimes be hit or miss, overall I love the place. The buffet is always well stocked, lots of choices and if I don't like something, there are plenty of other options. Â Great, fresh salads, hummus is always a hit and the lemon chicken soup is awesome. Â And the stuffed grape leaves. Don't care for the new pita bread, the old stuff was much better.
The service is never really great, only ok, kind of slow and not much attention to detail, but not horrible either.
If you love middle eastern food, you will like this place.
Food is good overall, however has slid a bit over the years. Â The pita used to be fluffy and fresh, now are a bit like cardboard. Â There was plentiful feta available on the buffet, now scantly dispersed in the salad. Â The temperatures of some items need better control (i.e. potatoes, couscous). Â With just a little more attention to detail I think it can return to it's former glory.
Review Source:I've eaten here a lot, off an on, over the years. Â I went in today for the first time in nearly a year, and decided to write a review because the food quality has improved tremendously. The selection they had today was amazing. Everything was fresh and tasty, including the produce, which appeared garden fresh. Â Middle Eastern food is probably my favorite. I would definitely recommend this buffet to anyone who wants to give Middle Eastern food a try, but is unsure what to order. The selection of Persian, Greek, and other Mediterranean specialties, including a massive selection of dips, is impressive. The service is good, and the buffet even includes a belly dancer show on the weekends.
Review Source:yelp should let us put ZERO STARS!!!. This is one of those horrible places that compelled me to write a review to warn others. Just went in today for lunch buffet and everyyyything was ooolllddd yellow grilled chicked beef that smelled like a**.
I mean they will make a perfect candidate for tv show kitchen nightmares. like gordon ramsey says "that was absolute shit". Stay away unless you want to go the ER.
We have been going here for years. I am not a huge fan of buffets, but for Ali Baba's I make an exception. I have never had a bad meal here. They have some of the best middle eastern food I have ever had. Plus, it is all pretty healthy, so you don't have to feel too guilty about pigging out. My faves are the hummus, falafel, babaganoush, and ... well, it is all good. Just go and try it. If you go to dinner on Friday or Saturday, you can catch the bellydancing show.
Review Source:We are fans. Went here for the first time this past Saturday for a late lunch. And yes we were nervous because the reviews of this place are really spotty. I even said, "I'm so nervous!" as we walked in, because I am pregnant and very hungry.
There were a few families eating there and it was pretty quiet inside and pleasant. Our waitress was really nice, and she only continued to prove how amazing she was because suddenly people just started pouring in (and she was the only person working the dining room). She was concerned that she was late refilling our drinks and was totally apologetic. Somebody get that lady some Saturday help! :)
Now for the food. I was in the mood for some exotic, tangy, yogurt-y, saucy stuff. And we got it! Everything was amazing. (Okay, the rosewater cake is not amazing because it tastes like soap. But I am sure many people like it. It's just not my cup of .. rosewater.)
But all of the food at the buffet - yes, amazing. FRESH. I put their yogurt sauce on everything. And we loved their marinated chicken. It had a hint of lemon and was basking in a delicious red sauce. One area of their buffet had multiple kinds of hummus and other dips - one had a lot of garlic (turned out to be my favorite). It was great with the warm pita bread.
Nothing was dirty, didn't see any insects. And we went there to fill our bellies - not to see bellies dancing. So we were super pleased.
I have not been to Ali Baba's in quite some time but my family decided to go this past Friday on a whim.
When we arrived we immediately noticed that the decor had changed quite a bit, and if you ask me, was quite tacky looking.
Service was friendly but VERY slow, and attention to detail was lacking....
We opted for the buffet which was pretty sad looking. Food was not hot and on my 2nd trip back to get dessert, I saw a swarm of FLIES. I notified our server and she just shrugged and said "yes, they always seem to find a way in here"....Hmmm???
The belly dancer that night was clearly a student. She was pretty stiff and out of shape...
After further chat with our server we learned that this place recently changed partners so that explains all the changes. Overall, it's just not what it used to be and as much as I love middle eastern food, I just can't bring myself to come back to this place again.
We came w a <a href="/redir?url=http%3A%2F%2FRestaurant.com&s=0aab4cbd731f3d3b0d1453050d3abc56a8c80bd214e25469c7555b750dca8a51" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://Restaurant.com</a> gift certificate... Read the Yelp reviews after we were already here. I can only suspect the sanity of the bad reviewers as the food was AMAZING!
Review Source:Ever since they added "house of kabob" to their name this place has really taken a steep dive. Â I tried it again after a horrible experience a few months ago and this time it was even worse. Â Nasty. Â Food was bland. Â The soup was oil soup. Â Yuk. Â I'm going to throw up just thinking about it. Â It was completely overpriced for such poor quality. Â The worse was the $2.49 triangle of baklava which tasted like it was cooked in a meat pan. Â Stay away. Â Better yet stay far away.
Review Source:Just ate here for lunch and had the lunch buffet. Not bad, not great. But, I have to admit, I'm certainly not a middle eastern food expert.
The couscous was good and they had some type of middle eastern stew that i put over rice that was very good.
My bill was $16.00 with tip for one person. I find that kinda high for one person. But, after all, it is all you can eat and man, i eat like a pig.
The people who wrote that this restaurant deserves 5 stars must have been smoking a little too much hookah. Â The food is average at best, in fact some of it was so gross I could barely choke it down. Â My husband's family is middle eastern, and I have been exposed to a lot of DELICIOUS middle eastern food, and this was anything but that.
We will certainly not be returning anytime soon.
I am big fan of Middle-Eastern Food and this is a great buffet spot to try. Friday nights they have belly dancing and the little market  at the corner of the restaurant makes it feel as if you are truly at some Middle Eastern Bazaar.
It is a bit expensive if you ask me, but, they offer a large selection at their buffet to choose from.
Recently had the chance to enjoy their fanTASTIC charbroiled chicken wings thanks to Mobile Waiters (<a href="/redir?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mobilewaitersorlando.com%2F&s=cfdd3bccd92f0fc2fe47a0c71d44c029c1e3a782fa748781e91a7fb2354dd67d" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://www.mobilewaiters…</a>). They marinate the wings in lemon juice, grill 'em up and douse 'em with hot sauce.
So. Damn. Good.
I have been to this location twice, both times we opted for the buffet as it was more cost effective than ordering a la carte and paying for the belly dancing show. Â The food on the buffet is excellent, and if you are bringing a group of people that may be unfamiliar with middle eastern food this could be a good way for them to try a few different things.
The first we had gone my husband and I were amazed by the professionalism of show, which featured primarily three dancers and about four different acts (including a sword dance, an Argentine tango, a audience participation dance number, and two additional belly dances, which made the dancers look as if they could defy gravity as her male partner would lift and swing her in the air, or try to make the audience laugh by mimicking her belly movements.
The second time we visited was on a Saturday night and the place was not quite as packed, and the show only featured one dancer which my husband said resembled Melissa Joan Hart (from her Clarissa explains it All days). Â She was not a bad dancer, but was just a bit too stoic, until she performed her Indian numbers....what a change, as you could tell that was her favorite style of belly dancing!
I was very hopeful to find a good vegetarian option by work and this was not it. To start the food seemed to have been sitting out a long time (the falafel were very hard), and a lot of it was not temperature appropriate. I don't expect great service at a buffet and got exactly that, not even a full water glass. To make my experience worse the prices had apparently changed to what I had viewed on THEIR website, and the server did not offer to reduce the price or even apologize saying I must have misunderstood I checked when I got back it was not my mistake. It makes me sad because a ton of people I know love this place, but I would have to be seriously persuaded to ever eat there again.
Review Source:I fell in love with Middle Eastern food after I started dating a Persian guy a few years back. His family brought me to Ali Baba one night for dinner and it will forever satiate my cravings for Ghormeh Sabzi, Sabzi Polo and Falafel.
The restaurant itself isn't classy by any means. It is an open room with cafeteria-style seating. Good for groups. The buffet tables are off the the left wall of the restaurant and the entire right wall has creatively become a small Middle Eastern market, offering all sorts of Middle Eastern goodies, seasonings, snacks, food, etc. Of course, they have the stage where on a nightly basis, belly dancers and tango dancers come out and bedazzle the audience of feasting people. Only 1 or 2 of the belly dancers are authentic in the sense that they wear the appropriate attire, have the traditional music, and dance beautifully. However, I once saw a Cowgirl-Western themed belly dance, which was interesting but embarrassing to say the least. I get a bit shy when it comes to watching the dancers so let's just say I don't come to Ali Baba for the entertainment.
The food is very traditional and well-cooked. My ex-boyfriend's traditional Persian grandmother would eat here. You know it's good when granny dukes eats the food! They have an array of meats: chicken or steak kabob, grilled beef kabob, etc. To really get the best, I recommend ordering the grilled ground beef kabobs wrapped in pita bread. The kabobs come out all warm and juicy that they soak through the pita bread... Yum!!
Choose from 2-4 rice options to suit your fancy. I LOVE rice, have been raised on rice, and will eat rice until my last days so I am not picky when it comes to this. If you enjoy herbs, try the herb-infused rice, Sabzi Polo. For the more adventurous, try the saffron rice with cranberries, raisins, cinnamon and pine nuts. One of my faves!
One of the best dips for the fresh pita bread is the cucumber-mint yogurt dressing. I practically drown my food in this dressing as it is completely refreshing and amazing. There's a nice crunch from the cucumbers and mixed with the rice, Yum! The falafel's are dome-shaped and firm with definite spiciness. Extremely good for all the falafel lovers out there.
My ultimate favorite dish is a Persian dish called Ghormeh Sabzi. A mixture of sauteed herbs, kidney beans, potatoes, green onions, chives, dried limes, and lamb or beef shank. Persian food is usually heavy on lime juice so most of the dishes have a sour and tangy flavor to them. In all, the Ghormeh Sabzi is really good at Ali Baba... Trust me.
The menu options at the Ali Baba buffet are endless. I usually get about 3 plates full of food before I pass out from over-eating. Again, I wouldn't come here for the entertainment, just for the food alone.
This could easily turn into a 4 or 5 page rant about how incredibly shady this restaurant is, but i will try to exercise restraint.
To be somewhat brief, i met a group of friends at Ali Baba on a Saturday night for the buffet. One person in the group had literally called twice before making the reservation to verify the price of the buffet per person, and the same answer had been given over the phone- I believe it was $14 before 8pm, $16 before 9pm, and then $26 or something insane thereafter because of the "live show".
So we all get there before 9pm, expecting to pay the quoted amount of $16 per person. We go about ordering drinks, etc. when someone becomes aware that they intend to charge us $26/ person if we LEAVE after 9pm!!! This obviously causes more than a bit of discontent in the group (especially when the server announced that SHE was the one with whom he spoke and basically that he just didn't ask the right questions on the phone and that it was a perfectly reasonable policy and that she was very clear about it. This is when she and I actually started to heatedly argue with each other!! Not a good idea to argue with the customer.) and so someone goes to speak with the manager, assuming that this will be a reasonable person whom will understand how that policy had not been explicitly stated  in either one of the phone conversations earlier in the week. However, instead of understanding how ludicrous the situation was and just accommodating us, he decides to continue the downward spiral by striking a "deal" that 6 of the 15+ people could pay the $16 price and the rest could pay the full amount. This obviously was not acceptable so we all proceeded to cancel our orders. I guess the manager started doing the math and realized he was going to lose a good chuck of profits for the evening so he announced that we could ALL pay the $16/person. This is when we should have said "thanks, but no thanks" and walked out.
BUT, not wanting to have to somehow coordinate another location at which to dine (not to mention ruining our friends birthday dinner!), we all acquiesced. Of course, as soon as we were all nice and married to the location with bottles of wine ordered and open, and plates of food being eaten, the manager slides in the caveat: YOU STILL HAVE TO LEAVE BY 9 or we will charge you each $26!!! Keep in mind that by this time it was probably 8:45pm. Lovely.
So we all had to choke down our food and guzzle our drinks in ten minutes so we could make it out the door in time.
Meanwhile the #%*$^#%^&$% server is taking her sweeeeet time bringing us our bills, I'm sure in an attempt to charge us more. So I get completely fed up and walk to the front and demand to pay right then and there because by that time the "show" had started and i did not want them to justify charging me $26 because i had bore witness to 5 mins of their Awful performance (one would think a Middle Eastern restaurant would have belly dancers performing- instead, they had a woman dressed in a "sexy" cowgirl outfit line dancing to country music!!! wtf.)
I was fully prepared for the worst when I got my bill so I already had the amount I was supposed to be charged in my mind when i got to the register. The genius cashier goes to great pains in telling me my total, which was surprisingly actually correct. Of course they imposed an 18% gratuity (which is the ONLY way that server was going to get a cent from me). That's when she runs my debit card and hands me the slip- which reads a grand total of twice the amount I was supposed to be charged. I instantly lose it and she instantly gets all flustered and apologetic. Sure. I believe that you didn't mean to physically punch several extra buttons in order to add a $55 tip to my bill. I'm sure you have never done this before, just hoping that the person signs without looking at the slip. Right.
Please, there are so many good restaurants out there, Middle Eastern and otherwise, with good food and good service, don't ruin an evening that was supposed to be relaxing and enjoyable with a bunch of shady people haggling for the price of your dinner. Unless of course you like feeling like you're eating at a used car dealership; then you've come to the right place.
I too came to Ali Baba for Valentines dinner and was really disappointed. Â First I'll take some of the blame in not checking to make sure you could order off the menu... that the buffet was not the only option. Â However when we made the reservations, no one said anything about there being only a buffet. Â A $26/per person buffet that is the exact same buffet offered every day at much cheaper rate.
The food was not as good as it's been before, flavor wise. The temperatures were off as well... pretty much everything was room temperature. Â Hot food wasn't hot, cold food wasn't cold.
All in all, it was a disappointing experience all around. Â I won't be returning.
Middle Eastern food is one of my favorite kinds of food to indulge in every chance I get. Ali Baba allows me to enjoy most of my favorites all at once for just one price verses paying for each item separately, which can get very costly. While I'm not a fan of buffets, Ali Baba is an exception. It's not nearly as large as most buffets, but instead quality is valued over quantity. The dishes that are featured on the buffet line are all made from scratch in the restaurant and taste AMAZING! And for those who need to know what's in their food or are simply conscious of carbs, sugars and the like, there's no need to fret because above every dish is a card with all the ingredients that are in it and what diets it suits. The hummus, baba ganoush, and chicken kabob are my faves. And let's not forget the bakalava....YUM-O!
If you go on the weekends you are in for a treat because they have a show of belly dancers for entertainment. While I've personally never seen the show, I've heard nothing but good things about it. Within the restaurant there is also a mini middle eastern store of sorts that has all kinds of spices and delicious looking goodies on the shelves.
The negatives on this place are few, but they are worth mentioning. If you go on the weekends it is a bit pricey, but not overwhelming. It's located in Longwood/Altamonte Springs area so if you're no nearby it can be quite the trek, but I-4 isn't too far away.
Overall, I say DO IT!
A very light hearted atmosphere, Ali Baba can quench your hunger for Middle Eastern food. Â During lunch time, there is an all you can eat buffet that is very tasty and affordable. Â At night, they have belly dancers on stage and around the tables. Â The falafels are very good and I highly recommend the kabobs.
Review Source:At first, the thought of a Middle Eastern buffet turned me away, as I don't care for buffets in general. But this place quickly disengaged that worry.
As we walked in, I noticed the HIGH ceiling with black panels and a high stage area (for belly dancers, on Friday and Saturday nights.) The room felt somewhat like a club in that respect. There is a grocery store area to the right, a music store area in the back and the buffet region is over yonder on the far left side. Dining area is smack dab in the middle. (Can you picture all of this yet, huh huh??)
The staff seated us, but it only took moments until we hit the buffet for round 1. I was impressed with how vast the buffet appeared. From right to left, you have a nice salad bar with greek salad, tabbouleh and an olive tray. At the next section of the buffet, there were a few eggplant dishes, hummus, at least 2 or 3 soups, roasted potatoes, falafels, beets, and 3 or 4 other things I can't recall. Next to last is a wide assortment of meat dishes. Lamb, chicken, ground beef. At the far right side were a couple desserts: an apple pie-ish baklava and a Sara Lee(?) chocolate cake. Free bread on the hizzee.
EVERYTHING I tried was damn delicious, except maybe the baklava which was just decent, (read as: not terribly authentic.) I chose the vegetarian buffet ($8.95) v. the meat/all inclusive buffet ($14.95), so I cannot comment on the meat dishes this time around... My friend seemed to enjoy the chicken greatly though.
I was impressed especially with the tabbouleh, which I can eat a truck load of. I would like to have seen grape leaves, but the server informed me that those are in a rotation, as are other items on the buffet. The falafels were cooked just right. The roasted eggplant was dee-lish!
This restaurant is a bit out of the way from where I live (Orlanda), but I highly recommend it if you want to venture outside of downtown area and hit a satisfying assortment of Mid-Eastern delicacies. Just don't expect from the dessert assortment.
Ali Baba has an extensive buffet to meet just about anyone's dietary requirements. Each buffet entry has a detailed list of ingredients, so you know exactly what you are eating. Being a health conscious person, this is a perfect place for me to eat. If you are into ethnic foods or would just like to try something different that taste great, then Ali Baba is the place to be. The service is also excellent and the employees try to cater to your needs.
Review Source:
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