Middle Eastern Archives

In Middle Eastern

Kabsa House: Middle Eastern Cuisine in Downtown Vancouver

November 18, 2018

Kabsa House is located on Robson Street on the 2nd floor specializing in Middle Eastern cuisine. We were invited to check out a few of their dishes on their menu.

Interior

The interior has a lot of natural light during the day and over looks a busy area of Robson Street. You can make reservations for small to large groups.

For really large private parties, they can seat up to 80 guests.

Taboula

Taboula is a salad made of finely chopped mixed vegetables. You will find a lot of parsley with tomatoes, onions, bulgar and seasoned with olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper.

It’s not for everyone and you will need to like parsley in order to enjoy this salad.

Molokhia

Molokhia is an Egyptian spinach stew served with pita bread. You dip it in and enjoy the flavours. From the first few bites, it has a mouthfeel similar to Okra. Unique dish that you don’t see too much at Middle Eastern restaurants.

Kabab & chicken

This entree comes with a skewer of grilled marinated boneless chicken and a skewer of ground lamb and beef. It is usually served with a house salad, rice and grilled tomato. You can of course customize the sides. We got half & half bukhari & saffron rice. We also upgraded our salad to a Greek salad for an extra charge.

The skewers of meat were really good. Bukhari rice is seasoned and more tasty than the saffron rice, but both are fresh, soft, and moist.

Lamb Awsal

You get two skeweres of grilled marinated boneless lamb served with house salad and grilled tomato. We also made the customization to the rice and salad. The lamb was well seasoned and moist. We like it the best out of the ground beef/lamb and chicken. Cooked perfectly too.

Final Thoughts

It’s good to have more diversity of cuisine on Robson Street and Kabsa House located close to the bus and Skytrain routes. They have a good amount of items on the menu that it will cater towards those with different tastes.

Address:
1128 Robson St, Vancouver, BC

Website:
https://kabsahouse.ca/

In Gastown

Balila Vancouver: Rainbow Hummus, Wraps and Lamb Shanks

July 3, 2018

Hummus for your thoughts? My friends and I have been having hummus cravings for the last little while. The taste is just delicious when used as a dip or incorporated into other dishes like a wrap.

Balila is a Mediterranean and Hummus restaurant in Gastown. They have 9 flavours of hummus on their menu and you can’t just have one. 4 of us came to give their menu a try to see what they offer besides hummus. This family run business has a big heart that stands behind their food and community.

Interior

There is a long table, seats by the window and some smaller tables for customers to dine.

Rainbow Hummus

If you want a taste of all their different hummus options, you need to get the rainbow hummus. It comes with all the flavours:

Original
Garlic
Olive
Spicy
Yam
Pest0
Beetroot
Avocado Mint

There is also another flavour but it contains walnuts and my friend is allergic. It’s a great thing they point that out in the menu to help those with dietary restrictions.

All of the hummus were very good but the olive, spicy, and avocado mint stood out to use the most. Unique flavours that is harder to find around town. Highly recommend the rainbow hummus as it’s a great way to taste all their varieties of hummus.

Garlic Chicken Wrap

In the wrap, there is lettuce, tomatoes, hummus and the delicious garlic chicken. The chicken is delicious and full of that garlic flavour. You can’t go wrong with chicken and hummus in a wrap.

Sirloin Cube Wrap

Their sirloin cubes are marinated with a secret sauce and paired with lettuce, tomatoes, and hummus The steak cubes were tender and has good flavour from the marinade.

Mediterranean Veggie Wrap

If you want something a bit different without meat, check this out. It has different grilled veggies flavoured with olive oil and spices to create a good flavour combination.

Cauliflower Wrap

Another veggie option with hummus, roasted cauliflower, tahini-lemon mix and spices. This is definitely packed with flavour and it might just surprise you. So saucy and so good.

Lamb Shank and Fattoush Salad

This was their special for the day it has a beautifully braised spiced lamb shank with saffron rice and a fattoush salad. The lamb shank was tender and the combination of spices was yummy.

The fattoush salad has lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, spring onions, parsley, radishes, pita chips and their lemon-sumac dressing. A good fresh and crisp salad that goes with the lamb very well.

Final Thoughts

Overall, I was impressed by the dishes. It makes for a good delicious quick lunch stop. They also do delivery in the Downtown area, so if you’re looking for something healthier, this is a great option.

Address:
47 W Hastings St, Vancouver, BC

Website:
https://www.balilahummus.com/

In Downtown

Salchicha: North African and Middle Eastern cuisine in Vancouver

November 23, 2016

Salchicha on Granville Street serves up Northern African and Middle Eastern cuisine in Vancouver. Pretty unique since there isn’t many places that serve that type of food.

I was invited to try a few of their signature items on the menu.

They use good ingredients in their dishes like preservative-free, premium free range meats and BC produce where possible.

You order at the counter and you can serve yourself. There is water by the wall. Alternatively, they can also serve you at your table.

Appetizers

Salada Platter has Tabbouleh salad, Hummus, Arabic salad and Baba ganoush with a side of focaccia bread.

There are a few dips you can add to the platter for a few dollars extra -Harrisa, Sahuog, and Tahini Dips.

Grilled Marinated Chicken Breast Skewers is served with a chipotle mayo house sauce. The skewers were ok but a tad dry.

Antipasti comes with roasted eggplant, bell peppers, yam, carrot,and zucchini topped a sprinkle of with EVOO and balsamic.

Sweet Liver Pate was an interesting item on the menu. The presentation wasn’t pleasant either. It has stir fried liver and onion and sweetened with cherry tomatoes and cinnamon.

Cherry Salad has 3 kinds of cherry tomatoes, lettuce, mint, red onion and a sprinkling of feta cheese. I really liked the salad as it was fresh and the mint paired very nicely. I would get this again.

Mains

Beef Kababs are pierced with a cinnamon stick and there is also potato cream purée under each kebab. I found this a bit dry.

Shakshouka with Maraguez Sausage is served on a hot skillet with tomato sauce, and poached eggs.

Couscous with Maraguez Sausage has spicy lamb sausage with a reduced Harissa sauce. Pretty good hearty dish with a hint of spice.

Spring Chicken with date molasses, and rice. The dish was ok, but not as interesting as the other dishes for the mains.

Dessert

Malabi was the dessert to finish off the meal. It is a milk custard thickened with corn flour and topped with rose water and maple syrup, coconut shavings and crushed peanuts.

Really good dessert with a hint of floral from the rose water.

Final Thoughts

Overall, the food was decent but it’s hard to figure out what will tickle your taste buds.

We Rate Salchicha:

Address:
1065 Granville St, Vancouver, BC

Website:
http://www.salchicha.ca/

In British Columbia

Uncle Kebab: Middle Eastern Food Truck

August 4, 2015

The Surrey Food Cart Festival was a few weeks ago and Uncle Kebab was one of the food trucks there. Their food truck serves up Shawarma Wraps and Shawarma Plates on their menu. All items are under $10.

You can find them at various events throughout the city.

Watermelon Chiller (16 oz – $5) was so refreshing on a hot summers day. I really needed this. So good! There’s even a little mint leaf inside. Give me moar!

Chicken Shawarma Wrap ($8) has marinated chicken breast, pita bread, home-made hummus, salad, tahini sauce and hot sauce. The chicken breast was quite dry, but the flavours of the hummus and tahini were good.

The wrap itself could have been wrapped a bit tighter and it was quite loose and started to fall apart.

We Rate Uncle Kebab:

Find location:
http://streetfoodapp.com/vancouver/uncle-kebab

Twitter:
https://twitter.com/KebabsYourUncle

In Gastown

Einstein Wrap House: Donair and Shawarma in Gastown

January 3, 2015

Einstein Wrap House is located in Tinseltown and they serve up donair and shawarma. I haven’t had a wrap or a platter in a long time, so I decided to drop by for lunch.

The prices are under $9 and it’s decent for the downtown area. There’s really no other donair/shawarma shop in the area. A lot of people love the platters since it’s a lot of food for under $10.

Chicken Shawarma Wrap ($6.25) has freshly sliced chicken, tomatoes, lettuce, hummus and tzatziki sauce. It was a good amount. Quality was decent but the hummus or tzatziki wasn’t very flavourful.

Can of Coca-Cola ($1.35)

Overall, I would come here again if I had a donair craving in this area. There are definitely better donair places in town.

We Rate Einstein Wrap House:

Address:
516 Abbott St
Vancouver BC

In Downtown

Donair Dude: Huge Delicious Donairs on Granville Street

April 16, 2014

Donair Dude on Granville Street is cranking out some amazing donairs. I can’t believe it took me so long to come here. KoreanGirl and I were looking for some cheap lunch to fill our bellies and stumbled upon Donair Dude.

We are so glad we did because it might just be one of the better donair places in town.

What caught my eye was the lunch special. A pita donair with a can of pop for $5.99. It’s only available from 11am to 3pm. Good deal if you want a filling lunch for under $10.

You pay for your item first, and you choose the ingredients you want in your donair. Everything looked fresh.

Chicken Pita Donair Lunch Combo ($5.99) is huge. Its also quite heavy too! I was very impressed. It is also carefully grilled so the donair does not fall apart. Good execution.

Inside, it is overflowing with vegetables and meat. It tasted really good too.

Chicken Rice Plate ($9.99) has 2 falafels, tabouleh salad, a grilled pita, tzatziki, rice and a bunch of chicken.

They give you a lot and they don’t skimp out on ingredients. KoreanGirl really enjoyed it and left very happy. She also had to save some for a snack later in the day.

We Rate Donair Dude:

Address:
1145 Granville St
Vancouver, BC

In lunch

Mangal Kiss Mid East BBQ: New Location at Main Street Station

December 24, 2013

Mangal Kiss has set up their second food cart right outside Main Street Skytrain Station. My coworkers are all raving about their amazing sandwiches, soups and wraps. We usually don’t have too many food options in the area, but when something good comes to the area, the word spreads throughout the building.

A few years ago, I first tried their amazing wraps near the Art Gallery and I was hooked to their fresh and flavourful food. As it’s steps outside my work, I have no excuse not to go for lunch here.

Full Sandwich with soup and dessert ($12) was what I ordered for lunch. It was a lot of food, but good food! They ran out of dessert but I got an orange instead.

BBQ Braised Short Rib has shaved cabbage, Moroccan spiced carrots, daikon, and pickles. It also has Mangal Kiss bbq sauce and tahini. The vegetables and pickles really make this sandwich emanate with flavour.

Lentil Soup was surprisingly really good. It had a nice depth of flavour. Filling too.

Chicken Shawarma ($7) was very large and packed full of vegetables. It’s still good, but it isn’t as great as the Shishliks wraps they used to make when they were near the Art Gallery.

What I like about their food is that the portions a large, price is good and its full of vegetables and amazing sauce. If you ever see them, check them out.

We Rate Mangal Kiss:

Location:
Main Street Skytrain Station

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In Downtown

Pita Wrap Cafe: Come Here, Eat Cheap, Be Full.

November 2, 2011

Pita Wrap Cafe is super popular for international students for their cheap lunch deals. You can probably get really full for about $7. They have about 2 daily specials, which are usually the most popular. Since I wanted to explore more of the unknown restaurants, I came here with Flo for lunch. We really had no idea what to expect.

The interior has a few seats and you just order up at the corner. It gets pretty packed here around noon, so it’s best to go earlier before noon or past 1pm.

The most popular items for lunch are usually on the middle menu section. Most regular menu items are under $8, but if they happen to be the daily special, it can be about $5 – $6.

Chicken Shawarma wrap ($5.25) has fresh lettuce, tomatoes, chicken, tzatziki and tahini. Not as good as other places, but it was decent.

Flo had a Lentil Soup ($2.75) to go with her wrap.

Beef Kabob Plate ($7.45) has rice, greek salad, roasted potatoes, tzatziki, pita bread and the beef kabob.

The 2 beef kabobs tasted alright but could have had more flavour. The rice and potatoes were decent as well.

Just like the rest of the meal, it was alright. you get what you pay for. You will get pretty full from this dish, but it won’t be the most exciting beef kabob you have ever had. You probably want to come here to eat cheap to be full.

Words of Wisdom:

Good variety of dishes
Pretty average dishes
Daily Specials everyday
Under $10
Closest Skytrain: Granville

We Rate Pita Wrap Cafe:

Address:
565 Dunsmuir St
Vancouver, BC

In Downtown

Mangal Kiss Mid East BBQ Truck: It’s like Nuba on A Truck

October 26, 2011

Since so many Food Carts are continually popping up Downtown, I thought it would be a great idea to check out more of them! Since there are so many near my work place that are new, I needed to go try them before the Vancouver rain ruins the beautiful sunny days.

Mangal Kiss has some delicious middle eastern food. When I looked at their menu, I had no idea what it was, but I keep hearing its good.

Perhaps I have bad eyes, but it took me a while to figure out how to read the menu. They sell shishliks, which is like a wrap. Then you choose what Salatim or sauces you want inside. I just let them put anything into my shishliks.

I got the Chicken Shishlik ($7) which has hummus, tahini, purple cabbage, beets, pickled turnips, pickles, onions, tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, radish and tabbouleh wrapped in Taftoon, an iranian flat bread. It is packed full of vegetables and a skewer of chicken.

The flavours went together so well and it reminded me of the flavours of Nuba, but in a wrap. I do love vegetable, so I didn’t mind that it has so many vegetables. The chicken was quite small compared to the size of the wrap, but I think it worked well overall since you get a lot of taste from the vegetables and sauces.

This wrap isn’t small either. It’s pretty large!

Mediterranean Tomato Basil Soup (With shishliks it’s extra $4). One of those good things to have on a nice cold chilly Fall day. It tasted good but it was not as good as Mom’s Grilled Cheese Truck’s soup.

Overall, pretty good food here. You will get full. I was stuffed! If you like exotic eats, go check them out! With the OccupyVancouver happening at the Art Gallery, they have had a 70% drop in business. Don’t let those protesters get in the way of experiencing yummy yummy food. Support local businesses and give Mangal Kiss BBQ Truck a try!

Words of Wisdom:

Amazing flavours
Under $10
Close to City Center, Burrard or Granville Skytrain

We Rate Mangal Kiss Mideast BBQ Truck:

Location:

Behind Vancouver Art Gallery

Twitter:

@mangalkiss

In Downtown

Aladdins Shawerma Cafe: Decent Shawerma

June 26, 2011

Every time I pass by Babylon Café, I wonder how the other shawerma restaurant compares. This place is a few shops down from Babylon Café called Aladdin’s Café. One major difference is that you can sit inside Aladdin’s Café and with Babylon Café, you can’t.

M and I decided to take our lunch here since all he wanted was meat, meat and more meat. It was quite busy during lunchtime, but most people were doing take-out.

We lined up and we really couldn’t help all the different types of currency on the wall. It was super cool looking at all the bills.

The service was pretty weird, it took them a while to acknowledge we were there standing there waiting to order.

I ordered the Shawafel Platter ($9.45). It came with two small falafel patties, chicken, rice, salad, hummus and 2 pieces of pita bread. I did enjoy the combination of both the falafel and the chicken.

This dish tasted all right, but I really couldn’t feel a little dis dissatisfied with the dish. I really couldn’t put my finger on it, but it might have been the amount of chicken.

M got the Chicken Shawerma Platter ($8.95). It has tzatziki, rice, salad, pita and of course the chicken. He thought it was all right, but nothing too special.

I think we were not very impressed because we are just so use to the large portions we would get at Donair Town at SFU.

We ended the lunch with some old school Strawberry Crush Sodas. It tasted pretty good, I never usually get sodas but I was glad I did.

One thing I thought was odd was the hookah’s as decorations. I guess it’s normal but it was weird having it in your face when you are trying to eat.

Overall, it was decent but I feel like Babylon Café is a bit better.

Words of Wisdom:

Open for late night eats.. especially after concerts or clubbing
Under $10
Decent food
Limited seating

We Rate Aladdin’s Shawerma Cafe:

Address:

720 Robson Street
Vancouver, BC

In Downtown

Nuba: Amazing for Lunch

May 31, 2011

Since another one of my coworkers was leaving, it was another lunch outing at the office. We chose Nuba since it was a decent walk from the office and has a reputation for delicious food. They did not take reservations, so we needed to come up with a plan to steal a table for 8. One of my coworkers and I just hopped down there 30 mins. earlier to wait for a table, to our surprise there was an empty 8 person table. This was PERFECT! All the tables were packed…. Except for the large table.

Nuba has a pretty good selection for the lunch menu. I stuck by choosing one of the plate options rather than the Pita options are because you get hummus, tabouleh, and tzatziki. Those were the 3 things I really wanted to taste since it’s been a while since I visited Nuba.

My Coworker ordered the pita and even though it was quite large, she was a bit disappointed because it did not look as impressive as the plate.

I ordered the Lamb Kibbeh Sainish ($12). It has 2 halal lamb patties, lots of vegetables, pine nuts, burghul (kinda like rice). Of course it did include the hummas, tabouleh, and tzatziki. A lot of the flavours are very strong and does takes your taste buds to the middle east, but they work so well together that you will not be overwhelmed.

The halal lamb patties were similar to the meat you would find at the donair/ shawarma places. (But of course better!). You really need to smother the patties with the tzatziki sauce.

Overall, great lunch at an affordable price! I would totally come here again for lunch. (Dinner is good too).

Words of Wisdom:

Go for the plate options and you will not be disappointed
Under $15
Hummas + tabouleh is so good!
Vegetarian friendly

We Rate Nuba:

Address:

207 W Hastings St
Vancouver, BC

Website:
nuba.ca

In Downtown

Babylon Cafe

February 27, 2011

I had no idea where to eat, so I walked around Robson Street and Babylon Cafe caught my eye. I was introduced to Babylong Cafe a few years ago by a friend. The place at first looked uber sketch but all the negative perceptions about this place disappeared.

A few year later, I am back to devour their amazing falafels and shawarma.

The exterior is pretty shady looking, but there is usually a line up during peak hours.

The interior of Babylon Cafe is really small. About 4 or 5 customers can stand inside to make their order. Babylon Cafe on Robson is a strictly To Go.

There are a lot of other ingredients you can add to your wrap, you just gotta add a bit of money to it.

When I arrived at about 1pm, a line began to start forming, there was probably 7 people in line waiting and the line was indeed going out the door. With all the delicious meat roasting in their shop, it is no wonder the smell of all the meat attracts visitors.

It is hand sized, so you can walk and eat at the same time. They also give you enough napkins in case you are a bit messy eating the wrap.

I ordered the Chicken Shawarma Wrap ($5.95). Inside this wrap is tabouleh, tomatoes, pickles, lettuce, hummas, and a mound of juicy chicken.

For $6, I really did enjoy it, the different vegetables, tabouleh and the pickles really gave this wrap a good crunch to go along with the savory chicken. Since, I had no where else to eat it, I went to Starbucks and grabbed at tea. Everyone else there was drinking a coffee and on their laptops. I could see the man infront of me trying to figure out what I was eating.

After eating this, I was not super full, but I was satisfied with the taste.

Words of Wisdom: