PhillyLunchBox

Sansom Kabob House

Sansom Kabob House
1526 Sansom St.
Philadelphia, PA 19102
215-751-9110

Went back to the Sansom Kabob House yesterday. It's on Sansom Street, off of 16th St., when you get there just go downah-stairs and into what is easily one of our favorite Middle Eastern food places.

We got there at a little before 12, and there was only one person there – the guy who does the cooking. There's usually a super-nice gal who does all of the table-waiting, but she obviously wasn't there, so the guy brought us our menus, apologized for the wait, and hurried back to the kitchen.

Five minutes later, the woman came finally, along with her little daughter (I presume) who just lit up the place with her laughter and smiles – she spent the next 30 minutes walking and jumping around the entire place, talking to the customers, following mom, checking out the grills. That isn't something you see in many restaurants, at least in this country. Mr. Lunchbox thought it was annoying, but I found it refreshing – I guess I'll see you at the my-biological-clock-is-ticking party.

Anyway, my usual dish is the Qurma Chalaw. I get the version with chicken – it’s cooked with onions, tomatoes, green peppers, and spices – all served on a bed of basmati rice. The dish comes with the rice spread out thinly on a larger plate, with the chicken and the rest of the ingredients served in a bowl on the side. I like this setup, since it lets you dip bread into the bowl to sop up the juice from the sauce.

I love the lovely smell of basmati, something which it’s known for. Some friends of mine in Nepal even call it "wedding rice" because (yep) it’s served at weddings and other special occasions – it’s better quality than everyday rice, and a bit more expensive. It seems to be heavier on the stomach than other rices though.

One quirky thing about this place is that the plates are wide but very shallow. I’m not sure if it’s an Afghani cultural thing or what. When I first started coming here, I thought we were getting a huge helping of rice – but alas, it’s basically a thin layer of rice. Don't worry though, it’s definitely enough for lunch, it’s filling, just don’t go there expecting the huge-ass portions you get at places like Olive Garden or Maggiono’s.

After we finished our meals, we left the cash on the table and said goodbye to the folks running the place. It’s refreshing to go to a place and actually get smiles from the staff. The little girl was running around the back part of the place, so we didn’t get a chance to say goodbye to her though, oh well.

Interestingly enough, I noticed on the way out the door a magazine called the Executive Intelligence Review, laying on the counter near the door. The rag’s put out by Lyndon LaRouche. I sometimes see Larouche’s goons on the corner of 16th & Chestnut St., handing our literature and ragging on the current state of affairs in the world. They can be pains in the ass, especially when the sidewalks are clogged.

Know what though, Lyndon? Fuck ‘em – anyone who wants to give hell to W and his ass-wipes in DC is fine with me. Maybe I’ll even read that crappy magazine of yours the next time I’m in the Kabob House. Like Chuck D says, Fight the power!!

Konak Review

KONAK
228 Vine St
215-592-1212

Citipaper reviews Konak:

Service is quick, efficient and gracious. The meal begins with quince preserves, butter and warm triangles of pide bread. The preserves are the kind of thing Americans would eat for breakfast on toast, but here they serve to jolt the system with just enough sugar to stimulate the appetite for bigtime eating.

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In the salads are variations of flavors you'll find in other Middle Eastern cuisines (just don't say Greek): lemon juice, olive oil, eggplant and tabouli. The shepard salad was refreshing and crisp with diced tomato, cucumbers and scallion. The quince preserves ultimately gave way to more savory bread toppings, like a finely chopped eggplant salad with green pepper and onion, and the "spicy" ezme, a relish of roasted peppers, red onion and walnut sauce, which was actually more acrid than hot.

Kebobs and other grilled meats play a major role on the menu, though there are also several fish and vegetarian entrees. Islim kebob was a dome-shaped centerpiece of braised beef cubes covered with impossibly thin strips of eggplant and served in a pool of tomato sauce. The architecturally impressive dish looked so solid that it might be difficult to break into, but in fact the eggplant was soft and melting. The meat inside, however, had grown disappointingly tough and a bit dry.

Anyone try this place? It's doubtful that I will check it out, because of all the excellent middle eastern cuisuine minutes from work.

LaBan revies Kabob Palace

Kabob Palace
4201 Chestnut St.
Philadelphia, PA 19104
(215) 222-0306

Craig LaBan reviews Kabob Palace:

Come at any given lunch hour, and you will find a parking lot filled with taxis on break - a fair mark of the food's authenticity as well as the pedigree of owner Waheed Sheikh, himself a former cabbie.

There are no fancy trappings here; in fact, it's downright funky. But I found some of the most vivid Indo-Pakistani cooking I've tasted in this region, virtually identical in style and variety to most Indian cuisine, but with sharper spice and more dynamic flavors.

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The mutton karahi takes 40 minutes," Sheikh warned.

We weren't fazed, though perhaps we should have been. One of the perils of eating on the fringe is that you can wait an entire evening for your mutton to be cooked, only to realize much too late that it may never come at all.

In fact, we were packing our things to leave when Sheikh finally emerged, nearly two hours late, with our steel bowl full of mutton, glazed in a dark gravy beneath shreds of ginger and cilantro sprigs.

The smell alone was worth waiting for, an intoxicating billow of gingery steam that brought us back to the table. The meat was superbly tender; the flavors were extraordinary, so complex it was like savoring a Pakistani mole that tickled my throat with a sensation at once spicy, roasty, herbal and mysterious, with an undercurrent of almost cocoa-ey depth.

I don't think I've ever had mutton... But to quote Seinfeld "Hey, salad's got nothin' on this mutton."

Sansom Street Kabob House

SANSOM KABOB HOUSE
1526 Sansom St.
Phone 215-751-9110

Philadelphia Weekly has a nice review of the Sansom Street Kabob house... I could have sworn the Lunchbox posted a review of this place.. But after looking through our archives, it appears I never mentioned it. Sorry for holding out. Here are some snippets of the Philadelphia Weekly review: (note to Philadelphia Weekly, if anyone from the paper is reading this, the links to your reviews on your website are not static. Which basically means if I link to it from my site, next week that link is no longer accurate).

"Sansom Kabob House is larger than it looks. From the sidewalk, its only visible portion is a tandoor, a round-top brick-and-clay oven. Further in, a glass-windowed counter leads past premade salads and neatly laid out seekhs, long iron skewers spearing meat and vegetables, to charcoal and flattop grills. A short staircase bordered by a tchotchke-decorated waterfall leads to a modest eight-table dining room dressed up by a mural of a river lined with pine trees, a traditional Afghan robe, photographs and an electric blue plugged-in picture of a water scene."

Hamad Hahsy says Afghan cuisine comes from Afghanistan's location. "Not Persian, not Indian, not Iranian. It's in the middle," he says, "Iranian food is too mild. Indian and Pakistani food is too spicy; it burns you. Afghan is between them. You're gonna like it."

I couldn't agree more.. Berkserker and I eat at Sansom Kabob all the time, and they are fantastic. It's definetly a find hidden on Sansom street.

Sahara Grill

SAHARA GRILL
1334 Walnut St., 215-985-4155

Citipaper reviews Sahara Grill:

"The restaurant is a bustling, friendly alternative to Broad Street's pricier and trendier fare and a nice accompaniment to Walnut Street's thriving Eastern eateries (Passage to India and Samosa -- both wonderful, the latter a vegetarian Indian cafeteria -- are both just down the street).

Moderately sized, with about a dozen tables, the Sahara Grill is very reasonably priced -- the most expensive entree, the mixed grilled platter, is $13.95 while sandwiches run from $4 to $7."

I've had lunch at the Sahara Grill and it's not bad. I prefer "The Kabob House" on Sansom between 15th and 16th.

Persian Grub (minus the persian rug!) (1st guest review)

Roya Restaurant (House of Kebobs)
1823 Sansom St.
215-557-0808

Grabbed lunch at Roya the other day.....Here's the deal:
Really good food, decent prices, friendly service, but a helluva long wait on the food - especially for those trying to get back to the office in less than hour...Lots of wraps and kebobs on the menu, with plenty of chicken, fish, beef, and vegetarian offerings. Mr. Lunchbox and I shared the hummus for an appetizer - the hummus was tasty but the bread was a bit limp (but not the biscuits!). I had the chicken wrap, which had tender chicken cooked perfectly, while Mr. Lunchbox had the chicken kebob entree. Both dishes were flavored with saffron and lemon juice, and the kebob came with "imported" basmati rice that was quite aromatic (and it smelled good too!!)...Overall, a very good place for lunch, but leave the stopwatch at home...

- Berkserker