My first day in Chicago, my friend ignorant of albany park district read something about a korean population here and thought it would be a good idea to go there to eat.
Alas, Seoul Drive is no more and is swallowed by a mixture of a Mexican and Middle Eastern Ghetto.
Stumbled upon this restaurant and ordered a Lamb Kellaya. I just wanted to try something new.
-Upon tasting, Â "I thought, why did they serve me pork when I asked for lamb? Â And isn't pork not halal. Â I want my ****** 12 dollars back."
-I wouldn't eat this pita bread if they paid me money to do it
- This gross food is made worse by the public restroom smell in the restaurant
-They didn't have yogurt
Never having kallaya, I can still tell they made it wrong. Â If I order something from a middle eastern restaurant, albeit new and something I never had, I still hope to say that it was both middle eastern, delicious (and new). Â This tasted like crap somebody threw together with leftover ingredients. ketchup, pork, tomatoes and bell peppers. Â
Questions raced through my mind why the food was as bad as it was, and why I was paying a hefty price where I could have gotten gourmet and be satisfied.
Did coming from California raise my expectation for food. No. Â The food here is simply disgusting.
My friend and I wound up at Baghdad Kabab on Friday after we had tried to eat at another restaurant but found it closed (for good). It's a tricky business to run a restaurant, and Baghdad Kabab has lots of competition on the Kedzie corridor of Middle Eastern restaurants. Despite its prominent corner location, Baghdad does not get mentioned too much. We came in before 7PM and were a bit concerned that there were no other diners around (the sign says they are open 24 hours). Eventually a few other people trickled in. The interior is fairly comfortable, and the giant TV screen played mostly ethnic music videos, which created an appropriate mood for our dinner. Â
We ordered a small order of 6 falafels as appetizers, which were OK but a definite also-ran amongst better falafel selections that can be had along Kedzie. Our meals did come with a big bowl of lentil soup, which I did not expect. The soup was good and filling. We also received a basket of pita bread. My friend's salmon was his second choice after the waitress said they were out of tilapia. I went with kefta kabab after I heard they might have been out of my first selection (see a trend?) but I am always happy with kefta - the semi-spicy minced meat is a safe choice for me. Both dishes came with a substantial pile of yellow rice, and we both wound up with doggie bags but passed on dessert.
Baghdad Kabab is an excellent choice for those who enjoy Middle Eastern, Greek, Turkish or Persian cuisine.
Menu items are interesting and well-prepared. The food is wonderfully seasoned, reminiscent of both Persian and Jordanian flavors. Service is sufficiently competent, but otherwise unremarkable. If you are not Arabic, then do not expect a warm greeting from the owner --- but hey, money talks. Speaking of money, prices are very reasonable.
Lunch: There are several lunch specials prominently displayed on the outside of the restaurant's windows. Each is a fine value for the price, and there is little reason to order anything else for lunch, which costs around $10 including tip.
Dinner: The restaurant features one or two specials each evening, as supplements to the main menu. On the main menu are some familiar sounding dishes. For example, there are lamb shank with dill rice, kefta kabobs, and lamb neck (essentially, lamb stew). These could be on any Persian or Jordanian restaurant menu. The salads are more Lebanese: fatoush, tabouleh, and others.
Exceptionally good items, to my taste, at least, are
(1) the lentil soup, which has an almost magically fragrant seasoning
(2) the potato chops, which are similar to kibbe balls, but with spiced herb mashed potatoes, instead of bulgar, used for the protective dough.
(3) the baba ghanouj
(4) the foul
Caution: portion sizes for the soups, salads and appetizers are quite a bit larger than you might expect for a typical Middle Eastern restaurant.
The only dessert offered is baklava. I can't recommend the baklava sold here. I suspect that neither butter nor honey go into the recipe. Al-Khayam Bakery, just 1/2 block down Kedzie, has a wide selection of decent, although not exceptional, baklava that is much better than what Baghdad Kabab sells. (The bakery also has a small sit-down area. Consider walking to Al-Khayam for a piece of something after dinner.)
Available drinks include coffee, tea and ayran (Turkish lassi).
Meals over all are filling and quite reasonable --- at most, $20/person, including tip.
I highly recommend Baghdad Kabab. I'm leaning towards adding it to my favorites list within a year.
Pretty tasty food, but you get way less bang for your buck here than other comparable Middle Eastern places. Chicken/beef skewers only came with four chunks of meat, which was pretty disappointing. But the meat was well-seasoned and juicy, and the rice was flavorful.
Note that the dinner entrees will come with pita, but no hummus. Hummus must be ordered separately.
Perhaps the most frustrating part was the ordering itself. I'm not sure if it was a language barrier, but we were charged for an extra meal that we didn't order. Â And even disregarding the extra dinner, the dinner ended up being way more expensive than most of our other Middle Eastern delivery ventures.
One perk: Delivery was pretty quick-- around 45 mins on a Friday evening at 9pm.
I wouldn't eat here if they paid me!!! For the first time in my life never and I mean never have I been more disappointed with the service and the quality of food then I have at Baghdad Kabab. Â I had decided to try the gyros plate for $7.99 however was not in the mood for fries so I asked the waitress if I could get a gyros sandwich for $4.99 and a humas for $2.99 - her response was, "NO - we can not substitute the humas for fries. Â It took me 5 mins to explain to her that I wanted the sandwich only and not the plate and a side order of humas. Â Bit of advice - DO NOT order the gyros sandwich - it was served cold, heavily salted, and had a very rubbery texture. Â It reminded be of prepackaged gyro meat that comes frozen and then heated up. Â Anyhow the humas was pretty good here. Â As far as my friend is concerned he ordered Chicken Shawarma sandwich and baba ganough. Â He asked the waitress if there was something wrong with the baba ganough as it tasked like sour spoiled milk. Â Her response was a real shocker, "That's how it taste and that's why I never get it myself." Â I was dumbfounded by her response - was she actually trying to sabatoge this place or was she too being honest. Â We asked if she could take it back as we only had one bite from it and she said NO as we were charged already. Â Upon leaving we asked for our bill which she delivered to the wrong table and had us wait for an extended period of time. Â I have never taken the time to write a review before but this restaurant inspired me for the first time. Â It is true that we tend to share more or less those experiences that leave a negative impression on us, however, I will take the time to write reviews on all places that I eat at - some of which have been excellent.
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