Kasbah

Great food and service!!! The gyros, hummus and salsa was excellent. So was the regular gyros sandwich. All three of us were happy with the food. The place was comfortable and the atmosphere genuinely middle eastern.

Middle Eastern eatery
Two of three
Shop and Staff
My girlfriend has told me about this place several times now, and today when I picked her up for lunch we went to this hot spot for the lunch specials. My girlfriend loves this place. She has been here more time then she can count. I can understand why. She kept saying we should go, but every time we went to lunch I already had mind set on a different place. I’m so glad today was the day we went. I needed the fresh hummus, gyro meat, and rice. I love the salads I can get from theses types of restaurants as well.
The service was super fast! When I say fast I mean we placed our order, and about 2 minutes later we had our food. This place knows how to keep the business men, and women coming back for fast, and good tasting food. The server was so polite, and well dressed. She was the only server for the 20 or so tables, and while we were at the restaurant she had about 15 people to serve. She did a great job keeping everyone happy.
Food and Experience
The food came out, and went down to my tummy. I couldn’t stop eating because it was just want I wanted, and tasted so freaking good. I can’t forget about the pita bread. That was very good with the hummus.
This place takes 2^nd place prize only because the customer service. Don’t miss understand me because I already said this place has good customer service, but because it serves the business crowd which usually means only an hour for lunch they have to be fast, so you can’t sit there chatting for an hour about sports, or anything else for that matter. 1. Place your order 2. eat, and 3. leave. So that is why I say this place is the fastest out of all three restaurants.

I think this place is one of Albuquerque’s under appreciated little gems i keep going back to. The owner Ritah (sp?) My dad has formed a pretty good friendship with the owner, since his first visit, where he went back into the kitchen and told him he would like his gyro meat grilled a bit more golden, (the place was pretty new at the time, and Ritah was surprised to find how much difference in crispy/​toastedness the gyro grill does as the shank gets carved down smaller and smaller, ever after than hes been super careful to make sure my dad gets it just exactly how he wants it.
Every time my dad goes he goes back into the kitchen (sometimes to the shock of the staff) and chats with Ritah, a bit ago he pulled off a fantastic dinner for my dad and 5 of his guests. My dad said, make whatever you like and feed my friends. Ritah brought out about 11 dishes some appetizers some entrees, many were just family favorites off menu items, but it really showed off the care and diversity he is capable of! Everybody left fat and happy, and for it all the bill was quite reasonable.
Must say the Potato Brika, The Mint Tea, Spanakopita, and Gyro’s are my favorites. Ive had 3 of his soups too and they are quite good!

Genuine atmosphere, food was ok, however, could use a bit of cleaning. Salt and pepper shakers a bit grimey. A few glitches, two hairs in the food made for an unfinished lunch. However, the place has great potential if they simply took better care of the above details. One final note, the hummus contained no flavor, simply tasted like whipped chick peas.

I was completely disappointed. From the outside, the place looks questionable enough; sun-​faded posters of european supermodels eating gyros plastered over the dusty windows, poorly maintained front appearance with cheap decoration. The inside was also bad. It was evening, about 8 p.m., and I was the only person there. The server was nice enough, but poorly trained. After receiving my appetizer of hummus and pita (the hummus had a terribly dull, flavorless, powdered hummus cheap flavor and the pita was doughy) and eating through most of the pita, the server came by to ask if I wanted any more pita just come ask her. The problem with that was she was all the way on the other side of the room behind a wall and, a corner, and shrouded welcome desk, which would have required me either to shout across the room or walk to her to ask for more. I was had leftover hummus, and besides the previous note, it was unclear whether I would be charged the extra $ 4 for more pita (there was probably eight little triangles, as though a single pita was quartered twice. The quality of this appetizer was definitely not worth the price). I decided not to ask for more pita.
Perhaps two minutes after order my entré, it was delivered and served. I ordered the Honeyed Lamb, which I expected to take 15 minutes to cook, considering I was at the time the only patron and such a dish is expected to be cooked fresh (at least for the price, which was an exorbitant $ 15.99). So, I was immediately skeptical.
On the right side of the dish was three slices of overcooked, tasteless squash, in the middle, long grain (probably Jasmine) rice, yellow with turmeric and sprinkled with parsley. On the left, an opaque monstrosity of prunes and prunes and prunes and prunes. For all the prunes, there was surprisingly little flavor or variety. Indeed, it seemed as though the excessiveness of prunes was attempting to cover something darker… perhaps the old, gamey, bitter, awful lamb beneath? I started trying to eat the food.
A couple a few tables away had just walked in and ordered their food. They looked optimistic at first, but their spirits also took a plunge after they were served. For them, it started before they even took a bite. The lady went to grab the pepper shaker (a wise choice, considering the dull blandness of the food). She shook it and the top came off, dousing her entire meal with pepper. An improvement, in my opinion, but the poor woman had no way of knowing.
I could not finish my meal. I understand the gamble one takes when trying a new restaurant, especially when intuition speaks in such measures; I could have (and in retrospect, should have) turned away at the door. I considered a to-​go box but realized quickly that there was no redeeming this meal.
In total I payed about $ 24 for this meal plus a tip. Considering everything, and considering how awful I feel now, half an hour later, I might compare this whole experience to being mugged while forced to eat excrement. It was an extremely stressful experience.
Normally, I’m not at all a picky eater.

No Kids Menu!

One of the first Middle Eastern spots I hit when u first arrived in Albuquerque. I was checking out the lunch specials out looking for an apartment.
Although it seems popular, I was disappointed with both my falafel and hummus. The service and ice tea is good. They seem to have a lunch following.
First impressions are important… I have not been back.

I’ve started to test out several Greek and Mediterranean restaurants in town lately and have been surprised at how good they are. Kasbah is no exception. I wandered it waiting for some work to be done to my SUV at Jim’s Muffler Shop nearby. I ordered a huge plate of seasoned lamb, chip cut pita bread, grape leaf wrapped rice and a Greek salad. It was way too much for me, but ended up being a great left over meal too. The server was pleasant and attentive, the food was hot and yummy and the water glass was never empty. I will be back if I’m in this side of town!

Awesome food. Ridha is owner gives great customer service. We are military family. Will miss place when we are transferred out.

Super fresh, homemade, authentic food from Mediterranean regions of Greece, Morocco and Tunisia. Best baba ganoush ever! The restaurant itself could use a bit of a spiff up but the food is fresh, fantastic and reasonably priced.

I always get a tagine. Usually the honey lamb. Simply put, my favorite meal in the city.

Good food, we had hummus and some puff pastry with potatoes (cant remember name) Both were very very good (nice fluffy bread)
My brother had Lamb Couscous which was killer, well seasoned and a large portion.
I had the King Bastilla, i was skeptical at first but after one bite i am hooked!
The have some Gluten Free Options so we will visit again with our family!

I really want to like this place. I really, really do. Middle Eastern/​Mediterranean is my go to comfort food. But a recent meal made me give up. The food simply wasn’t seasoned well. I started with falafel, which had a nice texture, but next to no flavor. There were little, occasional, pockets of flavor, but very inconsistent. My chicken with couscous was quite dull (although perked up when I took the remainder of it home and reheated it). The baklava was also just «meh». I feel bad because the staff are really, really and want people to be pleased.

Driven past this place a thousand times and finally came in. I am a huge fan of middle-​eastern and Moroccan food. The pics below are just right. My partner started with the mint tea, which she loved. We thought the King’s Bastilla sounded amazing, and so we ordered one of those alongside the Mediterranean Plate. This was a great balance since the King’s Bastilla is a sweet dinner/​dessert. Shredded chicken with almond and rose water paste and egg surrounded by filo dough and sprinkled with confectioner sugar and cinnamon. This was an excellent dish, though I felt it was a little heavy on the rose water flavor (I don’t know enough about it to know if one could make it less floral). Overall, a very nice dish with lovely textures. I love filo dough!
The mediterranean plate was also very good. Two dolmas (stuffed grape leaves) were nice, though a little heavy with the oil, but again, I don’t know if this is how most dolmas are or not… Maybe I should have squeezed more lemon juice on them which was provided. Love the balance of the Greek salad. Good pita. Great cucumber sauce — heavy on the garlic which is fine with me. :-) Spanikopita was great.
We will be back. And we will bring friends.

Owner is the chef and the food is the best of its kind (Tunisian-​Greek middle eastern) anywhere in our region.
Friendly staff, delicious food, comfortable setting. My only reservation is letting others know since we don’t want to be crowded out (smile).

Comfortable setting, friendly owner and delicious food. The dolmas were very tasty, the mint tea with rose water was marvelous and the bastilla was fit for a king. Will definitely be back

This place is an absolute insult to Middle Eastern/​Mediterranean cooking. Let me start by saying, this is my first review I have ever done, for any place I have eaten at in my entire life. I am so dissatisfied with my food at Kasbah, I had to say something.
I ordered a plate with gyro’s, spanakopita, dolma, cucumber sauce, hummus, rice & pita bread, cost $ 15. I fully intend on contacting the state human services for a complete inspection of the kitchen if I get sick. Right now, from my ounce of food I have ate, I feel nauseous, and my stomach turned. I have not gotten food poisoning from a restaurant in +10 years, and I believe this one may change that. Here’s each item.
Gyro Slices– Absolutely gross. I ordered my food at 11am thinking it would be fresh, this was clearly yesterday’s trimmings. Every piece had the consistency of something that was sliced many hours ago and left under a heat lamp to dry. Slightly moister than beef jerky. In fact the constancy implied it was yesterday’s trimmings that were reheated back up in a stir fry pan because each side was crisp, and seared 1 color shade above black, with heavy oil. I have eaten +100 different versions of gyro, and this one was the worst. You can’t serve yesterday’s food guys.
Dolma– I want to be clear that this is not me being hyper critical. There are right and wrong ways to make things, and the dolma was wrong on every level. In my box, each sat in ¹⁄₅ inch oil when I opened to start, first bite I gagged. The rice texture was 100% oil smush, with a white slightly tinted green inside. I don’t know what the stuffing was, it had 0 flavor, only oil. I have never, not 1 single time in my entire life, ate dolma that was soaked in oil to this degree. Upsetting because I don’t think you can buy dolma of this poor quality in the store, I really don’t understand how it could be made so poorly. My guess it is was prepared in mass, and sections are unfroze weekly. No flavor, not fresh, 0 spices, rice was pudding consistency inside.
Hummus — As I write this, my stomach sounds like a small animal is inside. The hummus I believe is what actually may get me sick in this whole plate of bad food. It taste like metal. Like most people, I have tried a wide variety of hummus, and commonly will make my own from scratch. The taste of metal was so apparent in this, I fear this restaurant could actually hurt someone. My guess it not homemade, moreover it is purchased in bulk, in a can, then stored in a fridge. While in the fridge for several weeks I believe the inside metal coating on the can is slowly deteriorating into the food to some degree by oxidation. This is dangerous guys. Once again, I’m not trolling, this really is not the way to do business.
Spanakopita — This was for my coworker. She took two bites & threw it away. Rather than me review something I did not eat, I will say the next words of her mouth was, «were not eating there again».
Pita bread — Flat bread with butter/​oil saturated. Just upsetting to even see. This would have been good bread had they not pasted it with butter & oil for absolutely no reason. Taste like a cheap store purchased variety, nothing implied it to be homemade.
Cucumber sauce — The appearance was so off I could not eat it. The constancy was water. I truly feared the off color green chucks were moldy and tossed it. Once again the likelihood is that this was made in bulk, and my portion was scooped off the top before it was mixed adequately, as it was mostly water & lacked a resemblance to any cucumber sauce I have made or had before.
Rice– The rice was long grain that looked to be cooked in turmeric for an orange color. No flavor at all. Had the chef tasted the rice of the day he would have realized he forgot to add salt. Easy fix guys, rice is cheap. Simple do over. Also over buttered. No reason to have this much butter and oil in preparation. It gives the rice an unnatural squishy feeling.
I ordered my food to go, the total amount was $ 15. Do I want a refund, no, let me tell you why I wrote this review in the first place.
My family is Mediterranean/​middle eastern. I eat this type of food on a daily bases. It pains me to say this, but the food I ate at your restaurant today is an insult to our culture, and makes me seriously doubt that the cooks who prepared any of this have any understanding of Mediterranean food. The food was made to a standard lower than was is acceptable for consumption. I truly feel that something in the kitchen may be also contaminating the food, as my hummus review stated.
Let me wrap this up by saying what I would like.
I wrote this review for two reasons.
One, I wanted to be clear of my experiences so other patrons would know. The bulk of this review is intended for the owners. Take what I said with a grain of salt, try your food, work on correcting the mistakes. I know everyone has good days and bad days, understood. Maybe Tuesday at 11am was the worst day of the

I was looking for a place to kill some time the other day, and instead of going to the Taco Tote, I went here. The place was pretty empty, but had an intimate, dimly-​lit ambience to it.
Now, as a young woman, I sometimes feel weird when I go out alone, like I am a loser or something. But the owner (who was also my waiter) made me feel right at home. He brought me endless refills of the wonderful mint tea (which I highly recommend), and did not rush me to leave.
I ordered the Mediterranean plate, which consisted of a greek salad, spanakopita, pita bread, and dolmas. My favorite was the spanakopita!
Afterwards, we had a nice chat. He is a really down-​to-​earth dude, and Tunisian.
I can’t wait to go back again! Overall, a great experience, especially if you are looking for a low-​key place to chill.

I really like this place. Overall, I got a home-​made feel from all of their dishes. Where to start? I am from Chicago and was raised on its Greektown, and this place held a lot of positives for me. Their location ain’t bad either.
There is something magical about their mint tea. Seriously. Try it iced. It’s perfect.
Their gyros is good. Really good. Their yogurt/​cucumber sauce is really really good too.
And their hummus? So light and creamy. I’m not a huuuuge fan of cumin, but I didn’t really have a problem with it being in their hummus. That’s how good their hummus is.
The spanakopita was really nice too. And the greek salad.
The highlight for me was their couscous dish. I got the chicken but I didn’t need the meat. The sauce and the veggies and little bit of garbanzos, was really really good. In fact, I’m going to order it today.
I wasn’t a huge fan of the falafel sandwich. But it wasn’t a bad experience.
The only other complaint I might have is that they seem reserved about salt. Nothing was bland. And when I salted it, all of the subtle, home-​cooked and delicious flavors were really there.

The interior is small but inviting, decorated in dark burgundy and white with posters and items from Tunisia, Morocco, and Greece.
We started our meal with mint tea, which is served piping hot or on the rocks. I encourage you to try this refreshing beverage not only due to the marvelous taste but also because it is meant as a show of hospitality from your host/​-​ess.
The menu has various appetizers on offer but on that day, we were craving spanakopita. Even though I felt it was light on the dill, we thoroughly enjoyed the spinach and feta pastry.
Our party took advantage of the lunch specials, served from 11am to 2pm Mon thru Sat. We most certainly wish to return for dinner although we are a bit put off by the fact that this restaurant does not serve alcohol.
For lunch, we tried the Tunisian Plate and the Greek Combo. The Greek Combo is pretty straightforward: dolmas, Greek salad (or rice, if you prefer), pita, lamb and beef gyro slices. The meat was deliciously flavored and not dry at all. Kasbah is pretty generous with its portions as well so you get a large salad with quality ingredients. The Tunisian Plate was a wonderful surprise. Along with the salad and pita points, you are also served a brika, which consists of potato mousse, parsley, and egg wrapped in pastry and fried. I’d never eaten anything like it!