Search Results for "kabob"

A tiny strip mall restaurant that only serves takeout, Kabob Grill N Go has gained national attention thanks entirely to its exceptional food. One taste and the flavors stick in your head, leaving you with an instant craving for more. Tony and Hasmik Chilingaryan opened the restaurant in May 2020 and since then have earned rave reviews from The Arizona Republic, The New York Times, Yelp and yours truly. At the front counter, the available meats are on display in a refrigerated case. Seasoned beef koobideh, barg, chicken thighs and pork ribs are skewered on dangerous-looking swords, waiting for their turn in the fire. Tony mans the grill, which often fills the space with mesquite smoke, adding an element of Arizona to the otherwise Armenian flavors. Since receiving so much acclaim, the small restaurant often sells out far before closing time. So make sure to call ahead and place an order to secure the takeout you’ve been dreaming of.

When arriving at Kabob Grill N’ Go, a tiny takeout joint next to a Middle Eastern market and a pawn shop, a thick cloud of smoke lets you know you’re in the right place. Inside, a deli counter displays medieval-looking skewers of marinated chicken, spiced beef, and plump tomatoes awaiting their fate. The skewers are grilled to order and served over aromatic rice in portions large enough for multiple days of leftovers. Our favorite is the koobideh plate, the long cylinders of spiced meat accompanied by pleasantly charred tomatoes and peppers. The flavors get in your head. This little kabob shop is obsession-worthy.

What if we told you that one of the greatest grilled meats in our carne asada wonderland is an Armenian kabob? Believe it. Kabob Grill N Go owners Tony and Hasmik Chilingaryan grill flank steak, pork ribs, chicken wings, and the sausage-shaped minced-meat skewer known as koobideh. You can order a skewer. You can throw down and get a whole platter with rice and more. Much of what the Chilingaryans cook is displayed in a glass case. Just one look and a quick soulful smell of the grill, and you’ll be a new regular.

This South Scottsdale eatery, opened by Palestine-born Mustafa Hasan, offers a sprawling list of Middle Eastern delights. Homemade hummus and baba ganoush? Of course. Baklava and kabobs? You got it. Chapati wraps and za’atar? Yup. Pizza topped with shawarma? Actually, yes, and don’t knock it until you’ve tried it. While it’s difficult to choose a best “Middle Eastern” restaurant — a label lazily applied by Americans unable to differentiate the incredibly diverse cuisine east of the Mediterranean — Golden Restaurant & Bakery’s broad menu and tasty dishes make it deserving of the title. Its status as a comforting home away from home for a wide array of Arizona State University’s international students has also earned it a critical spot in the north Tempe community.

Quick service is a hallmark of Kabob Grill N’ Go’s specialty, but that doesn’t mean taste is compromised. It’s a family-owned restaurant, so you’ll likely be greeted by Hasmik Chilingaryan, who makes everything fresh. The combos are large and include basmati rice, grilled vegetables and choice of meat (either chicken, beef or lamb) and dips. Most customers, including us, rave about the chicken and praise the generous portions. You’ll likely have leftovers even if you share a plate. For vegetarians, there is eggplant salad, grilled vegetables, warm pita and shirazi salad — chopped cucumber, tomato, red onion, parsley, lime juice and olive oil dressing.

Family-owned Princess Pita Mediterranean Restaurant and Market knows what it knows, which is falafel, kababs and various sundries from the Middle East, Greece, India and Persia. The aisles won’t necessarily overwhelm, and you’ll have plenty of time to look at each item and study the ingredients. The market also has cheeses, olives, spices, dates and grape leaves, as well as a full line of halal meats including lamb, goat, beef and chicken. Before or after you take a look at all the grocery items you want to buy to make a meal at home, you can grab a bite to eat at the restaurant, which dishes up beef shawarma, chicken and beef kabobs, koftas, hummus, rice and salad. The bakery counter also has baklava to try on-site or as a take-home dessert.

In Arabic, haji baba refers to a person with an adventurous spirit, and we’d like to think that such individuals would eat at the popular Tempe joint. Haji-Baba is an unpretentious eatery with a walk-up counter for grabbing kabob pitas and hummus to go, and a dining room if you prefer that the delicious food come straight to your table. Chicken shawarma is sliced right off the spit and served alongside long-grain, fragrant basmati rice, and chicken, beef, and lamb kabobs are cooked over an open flame. Plus, you can fill up for not much money, since the menu is priced well and portions are generous. Grab some baklava at the end of the meal or take a stroll around the market for European chocolates and Middle Eastern goods for the pantry. Bonus points if you take home some French feta cheese for later.

Persian restaurants usually tend to be over-the-top affairs featuring white linen tablecloths, baroque furniture, and dangling chandeliers — or else they’re barebones kabob counters. Saffron JAK finally offers something in between the two — a casual spot for a sit-down lunch or reasonably priced dinner, featuring freshly baked sagnak flatbread. The menu includes lamb and chicken kebabs, of course, but also less-traditional fare such as sagnak pizzas topped with feta, and “Persian tacos” stuffed with grilled meat and basmati rice and topped with yogurt sauce. Whatever you order, make sure to grab a loaf of bread to take home. And if you can’t make it to the brick-and-mortar location, follow @saffronjak on Instagram to keep tabs on the restaurant’s food truck, which offers a limited menu at a number of places around town, or find its booth at Phoenix Public Market.

Phoenix is blessed with some seriously great Iranian food, from white tablecloth restaurants serving lavish jeweled rices and skewers of perfectly cooked filet, to small bakeries serving fresh stuffed savory pastries and breads. AZ Kabob House is the most casual of the sit-down restaurants, offering counter service in a bright, airy space in a strip mall. The interior is cheerful but not lavish, and the menu includes less traditional fare, like Greek salads and hummus, but their Persian specialties, like tender, ground beef kubideh kabobs served over saffron rice; homemade doogh, a salted mint and yogurt drink; and gormeh sabzi, a lamb and herb stew, are some of the best versions of these classic Persian dishes anywhere in town. And we believe they are the only ones in town serving dizzi, an utterly luscious mashed meat and potato stew served with a rich bone broth and warm, fresh-baked bread that could be the most satisfying of all Persian comfort foods. Affordable prices and consistently good, solid Iranian classics make it the best place in Phoenix to get your Persian fix.

Fresh Mint owner and head chef Mai Ly has a way with herbs. It only takes a sip or two of her spicy lemongrass soup to understand that vegetarian cooking can be as fragrant and lively as anything coming off a barbecue grill. Everything is made to order at Fresh Mint, but it’s worth the wait for the restaurant’s pan-Asian dishes, which are often brimming with the flavors of bright sesame ginger sauce and fragrant coconut curries. Fried rolls stuffed with taro root, shiitake mushrooms, tofu, and herbs are wonderful, and the veggie kabobs with nicely seasoned hunks of eggplant, tofu, peppers, and mushroom, served with peanut sauce, are a revelation. Even your most ardent carnivore companions will enjoy the Kung Pao chicken dish, which uses a soy meat replacement in place of chicken, and comes loaded with chopped veggies and herbs deliciously dressed in a garlic sauce. Desserts, which include a wonderfully dense carrot cake, are pretty great, too.

The Persian Empire may be ancient history, but Persian cuisine still rules. And what better place to sample its seductive array of flavors than Tasty Kabob? There’s a reason why this spot has been a favorite for more than 20 years, serving up exotic specialties in a cozy, casual atmosphere that attracts ASU students, folks from the neighborhood, and ethnic food enthusiasts from across the Valley. True to the restaurant name, scrumptious kabobs reign supreme on the menu, whether you’re hungry for marinated filet mignon, top sirloin, ground beef, lamb, chicken, or rainbow trout. They’re all expertly grilled and teamed with fragrant, saffron-accented basmati rice. But there’s plenty more to feast on — tangy, lemony shirazi salad and creamy eggplant borani, tadig (crispy rice that tastes great with hearty homemade stews), and lip-smacking Persian vanilla ice cream, kissed with rosewater and saffron. Expanding our horizons never tasted so good.

Live in Phoenix any amount of time, and you’ll learn to love the strip mall. Otherwise, you’ll be doing a lot of online shopping, baby, or hoofing it to the mall (which, let’s be honest, is really just a loop of a strip mall, indoors). We love the combinations that pop up near one another: the funky bike store next to the vegan cafe; the DIY dog wash next to the congressional candidate’s headquarters; the funky garden shop next to the Persian restaurant next to the art supply store.

Our favorite strip mall is the one we’ll always think of as the Stinkweeds strip mall, even though, sadly, the record shop’s Tempe location packed its boxes years ago. But many classics remain: This spot houses a bartending academy and a Planned Parenthood, as well as Tasty Kabob and the original Pita Jungle, two of the city’s tastiest Mediterranean options.

Chill, a cleverly appointed dessert destination selling gelato and frozen yogurt, is our latest reason to head to Apache, which will soon be all the more accessible, thanks to light rail, which runs right past it.

Now if we could just afford to set up shop in one of the empty storefronts in that strip mall, we’d be quite at home. We hope something good comes in soon. Chances are, it will.

We’re in heaven every time we head down Apache, from Rural to McClintock — as far as we can tell, there’s nowhere else in the Valley with such an incredible variety of Middle Eastern restaurants in such close proximity. Really, they ought to rename it Shawarma Street. And planted right in the middle of it all is a lovely bistro of the Persian persuasion, Tasty Kabob. Along with solid Mediterranean standards like hummus, stuffed grape leaves, tabbouleh, and juicy, charbroiled kebabs (they have eight kinds, including a marinated filet mignon version), there are plenty of specialty dishes you won’t find anywhere else. Eggplant borany bears a superficial resemblance to baba gannouj, but here, the pita-perfect dip combines creamy puréed eggplant with onions, garlic, mint, and a drizzle of yogurt sauce. Fesenjan is a meatball dish with cooked walnuts and pomegranate sauce, and ghormeh sabzi is an aromatic concoction of beef, herbs, and beans. Even dessert is unusual: rosewater-saffron ice cream. Sure, Tasty Kabob lives up to its name, but there’s so much more to love about this place beyond meat on a stick.