House of Kabob

 

63

131

Kathryn E.

Dallas, TX

I like Kabob House.  It isn't as good as Orchard Market Cafe (Persian fare in Towson) but it is good.  Our experience was completely different than Jeff's.  We were served by the owner, a sweet man who was eager to share his native cuisine and took a lot of pride in what he served and kept bringing us more things to try.

The meal started with a plate of parsley, olives, feta, walnuts, and a little pita.  Just bites of each as an Iranian type of amuse bouche.  We've tried the lamb, tenderloin, chicken and the koobideh kabobs (ground beef with spices) and all were tender and tasty.  They are served with a mound of rice, grilled tomatoes and onions, and then we also ordered the yogurt and cucumber to dip it in.

I haven't tried other parts of the menu, but the kabobs are good.  And since it is close to Usha's original salon, we drop in before or after the eyebrow stop for a nice bite.

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Elite '08

43

142

Jeff W.

Oakton, VA

I imagine the only reason this place exists is because of the complete lack of "ethnic" cuisine in the area.  From the outside (and name) I was expecting more of a carry-out type place.  Instead, it's a sitdown Iranian restaurant.  It was surprisingly busy when I showed up but we were promptly seated.  After that, it was all downhill.

Service was abysmal.  After being seated for 5 minutes, we still hadn't been addressed, and still didn't have menus!  We had to finally get up and get our own menus from the front.  Our waitress was completely lost, not really knowing anything about the food or menu.  The choices basically consisted of a few iranian "specialities" and then standard kabob fare.  I decided to play it safe and go for a kabob combo, which I'm pretty familiar with, and since I couldn't get any valuable feedback from the waitress on any of the iranian dishes.

Not unlike the service, the food took a really long time to come out.  When it arrived, it was disappointing looking.  Each plate had a HUGE pile of bland, dry, plain old rice.  No sides on top of it, no spices in it, no moisture.  No flavor, aside from the weird chemically taste that I couldn't identify.  I compared it to tasting like glue.  There was also no bread with which to eat my kabob, and no yogurt sauce, as is standard at most places.  This was probably the first time I've ever used a fork to eat a kabob.  Chicken was juicy enough but had no flavor.  Koobideh was pointless.  Dry and no flavor.  I wouldn't be surprised if it was just unseasoned ground sirloin on a skewer and then cooked to death.  The only highlight was the generous portion of grilled vegetables.

Once finished the lackluster meal we couldn't wait to leave.  Not surprisingly, paying also took forever.  Finally we had to go in the back to physically take the money to the waitress and get change.

An awful experience of bland food and poor service.  It took over an hour and a half to go through the dining process here, and that was with us trying to expedite things.  I definitely will not be coming back ever again and I find it hard to believe this place is still in business.  Maybe their weekly lunch buffet draws in customers?

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