Baba's Kabab House

Ladies and gentlemen, finally a restaurant that exceeds expectations! Baba's Kabab House is a brand new halal restaurant located at 3309 N. Central Expy in Plano.  Make sure you circle around to the side of the strip mall to find this hidden gem.

The interior looks like it has been converted from some sort of Asian restaurant.  Other than that, I would call it a work in progress.  The restaurant itself is pretty clean.  There are TVs on the wall, but they were on CNN the whole time so not too bad for the little ones.  Bathrooms are clean with newly installed hand sprayers instead of those cheap, plastic lottas that cut into your hand that other restaurants want to subject us to.  No changing station fyi.

The owner of the restaurant, Saif Mamoor, is a very nice man.  His parents are from Uzbekistan, but moved to India where he was born.  Therefore, he is an interesting mix of nationalities that is reflected in his cooking,

On to the food! The menu at Baba's is very simple, yet so satisfying.  Their specialty is their kabab and boy is it special! It has been a long time since I've tasted kababs that are so tender, juicy, and fresh.  Mr. Mamoor has his own technique for how he gets the kababs to be so soft without using tenderizer (a plus for those of you that are expecting).  All of the items are cooked on a natural wood charcoal grill.  They offer Beef, lamb, chicken, and kofta kabab (which is a mixture of ground beef and lamb).  If you get the platter, they are all served with Uzbek Palao (fragrant rice mix with lamb meat).  I was a bit skeptical at first about the palao as I've never really had positive experiences with palaos, but this was delicious!  It was a perfect complement to the kababs because, though it had some lamb meat in it, it did not overpower the flavor of the main course.  The kids really enjoyed it as well.

Service wasn't too bad.  There weren't any waiters the night we went so Mr. Mamoor, himself, was serving us.  Food didn't take too long to arrive which was great, but then again, we were the only customers.

The prices are very reasonable, nothing that would break the bank at all and totally worth it for the quality of the food.  Mr. Mamoor is in the process of upgrading the menu so currently there isn't a mixed platter.  We ended up just getting the kababs and the palao a la carte which worked out well for our family.  

The night turned out to be a pleasant turn of events for us since we didn't have high hopes upon arriving at the restaurant. This blogger will definitely be visiting again and if you plan on going, don't forget to mention where you heard it first: The Spice Card :)

Spice Card

Atmosphere: C+

Staff/Waiter: B

Food: A+

Baba's Kabob House

This was a difficult place to find off of 75, and it had only been 1 week since grand opening.  It's kind of nice to have the entire restaurant to yourself sometimes right?  Unfortunately, there was no one else in the restaurant and so naturally we were skeptical as to the quality of food and service.
We tried to order a little of everything (beef kabob, lamb kabob, chicken kabob, kofta kabob, and lamb palao.  The taste is amazing.  The texture is the right consistency of meat to spices.  If you've had bad kabob, you know the last thing you want to do is bite into a piece of amazing looking kabob to find a piece of cardamom has just uppercut the roof of your mouth.  His kabobs are nice and juicy, with almost melt in your mouth consistency.  
I love the spice, so had to ask for hot sauce, but for once, never felt like it was a must.  In fact, I used the hot sauce (which was not home made and store bought but extremely good; he didn't remember where I could add it to my own personal collection) with the lamb palao and not with the kabobs.
Mr. Mamoor seems like a guy who really has passion for the art of food prep.  He will share his experiences with you and open up with just a little bit of curiosity from your side.  As a fellow griller, I applaud you for your amazing ability to take meat and grill it into the most succulent and tender kabob I've had, all without the use of meat tenderizer.  

Spice Card

Atmosphere: A

Staff/Waiter: B

Food: A+

Old Town Food Factory

Dallas Edition!  So now that we've settled well into the Big D, it's time to fire up the flame and throw on the spices.  Let the organic and unadulterated reviews begin.
Our first restaurant of review is the Old Town Food Factory.  Old Town Creamery you say?  No, almost; let me explain.  Old Town Creamery is the ice cream parlor which we've visited numerous times (will find some time to review that hopefully!), Old Town Food Factory is the unholy union of the amazing ice cream with less than savory food.
I ordered the Murgh Chana and the Mrs. ordered the gyro wrap.  Since I'm mostly obsessed with the food, let's get to it.  Imagine someone dumps a dollop of ice cream on an already melted bed of ice cream.  That was my Murgh Chana.  At the counter, I always ask them to advise me to order their house specialty.  Being desi, they say "Everything is amazing sir".  Right... but since I can't eat every single menu item, please tell me 1.  The order taker suggested the "...Murgh Chana, and be careful it's spicy".  Can't wait, got the food, dug right in.  First bite... where's the food?  I could have sworn I put something in my mouth.  Ok, maybe second bite? Third?  Last bite?  At least it was tasteless all the way through, consistency right?  Tried the gyro wrap from the Mrs.... It was only slightly better.  
You may be thinking that's overly harsh.  Perhaps, but I tried to look for flavor with my magnifying tongue; never could find it.  What I really think is they should have stuck to their falooda and paan ice cream.  Sorry OTFF, try remodeling your food recipes the way you remodeled your location and I'll return.

Spice Card

Atmosphere: A

Staff/Waiter: B

Food: D

Old Town Food Factory

We're baaaaaack!
Welcome back to The Spice Card.  After a very long hiatus, we have returned to bring you all (or should I say "y'all" now?) honest and unfiltered reviews about local zabihah (and sometimes non-zabihah) restaurants.  

Let's jump right into it shall we?  Today's entry is on a relatively new restaurant, Old Town Food Factory.  I believe it is owned by the same management that runs Old Town Creamery over in Plano (which has superb ice-cream btw).  It is located right off of 75 in Plano. We were attracted to it because it was being compared to The Halal Guys of New York, namely for its gyros.

We visited after recent construction/remodeling, so thankfully, the restaurant was clean.  Ambience was very family friendly with bright lighting, big booths, and plenty of space to move around.  Though it was recently renovated, I'm not sure what style the owners were going for.  There were, what I hope, temporary mirrors lining the walls that didn't go with any color scheme.  There were some pretty nice tiles around the restaurant for the backsplash and decorative purposes, but didn't really tie everything together.  It looked like someone just picked some things that looked nice individually and slapped them together, not caring about any sort of vibe or cohesiveness.  I'm confident that with such a large space, a decorator can do wonders.

Unfortunately (or rather fortunately), none of the kids had to use the bathroom so I wasn't able to check that out.  However, here at The Spice Card, we try to give a complete review including condition of bathrooms and whether or not they have all the facilities like changing tables.  As a family that believes that family-time means enjoying each other's company and not engrossed in electronics, we were pleasantly surprised to see that there weren't any big screen T.V.'s, playing God knows what, to ruin the experience.

Ordering procedure was informal- order at the counter, waiter brings it to your table.  Despite that, the delivery of food was prompt which is essential when dining with kids.  We went when there were no other customers dining so we were attended to pretty well for the rest of the dinner.

On to the food! Don't let the exclamation fool you, the food was all right.  I ordered the New York gyro wrap in a pita for myself and chicken nuggets with fries for the kids.  One downside was that the kids menu was pitiful.  They should have changed it to say "Kid's Item" as there was only one option on there.  Darling Hubby (DH) ordered the Murgh Channa most likely because it was one of the only items on the menu that was described as"spicy" lol.  

My wrap was not bad.  The lamb chunks were huge, but well-marinated.  The wrap was overstuffed with other things like pickled peppers and lettuce and quickly fell apart.  If anyone has a trick on how to hold a wrap together until the last bite, please share!  The kids' chicken nuggets tasted like the usual "Restaurant Depot"-style, nothing creative, but adequate.  They came with fries which were supposed to be seasoned, however, they had no salt on/in them which was disappointing.  DH's food was probably the most tasteless thing I've ever eaten at a restaurant.  I could feel that there was something in my mouth, but weirdly, I couldn't taste a single thing.  Major fail.

Pricing was pretty decent for the amount of food, but at the end of the day, I probably wouldn't visit here again unless they revamped their menu.  Though the ambience was well-suited for our purpose, food is essentially what keeps people coming back and that part was lacking.

Spice Card

Atmosphere: A 

Staff/Waiter: A

Food: D-

http://www.oldtownfoodfactory.com/

Krispy Krunchy Chicken

Ready for another scathing review?

Try this one, Krispy Krunchy Chicken.

KKC is a KFC-like joint run by a close-to-middle age desi man. It is located at 869 S. Roselle Rd. in Schaumburg. Situated in the middle of a strip mall, it wasn't hard to find. The interior is clean and brightly lit. There was a hand sanitizer dispenser in the front next to the counter and a big T.V. set high up in one corner of the restaurant. There were only 4 2-seater tables in the entire restaurant though they had room for more and those tables were sticky and dirty. Mostly, it seemed like the type of place where one picks up food from and definitely not a dine-in place. There wasn't anything on the walls except the menu which were really 3 menus as I will explain later. In front was the register, a window showcasing the different types of cooked chicken, and a door to get to the back. Very simple. The back of the restaurant, which was easily viewable was stocked with all sorts of paper products and kitchen equipment (which in my opinion, should have been all covered up with some drywall).

The door to the back and the kitchen was left ajar. This wouldn't necessarily have been a problem if this would have been a regular restaurant and you couldn't see the "inner workings", but seeing as how it was a desi-run operation, one would of course expect ghetto-ness and so of course there it was. When we got there, there was a family with kids also dining at KKC (which we later deduced was related to the desi guy at the register). While him and the owner were in the kitchen, away from public view, the kids went through the back door and got behind the register and were goofing off. Some even went near the cooked chicken that was on display. I doubt they did anything, but what if they had touched the cooked chicken with their grubby hands?! Or what if they got burned on the warming pans?! This was clearly a hazard the owner nor the employee cared about because when they returned they were not at all shocked that the kids were back there nor did they hurry them out of there! 

Onto the food! As mentioned before, KKC offers 3 different dining options, all of which are fully Zabiha Halal. 1. Fried Chicken. 2. Burgers: Cheeseburgers, Italian Beef burgers, Tex Mex Burgers, etc. 3. Indian food like Fried Okra and Samosas (I think the last one is due to the owners background). They also have a pretty large dessert menu for a chicken place which featured pre-packaged Tres Leche Cake, Cheescake, Cookies & Cream Cake, and Tiramisu. For starters, we ordered the wings which I have been craving lately. We were told over the phone earlier that they had different varieties since I absolutely abhor the vinegary, regular buffalo wings. When we get there, imagine our surprise when the guy at the register says that he remembers we called and "actually, we don't have other varieties, but we will soon". Not good enough buddy. Anyway, I decided to give them the benefit-of-doubt and order them anyway because I thought it might be like Italian Express (another hugely ghetto, desi-run organization) where they say that they serve buffalo wings/hot wings, but have a completely different sauce on them (which is actually pretty good). To my dismay, they were the regular kind. Luckily, my husband was kind enough to finish them off for us and so I decided I'd try the Cajun Chicken tenders. Note, everything at KKC is Cajun battered, its sort of like their "original recipe". The tenders also came with a biscuit which was all right. They were Honey Butter Biscuits, not my thing since I don't like to mix sweet with salty, but I can see how they would appeal to others. The tenders were pretty good; however, what was disappointing and a little hard to believe, was they ran out of their famous "Cajun sauce" that is supposed to go with all these things. Right... On a Saturday night you ran out of your most famous sauce at 7pm? Before the crowds have even come in? Give me a break, more like someone forgot to order enough to begin with (see above mentioned desi ghetto-ness). I ended up eating the tenders with regular BBQ sauce.

Up to this point, the service was pretty decent, despite the fact that there were a lot of people coming in and out with pick-up orders. This was all while there were 2 people working, but once the employee at the register had to leave, the owner's service was horrible even though there weren't many customers at that point. After eating just the wings and tenders, we were still hungry and decided to split an order of small fries. After we ordered, a couple came in with a large order that the owner was busy filling so, once again, we gave him the benefit-of-doubt and waited. Notice, we are still sitting in front of the register, so he can still see us plain as day. 5 minutes go by, 10 minutes, the owner lets us know that they are making a fresh batch, 15 minutes, 20 minutes and the other couple leaves, finally at 25 minutes my husband asks him what happened to the fries, to which the guy responds "oh I forgot, coming right up!" Oh hell no. I lost it. I went off on him (ok, by going off on him, I mean really to my husband.  But loud enough so that he could hear!) about how he could've possibly forgotten, and how we've been sitting in front of his face this whole time, etc. All over a tiny order of small fries! Needless to say, we will not be going back there again. I'll stick with the halal KFC in Lombard and pray that they introduce halal wings soon.

Spice Card

Atmosphere: C-

Staff/Waiter: D-

Food: B-

Krispy Krunchy Chicken

KFC? Try Again. KGC? Wrong Again.  New contender to the zabiha fast food arena has entered the ring, KKC. I too went, what? Whos that? when I heard of it. Apparently, they've been around in other states before infesting Illinois with their unwholesome chicken-ness.  The place is owned by what seems like a couple of younger desi guys, at least thats what one of the guys behind the counter told me.  Its conveniently located right on Roselle Road and near Elgin O'Hare.  Before we drove over there, we called them on the phone and dude on the phone says, "Yes, we have multiple flavors of buffalo wings." Awesome, both the Mrs. and I are big fans of buffalo wings, so we headed over there around dinner time on a Saturday.
"Which flavors of buffalo wings do you have kind sir?"  "We have "hot"."  "Ok, and ?" "Oh, you're the guy that called on the phone... it turns out we don't have any other flavors." "I see...(sigh), ok, give me an order of the hot buffalo wings."
When we scanned for seating, there were 4 tables, 4 of which were dirty.  Not just dirty, sticky and filled with the last patrons food he/she didn't enjoy enough to place into his/her mouth.  Whatever, I'm hungry, I brush off a table and we take our seats for this already rough journey.  The wings come out, my wife order of cajun chicken tenders as well.  Wings were probably a rough 7/10, the tenders were 8/10.  I hate the vinegary "hot" sauce they use on buffalo wings, I prefer other flavors myself, this is the very reason I asked if they had others before we went.  The tenders were dry, but guess what? No cajun sauce for the tenders, which pretty much makes them no different from my daughter's chicken tenders we warm in the toaster oven.
We were still kinda hungry, and we should have really gone somewhere else, but we ordered a small order of cajun fries.  A few other customers come by, get their food, and we have yet to see our fries.  The guy gives me the sign that hes making them fresh in the back, so I don't mind waiting.  5, 10, 15, 20 minutes goes by.  I keep looking at the guy, giving him the "Wheres my food at yo" look.
I eventually ask him about them.  He then says, "Oh, I forgot them."  This was enough for my wife to say forget it and walk out.
For the record, we wanted to try the actual chicken too, but with this experience of customer service and environment, my wife and I weren't really feeling it.
Maybe in the future, when we're feeling up for clogging our arteries again, we'll frequent it.  I must say, if a reader will frequent it, I suggest going during the summer months, since the heat was likely kept at 50 degrees.

Spice Card

Atmosphere: C+

Staff/Waiter: D

Food: B-

Conoce Mi Panama

No.  Yes, thats my review, "No".  It all started on zabihah.com, those that haven't tried it, its actually a very useful website for actual or supposed restaurants that serve partial or full zabihah menu items.  So on this site, we found this Panamanian restaurant.  I'm not a huge fan of Mexican cuisine or any other Hispanic cuisine so maybe I'm not the best to be reviewing this restaurant, reader should bear this disclaimer in mind.  In my defense though, I am open minded to all restaurants and all cuisines, but even this wasn't enough for this restaurant.
We drove down there, 30 miles away from my home, took my daughter and the Mrs. The parking is street parking, took a good 5-10 minutes to find something decent where we wouldn't need a Segway just to reach our destination.
I ordered Carimañolas for appetizers.  These are basically fried mashed potato balls filled with ground meat.  Recommend it? If you like bland mashed potatoes with bland meat, then yes.  Otherwise, no.  It certainly wasn't the worst item of the night as you will find out.  For a drink, I tried to be daring, ordered a lemonade.  Ok, not very daring, but supposed to bring flavor of Panama directly to my palette, so I ordered the Chicha de raspadura con limón.  Its actually lemonade made with raw brown sugar.  This was surprisingly good.
For an entrée, I ordered Ropa vieja (shredded beef (old clothes)) whereas the Mrs. ordered Lulu’s Special - Bistec encebollado a la pimienta (Auntie Lulu’s Fried Flank steak with Carmelized onion).
If the owner or cook of the restaurant is reading, I suggest you stop reading here, the following is rated for adults with taste buds only.  The shredded beef was probably a 6/10 whereas the steak was a -3/10.  They give you some sort of vegetables, fried plantains, and a bean soup on the side along with the entrée.  The shredded beef was edible, the steak, not.  It was terrible, absolutely disgusting.  I don't like to say food is disgusting at all and as open minded I tried to be, I feel it looked nasty and tasted even worse.  It was the most bitter piece of food I've ever put in my mouth.  I really am not sure how people can call that food, seriously.  You may think I'm being overly harsh, trust me, I'm not.  I blame the reviewers of this dish on zabihah.com for rating it as high as they did. For those reviewers, expect my bill in the mail, for I should never have paid money for this.
The waitress (Lulu) and who seemed like the owner (Anotnio), not sure if he was, were really hospitable as I have known Hispanic people to be.  They were incredibly nice, its too bad the cuisine is nowhere near as nice as their personality.
For anyone looking to be open-minded, try the restaurant, however, in my opinion, do not expect to eat anything that will taste semi-decent, look elsewhere.

Spice Card

Atmosphere: A

Staff/Waiter: A

Food: F-