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Al-Amira
Category: Restaurants Middle Eastern Middle Eastern [Edit]
3200 W Lawrence Ave(between Kedzie Ave & Sawyer Ave)
Chicago, IL 60625
Neighborhood: Albany Park
(773) 267-0333
- Nearest Transit:
-
Kedzie-brown (Brown Line)
Kimball (Brown Line)
Francisco (Brown Line)
- Hours:
Mon-Sun 12 am - 12 am
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Price Range:
-
$
- Parking:
- Street
- Attire:
- Casual
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
- Takes Reservations:
- No
- Delivery:
- Yes
- Take-out:
- Yes
- Waiter Service:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- No
- Good For:
- Late Night, Lunch, Dinner
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- Yes
14 reviews for Al-Amira
14 reviews in English
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Review from I B.
Chicago, IL
6/9/2010
I went here for lunch today, to break up my "axis of hummus:" Salaam, Semiramis, and Noon-o-Kabob - all nearby.
For $6.95, I got chicken shwarma, kefta kabob, rice, hummus, baba ghanouj (spell 'em how you will) and more pitas than I could eat. Quite a lot of food, delicious and well presented. And it's a nice place - big and open, and the waitress was very nice.
But here's why you should go: aside from the relative large size, it's a very authentic *feeling* Middle Eastern place. A quiet older guy behind the counter cooked the food, and once I was happily eating came out and sat at a different table to watch al Arabiyya on the big TV on one wall. If he had cursed a few times, it would've been more authentic, but maybe he was being nice.
It's hard to say that this the tippy-top of the local Mideastern scene, but it's inexpensive, very clean, and open 24 hours. Oh, and delicious. -
Review from Y M.
Chicago, IL
3/24/2009
Al-Amira opened recently, replacing Mataam al Mataam on the corner of Lawrence & Kedzie (Mataam isn't closed, they just moved to a different location). I stopped by for a late lunch to check out this new addition to the neighborhood.
They renovated the interior - basically everything is squeaky clean and new. *Looks around nervously* Toto, I have a feeling we're not in Albany Park anymore! Just kidding. I really like the new look. There are a few things that haven't changed, though. Al-Amira is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. I believe the owners are Iraqi. Their menu includes all our favorites - shawarma, kofta, kebabs, roasted chicken, hummus, lentil soup, baba ghanoush, etc., as well as breakfast items.
I had the beef shawarma sandwich and baba ghanoush. The shawarma tasted like a mixture of both beef and lamb, which is a combination I like. But the meat was a tad dry, and the toppings (lettuce, tomato, parsley) were sparse. Perhaps I need to come back here for dinner when there are more customers. The baba ghanoush was tasty, if a bit overblended. I prefer mashed eggplant over their pureed, blended version. It was more like a thick sauce, so I ended up adding it to my sandwich.
So why the four stars? Because I know they just opened and are probably working out a few kinks. Service was very friendly. And really, I'm just happy another Middle Eastern (in their case, Iraqi) restaurant is around and hope they do well.Listed in: Albany Park, Sandwiches galore, All Night Long! (all night)
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Review from Sarah L.
11/17/2009
I have been wanting to try Al-Amira forever now. I give the other grab and go restaurant just up the street business on a weekly basis. Time to give a different restaurant a try! This place is almost always empty. My hubs and I were the only ones in the restaurant but that didn't stop us. A few minutes passed and a few others stopped in.
We had the basic hummus and falafel plate for an appetizer. These come separate but we had to get both. We were on the road all day on the way home from Ohio so we were famished. The hummus was very good and the falafel were pretty decent too! I swear there is curry in those little chick pea balls but I could be wrong. Every restaurant has their secret recipe. You get 6 falafels (small order) for $3. That is pretty cheap!
I had the chicken kebab wrap and my husband had the falafel wrap. The size was perfect. Smaller than the average restaurants in the area. Al-Amira puts pickles in their wraps so it was a nice change! Every sandwich also comes with hummus and it isn't an extra charge.
All of this was $15!! Cheap eats, very clean, fast service and a very friendly waitress. We will definitely be back.Listed in: Albany Park, Falafel me!
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Review from Brad C.
Chicago, IL
5/24/2009
So this is Chicago: it's 6AM on a Sunday morning and it's just myself, a been-a-long-time ex-girlfriend on layover, an Eastern European waitress who has eaten basically nothing on the menu, and a Latino cook who hasn't been trained on half the menu.
And yet.
I'm not going to say the food was memorable; it wasn't. But it was serviceable, and there is something amazing about being able to get pan-Levant food at any given hour--so nice to have an alternative to the usual early-morning gut bombs (e.g., polishes, tacos, etc.)
As my dining partner and I were immersed in catch-up talk, I barely scanned the menu and threw up a softball: hummus, foul, fattoush, falafeel. (In my defense, my partner idiotically tried to order a tostada, garnering an expression from our waitress that might have been the blankest I've ever seen.)There are a couple of Iraqi dishes and even a few Middle Eastern breakfast plates--fava beans in an omelette, anyone?--but the cook didn't know how to make any of them; kebabs make up most of the dinner menu.
We ordered four small plates and took home massive leftovers of everything--a good bargain here. The hummus was nice, on par with Semiramis; the fattoush, which was really a bag of pita chips with a few cucumbers on top, was not, but was saved by a big squeeze of lemon. Foul tasted straight from the can; falafel were bland. Thin pita was serviceable. Arabian yogurt drink--sort of like a salt lassi--was only a buck; tea, nice and minty, was free.
Best of all, stomach feels great. At last, a place for sober insomniacs! -
Review from Renee C.
Chicago, IL
5/25/2009
I've been meaning to get here for the past few months - always seeing it as I drive down Kedzie.
Finally came in yesterday.
$3 falafel
Very simple, in a wrap, with pickled beets, parsley and tomato - I had them throw some hummus in as well.
I loved it - perfect and felt good in the belly.
will be back -
Review from Jovim V.
Chicago, IL
5/17/2010
- Cool and cute waitresses
- Big plush comfortable seats
- Gut busting portions w/ soup, salad and bread
- Great quality food with perfect seasoning
- Not too crowded
- Hidden gem
- Late night hours
- They play Christmas music sometimes dead in the middle of summer.
What more can you ask for? One of our favorite places to go to when we want to eat heavy.
I took my friend here one time and now he makes a 30 minute trip from downtown Chicago just to go to this place. Even when he's drunk, late on a Thursday, he wants to take a cab to this place. -
Review from carey c.
5/4/2009
I was really shocked at the dismal experience I had at this place. I am not too finicky about service, but this was weird...
My friend and I order our food, the very nice waitress takes our orders. I order fattoush and foule. My foule, a common bean breakfast dish takes forever...she politely explains that they are out of foule and I accept baba ganoush as a replacement. (being out of foule for a Middle Eastern restaurant is like a McDonalds being out of fries)
The rest of our food takes a reeealllly long time, but we are patient, because the waitress is doing her best. My friend ordered Chicken Shwarma, which finally came, and I finished my (good) fattoush salad. They bring out fresh foule after a long time, which I didn't ask for, having had the baba ganoush.
We finish up, and my friend needs her Shwarma packed up, the waitress takes it away. I have my foule packed up, miffed because I didn't ask for, and didn't want the foule at this point. The foule comes back, the shwarma does not. We are a little miffed at this point. We ask the young manager at this point to give her a gift card, or something that says that she can come back for schwarma. He gives us attitude, and says that they went to a lot of trouble to get foule for the table, therefore, that should account for my friend's schwarma. I gave this place one star because the food is decent, but not special, and one star because it is clean and that poor waitress was actually really nice. Too bad she works with a stupid manager and questionable kitchen staff. -
Review from Jana K.
Chicago, IL
5/4/2009
Ugh!!!! I want to love this place so hard! 3.00 for a falafel sandwich? AWESOME, RIGHT? Open! 24 hours... Sweet! Well, it's just so so. I am actually eating take out from there right now. The 1st time I had their falafel sandwich it came with tomatoes, lettuce and a side of yummy tahini sauce. The second time it came with lettuce, tomatoes, pickled radishes and tahini sauce. Third, it came with everything else from the last time, except the falafel wasn't seasoned at all. This fourth time, and perhaps last time, it came win tomatoes, pickles and onions with NO tahini sauce.
I keep going back because it's dirt cheap. But it's diferent everytime! It's frustrating that they don't have their system figured out yet. Spend an extra few dollars for a better and more flavorful Falafel sandwich at Semiramis. -
Review from Jeff Z.
Chicago, IL
11/21/2009
Great Middle Eastern Restaurant
I love the food and it is the only one which is open real late! -
Review from Mira D.
Chicago, IL
9/20/2009
Nice change of pace with the fava bean based falafel. Very deep flavor. The place almost seems too big and is far from being backed. The hummus is good, nice portions on kababs. Nothing fantastic that sticks out.
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Review from Marc B.
Chicago, IL
7/17/2009
After eight years in Albany Park happily eating many pita's worth of Persian, Lebanese and Jordanian food, I was excited to try an Iraqi take. Good news is that the service is uber-friendly (not always the case on Kedzie), the prices are way, way cheap and the kabobs good and in good quantity. I tried the Iraq Kabab Kufta and it is more than solid when compared to the much more expensive takes up and down the street. As good? No. But solid and, as I said, very cheap. However, their hummus was done in that style where the consistency is kind of cottage cheese like - clearly a choice and not a mistake but not my thing. If you're pinching pennies, I think it is a great take out option as two people could easily split a four-kabob plate and spend $12 total - a really good deal. And $4.99 sandwiches are obviously a plus.
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Review from Esther A.
Albany Park, Chicago, IL
9/23/2009
My husband and I came here for some 3 AM post-bar grub. I gotta tell you, not even an appetite whetted by three beers could make this food palatable. Service was friendly but excruciatingly slow and the food was *terrible*. The meat in our sandwiches (both chicken and lamb) was dry and unappetizing and the pita was really pathetic--thin, stale-tasting and bland. I've had a ton of delicious Middle Eastern food, both in and out of the neighborhood, so I know what good kufta and shawarma taste like, and this was not good, not even after booze.
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Review from Gino T.
Washington, DC
10/11/2009
Real cheap wraps. That's all you get. The price is right, when you gotz no money and have to have a quick kabob, falafel wrap. Yeah the waitress is from Peru, the cook is Mexican, but the place serves lamb, that's all you need to know. Totally try it you won't waste your monies.
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Review from Dennis C.
Chicago, IL
3/14/2010
I found the food delicious, well-seasoned, fresh tasting. It was served fresh. On a Sunday night (like tonight) with low traffic, the food was very good.
Prices were reasonably competitive. Decor was quite classy. I particularly enjoyed the stenciled pattern above the light fixtures.
Our waitress was very polite and seemed ready to serve. She patiently answered questions and checked on us but when not needed, she did not hover.
