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Category: Restaurants [Edit]
Neighborhood: Capitol Hill
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Do not be fooled by its dumpy exterior.
The gyro pita is a little too thick (for my liking) but that is only a teensy oversight since the greens are so crisp and fresh, the tomatoes ripe and sweet.
The falafel is the best one I've had since moving away from the left coast -- hot, crispy, with just the right crunch. The tahini and tzatziki (or their rendition of tzatziki) is some creamy awesomeness.
The food and ambiance would make it four stars but the owners are so kind, the extra star is for completely selfish purposes. To me, it's all about the overall experience.
I LOVE YOU, ALI BABABA.
The window display is bordering on terrifying. I wouldn't have fed that plastic food to my dolls. And trust me my dolls could put it down. But thank heavens, the real food, the food I shovel in my face, looks and tastes (so I assume) nothing like the discolored, shiny plastic food on display.
Since my neighborhood go to Greek restaurant (Mr. Gyros!) is closed on Sundays, I've ventured to Ali Baba on several occasions to get my falafel or gyro fix. For an extra buck or two you can turn your gyro or falafel purchase into a combo, which I always do, because I am wild about Ali Baba's jasmine rice that is served on the side. Wild! And sometimes I just feel like a crush. Orange.
The tables aren't always wiped off, newspapers are often strewn about and the interior is lacking, but who's looking around when you've got a plate of food siting in front of you?
On Capitol Hill? Want Mediterranean?
Here you go!
I really only like the appropriate sizing here. Not to big, not to small as far as grabbing a quick bite. But the place all ways smells like pee!
I like stopping by at Ali Baba for a quick bite because everything is consistently fresh. If you have salad, it's always crunchy, fresh, and juicy - as if they have a vegetable garden in the backyard. Their hummus, baba ganoush, tatziki sauce have never let me down. It's a perfect inexpensive little place for a quick gyro fix. And Ali Baba's fried cauliflower gyros are absolutely lovely!
Ali Baba has fantastic vegetarian food. The Falafel is great and I could eat their Foul Mudammes until I burst. Everything tastes so good I always order twice as much as I need knowing the leftovers will be tomorrow's treat.
Great food and the customer service is fantastic!
If you are looking for a quick, delicious and filling meal on Broadway you can't do much better
Maybe I just picked the wrong thing (a babaganoush sandwich), but it wasn't anything spectacular (I've had way better) and the side salad was equally boring.
I have walked by a million times & finally stopped in. Probably would go elsewhere in the future.
Don't know why this place never seems that busy, but hey it means I get my food that much faster then so be it
they guys here have always done a damn good job of cooking some grub up I like to get the Gyro and rice with Tzatziki sauce on it it always fills the tummy
and the hot tea they have here is really good for a after meal drink
The girl working the counter was an ADD poster child and completing an order seemed to challenge the limits of her ability to task-focus. Which was more amusing than frustrating.
Huge portions and strong flavors, exactly what we were hoping for in a cheap middle eastern takeout place.
Greek fast food is an art and a science.
It takes a clever combination of quickly-cooked but tasty meat, proper saucing, and attitude. It has to be traditional but interesting, spicy but not devoid of natural flavor. It's easy to make bad Greek fast food. Fortunately, Ali Baba avoids all of these traps.
This is more a donair place than a gyro joint (although not so advertised), with flavor and spicing geared toward the Middle Eastern. Sandwiches are good and sides are hardy. Not the cleanest place (it's McDonald's-style clear-your-own-table fare), but it's hygienic. I prefer Mediterranean Kitchen Express down Broadway into First Hill. But this place is solid, casual fun.
This is the best place for gyros in Seattle! The plastic food in the window, the spare dining area, the middle eastern music on the stereo, the tangy ancient/refill ketchup and the (sometimes free) sage tea all transform with time, from the weird to the sublime. Everything is fresh and tasty, and even the veggie options are delicious (fried cauliflower? brilliant!)
This was the first place I ever got a gyro at in the city, and this will be the ONLY place.
I mean, I thought I had it good with the Falafel Drive-In from my hometown of San Jose(which is EXCELLENT, by the way), but this place just one-ups the hell out of it. The staff is super friendly, even with the complete crazies that just walk in. Like me.
Uhh and the food? Lots of good food for cheap. You can go get some fancy food up the street, but if you're looking for some serious belly-filling gyros.. this is the place.
Not much to look at from the outside and the inside is not much better, but who cares when it tastes this good? After graduating from UW and moving to Capitol Hill, I routinely drove all the way to UW just to satisfy my gyro fix. Now it's only a 5 minute walk from my apt! Sweet!
I usually get the lamb gyro special (with fries and drink) and a wedge of their wonderful basbousa. The gyros are great, but not the best. I highly recommend trying the basbousa. I'm addicted.
Besides the food, the service has been great every time. That's what really stands out for me. The guys that work the register are a friendly bunch. You can almost always strike up a conversation with them.
My one complaint is their watered-down ketchup.
Ali Baba on Broadway serves delicious Middle Eastern food .
I ALWAYS enjoy my meals there. It's tough to find such food for good prices anywhere else in Seattle. There are better places to eat such fare, but remember I'm rating on cost of food/portion size and taste. You can say Ali Baba is Middle Eastern fast food. It's perfect for Broadway. Most places are over priced and lack the service that I am so accustomed to in Middle Eastern culture.
Whenever I visit Ali Baba I'm always received warmly. The staff there is very kind and usually serves us complimentary Sage Tea (which is delicioso!)
My favorites include the vegetarian Ali Baba platter. It's probably the priciest thing on the menu, however you are getting a lot of food. The Lentil soup is always comforting on a cold day and during the summertime it's great to eat for dinner on it's own. Another menu item I order often is the Labneh. Ohhh do I love labneh. Some may say it's an acquired taste. I'm used to mine having mint leaves and more olive oil, but the labneh itself is delicious. My favorite sandwich is the Lamb and Beef Gyro (Halal of course). I'm not one for sweets, but I have tried both the Basbousa (mmm flavored with what I am sure is Rosewater) and their Baklava. Perfect if you have a sweet tooth. I personally always have to share it with someone, because it's too sweet for my taste buds.
Doesn't look like much from the outside. They do have plastic representations of the food in the window. That's always amusing.
But go inside anyways. Delicious falafel sandwich! They'll make the falafel fresh for you. Get it with the drink special, and get the sage tea. Comes out to like $5.25. Great option when feeling lazy.
Or eat there, and get the tea for free! A meal under $5 - whoo!
I like it, I should admit I've eating there two nights in a row.
This was my first time trying a chicken gyro (me trying to be healthy). It was good, but I think ill come back and get the lamb gyro next time. Ive also had the hummus here before which was outstanding and wonderfully seasoned.
I would like to see more options on the menu here. Why cant they make up a daily or weekly special of a greek dish and sell it for $7-10. I would come here 2-3 nights a week if they had moussaka.
But with all that said a gyro for $5 is a hell of a deal.
Probably one of the worst Falafel wraps I've ever had. Husband had the chicken, it was dry, bland, and disgusting. The hunt continues for a good middle eastern wrap in Seattle...
Don't be alarmed by the plastic food in the window and although there is picture of delicious tabouli on the wall it is not an option on the menu.
Broadway has only hold an handful of good restaurants. Ali Baba is one of them. They make a great spicy falafel sandwich (vegan) that is responsible for my pant shrinkage.
Service is super friendly and on occasion they have gifted me tea with my meal. A delicious tea with a tun of sugar at the bottom. The tea taste of pine needle and it makes me very happy in a sober way.
This place has been on Broadway for a while now and I never really gave it much thought. However, soon after hearing that they had the best Gyros in town I had to check it out.
I took it to go so I can't vouch for the service, but the food was pretty darn good. Eating there reminded me how much I love gyros and that I should be eating them more often.
This is a good thing considering how boring Broadway has become. Woo Hoo! Something good to eat that doesn't involve twinky boys or long waits for mediocre food, BAMBUZA!!!!
Eat there and support local business!
Great babaganoush, great prices. Plus, when i went to get the takeout the lights were really funny... they had pictures of meals over their lighting that look like absolute crap. But don't let the plastic food displays in the window put you off, this place has tasty cuisine!
Anyplace that can get me to eat cauliflower EAGERLY, deserves note.
Not only does it deserve note, it deserves praise! I can't imagine what ever possessed me to order the fried cauliflower, but that moment of madness brings me back here regularly.
I'm not a huge fan of their lentil soup, but its definitely pretty good. It just takes more than that to garner my Eager Praise Rating. Everything I've ever eaten at Ali Baba has been quite tasty.
There are very few places on Broadway that bring me back to eat, but these guys have one of those prized spots.
I'm a sucker for friendly service too, and its always there.
As a native Chicagoan, I am no stranger to mediocre gyro. This is not simply some greasy spoon serving up barely passable gyro. This was a really nicely presented, fresh, seasoned-with-an-inflection-of-Lebanon gyro that I haven't found elsewhere. Nice service added? I'll come back, and often.
Lamb/Beef Gyros are great! Always fresh, made-to-order, Fries are great, no complaints! Recommended. Bathrooms are a bit dirty, and they could clean up a bit better, but I love it.
*- Friendly
*- Delicious
*- Occasional Free Hot Tea
*- Dolmas (aka Grape Leaves) are great - always a good sign.
*- You can people watch if you sit in the front window
Mmmm mmmmmm mmmmmm to the fried cauliflower!!
Ok.. so maybe the falafel is good here (per jedstrano's review) but the Gyro here is hardly the best in town (or I sure hope it's not - 'cause that'd be pretty sad).
The Gyro I had for lunch was mediocre at best. Too much leatuce and not enough onion/tomato/tatziki. The pita was not really warmed very much. Meat was chunky and tasted good, but I prefer Gyros with the meat lightly seared/roasted, and sliced off the cooking spit. The gyro meat in my sandwich seemed warmed, but not roasted. Not sure how the guys at Ali Baba prepared the meat as I could not see back into the kitchen.
The french fries that came with my combo were ok, but the crinkle cut just made me think of high school cafeteria fries.
A plus with this meal was an interesting "homemade" Ice Tea that had an interesting spicy flavor that I could quite place - sorta halfway to a Chai or a Thai Tea perhaps.
Overall I left Ali Baba a little unsatisfied.
I love to grab a falafel here right after purchasing a book at Bailey-Coy (just next door). It's a great little place -- never too busy and the staff is super nice. It's an excellent option for dining on Broadway.
this place is really deceiving, mostly because it looks and the name sounds like it's some huge, gross chain of "mediterranean" cuisine started by some oil mogul's piece-of-shit son.
even the front window displays of food are those horribly kitschy plastic foods i thought they all but destroyed in the late 80's after all the marketing people stopped taking blow. that shit scares people away, it doesn't bring them inside.
anyway, i like this place more than mediterranean express, because it seems a lot less pretentious and the staff here makes me feel a lot more cozy and will never give me the stink-eye if i drop in after working out at the gym.
the reason i'm giving this place 4 stars is because of their falafel sandwich. i fucking love it. their gyro sandwiches are pretty okay, too, but their fucking falafel won me over.
and the price is way better than most of those other places.
also, if you go late at night, the super nice guy behind the counter comps you on tea. THAT'S WHAT I'M FUCKING TALKING ABOUT.
the question is, do you crave felafels? crunchy fat balls, made of ground chickpeas, parsley, garlic, onion, allspice, cinnamon, nutmeg, etc., pressed gently flat, placed on a pillowy fresh pita, topped with shedded lettuce, parsley, tomato, onion, and creamy tahini, wrapped in a cone, and slipped into the perfect little to go bag. order it spicy for a piquant kick. The beauty of this Felafel is that it's never heavy, yet by the delicious last bite, you're somehow satisfied.
Don't miss the semolina, honey cake, warmed up. i've eaten this for dessert with a small cup of sweet sage tea, or while waiting for my sandwich to be prepared.
These people are very friendly, and this place is dirt cheap.
Ali Baba borders on a hole-in-the-wall falafel and Middle Eastern take out / sit down place. The service can be a bit slow, sure, but the quality, the huge portions and the nummmmmy fragrant rice - along with the occasional complementary tea - make it worth the wait.
The hummus and pita alone are worth 5 stars. Be warned that you WILL become addicted to the hummus! Try the AliBaba platter for $11.95 you get a portion of hummus, baba ganoush, fried eggplant, fried cauliflower with tahini sauce, pita bread, saffron rice, and a wonderful bowl of lentil soup. I always have to share it with a friend because there is too much to eat.
Oh. Man. This little place is so lovely. I have been told the fact that I have no love for falafel makes me some sort of freaky weirdo, but I don't care. "They" are not the boss of me. What I can say is that the hummus dished up by the sweet folks that run this establishment is equaled only by that which I sampled in the Levant. So good, my mouth moistens at the thought of it.
Also, I remember the first time I tried zatter. It has a peculiar, lavishly drool-inducing flavor that is unlike anything else I've ever tasted. Its a mish-mash of oregano, sesame, sumac (not poison?) and feta. I love it. I'll be truthful; when I saw it on their menu- I almost peed a little. I was that excited. If you also stay away from the land-meat, or are a real vegetarian - not a half-ass-atarian like myself, and you always go for the falafel combo, try the zatter. Spice things up.
Lastly, we all have bad days sometimes. If you happen to be on/near Broadway on one of those shitty days where you need a hug from the inside out, go to Ali Baba and get the sage tea. For real. It will make everything okay, at least until you hit the bottom of the glass. But don't worry. They will offer you more. PS: Hubby says the falafel is delicious.
The Kuftka dinner plate is pretty good, but the service is slow and they are skimpy with the sauce. I also tried the Chicken Gyro which was underwhelming. The Chicken Souvlaki at Gyro World across the street is better.
This was a seriously disappointing experience, largely due to history. There use to be a restaurant in the space that is now Linda's that was also named Ali Baba. It has been gone for probably 15 years. So when I saw this spot open up I could not help but harken back to that wonderful Lebanese food of the old Ali Baba, especially the Shawarma and Shish Tawook. Suffice to say this spot did not measure up. Oh well, I guess I am hampered by memories of meals from bye gone days.
the falafel here is pretty good. not my favorite, but good enough to satisfy my all-too-common cravings for it. it's also right down the street from me, so thats always a plus. main points here though are for the service. guy who's always at the register... so nice! he just is, and that matters a lot to me (see: gyros world, megalame). he did also gave me free hummus once, but i swear i would like him even if he didnt.
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