Kabob House

Who is giving these people 4 stars? This is my dinner and I’m pissed to say the least. This is NOT a salad, this is crap

This place is terrible. The salad and rice that came with my boneless chicken plate were just bland. The rice had no flavor at all. The salad seemed like it was from a high school cafeteria. The chicken was the only part of the plate that I enjoyed. On top of that, I waited about 20 minutes before going up to the front to pay. I would not pay money to eat here again.

Be sure to ask what specials are available. The menu feature mostly kabob and salads but when we were there they also had a koresh (stew). Both kabobs and khoresh were tasty. The quantity of rice was bit skimpy for a Persian meal, but this was the lunch menu and we all left satisfied. Recommended!

Plain and simple, this place is not about flash. But when it comes to flavor, they’re doing it right.

Only authentic Persian restaurant in Bakersfield! Love this place and needs to be supported more!

Food is real good! They recently changed lamb chops from a loin chop to a rib chop and it’s much better! Chicken is my favorite there from day one but this rib chop is tasty. Hummus, Yogurt sauce, and green salsa were good with toasted pita. Portions are good and pricing is good considering that to get authentic Persian food I would have to drive to LA to get this quality. Owners are great and one of them is the cook as well.

The guy working (owner maybe?) was soooooo NICE. Thank goodness for this man– he was closing up about 15 minutes before closing when me & my fiancé (right before closing jerks I know) show up wanting food before driving back home to the good ol AV. He kindly took our order and cooked our food. Maybe I was famished but wow it was so delicious. Super tender beef, juicy chicken kabobs, perfect rice… I’m willing to drive almost 100 miles to eat here again!!!

I gave this place two stars because of the portion size. I noticed they added a LOT of rice and very little meat. Almost like they want to trick you into thinking you are getting a lot of food… when really you are just getting a bunch of rice and very little actual meat (I ordered the kabobs).
Price was not good for the portions and I have visited many Iranian restaurants in my day that we more generous.
The person who helped me (I think owner possibly) was very friendly and a nice man. I have no issues in any way with them!

This is a great place to eat! We have tried 4 of their dishes so far and have not been dissapointed. The lamb by far my favorite, and you can tell everything is homemade. The lady that works the front is always very nice and helpful. Great customer service and great food!

The 3 stars are for authenticity. Portions on the small side, customer service was distracted, and the location and ambience extremely awkward. It has definitely gone down since I was there a couple years ago, hope they do something soon with the competition growing.

Loved this place. Today was my first time here and I will come back ASAP! I had the shish kabob with beef (medium rare) and my boyfriend had the chicken (boneless skinless). Both were great. I liked the steak better because it had a good smokey taste. The hummus is yummy. I would have liked to have had fresh home made pita bread but I can’t complain.
Price is very good for the food you get.
Very friendly staff.

I’m confused. The food is pretty good but they serve both styrofoam and hard plates and we get small styrofoam cups for our drinks. The server was more interested in talking with her family and coworkers than making sure our drinks were full and checking on us periodically. Some items are better than Flame and Skewers but not for the price they charged and the atmosphere. I’m more than willing to pay more for good service and good atmosphere. If you go to the kabob house I suggest you do take out. All of the people that came in after us did it. We should have too.

I’ve written about Kabob House before, but I must write again. This time, I had them cater a lunch for an executive manager’s meeting held here in Bakersfield for the company I work for. They did an excellent job. Everyone loved the food, for many they had never tried hummus or pita bread. I got to know the owners a bit, Reza & Ali (brothers). They told me their rice comes from Tehran and Ali makes a trip to Los Angeles every month to get the rice. Additionally, the meat & rice is seasoned with Saffron (the yellow color). They pay roughly $ 4k/​kilo of Saffron. Reza was explaining to me, with much pride, the seasonings that are uniquely used for Persian food as well as the secret to cooking the kabobs. He also explained to me that the reason why the boneless chicken is so moist, tender, and juicy is b/​c he cooks the tenderloin, since the breast of the chicken gets too tough. Also, they have a really delicious Persian iced tea that is created by combining 5 different teas, which he says has many health benefits. Reza & Ali are such wonderful people, who take pride in not only being the only Persian restaurant, but in the quality of their food. They kept explaining to me on the importance of fresh ingredients and eating healthy. I mean, Flame & Skewers is awesome, but I prefer the hummus from Kabob House. Overall, I keep coming back. I’ve been there when it was empty at lunch and then I’ve walked in and tables are all filled up. They are a fairly new business and it’s definitely a hole-​in-​the wall. Flame & Skewers is Mediterranean while Kabob House is Persian, very similar yet very different. I absolutely love Kabob House and even more so now that I’ve gotten to speak to the owners and learn more about them and the restaurant. I highly recommend it.

Came here about a week ago to treat my co-​worker to lunch since I owed him. He found this place and it sounded good but IT WAS NOT. As we were walking up something smelled so damn good and we thought that it was going to be good. We entered and no one else was there. Didn’t click in my head as a warning.
I ordered the Beef Kabob lunch plate, my co-​worker order the Chicken Kabob with Humus on the side. The meat was cooked but on the bland side and the rice was good. But who messes up rice? The first bite I took was of the salad, the yogurt dressing tasted rancid. The lettuce looked like it sat in ambient temperature for a good minute.
Then I tried the roasted bellpepper and that had such a disgusting sour taste. My co-​worker said his hummus tasted spoiled and made him feel sick.
Look at the end I spent $ 25 for something that garbage probably tastes like.

Fyi, I’m not a pro. I’m just a normal guy who loves to eat. I decided to start Unilocaling so I could help others find delicious places to eat.
Anyway, I haven’t really tried many Persian places. I’ve tried Mediterranean/​Greek which, in my opinion, have somewhat similar styles.
I have come to this place twice for lunch and both times it was okay. The food is good borderline okay. I guess that’s fine, if you don’t really want to stand out. This place could be a lot better. I have tried the lamb kabob sandwich, and the chicken kabob plate.
Let’s start with the sandwich. The sandwich was pretty good. I want to note that I purchased the lunch special so I received one sandwich for $ 5.99 and the second for $ 2.99. However, the sandwich on the pictures looked skimpy so I told them to put all of the ingredients from the second sandwich into the first. Not sure if that makes sense. Anyway, that made the sandwich full and delicious. I’m sure if I did not combine them, they would be skimpy and not filling. The lamb was cooked perfect, the lettuce tomatoes, and remainder of the sandwich are juicy and very pleasing to the taste buds.
The chicken kabob plate had too much rice. Don’t get me wrong, I love rice! I’m half Peruvian. We love that white rice! However, the ratio of rice to chicken is nowhere near proportionate. The kabob is skimpy and the chicken is somewhat yellow. Seems like they have the chicken in frozen bags in the back and then cook them when you order. Doesn’t feel fresh at all. The salads look like they took them out of a Costco bag. I wouldn’t mind any of this if this plate were $ 5. $ 10 though! Not worth it.
The atmosphere is simple. Simple décor, simple chairs, simple tables, just simple.
The service is the brightest spot here. The lady at the front is very nice and offered me a free drink! Wish I drank soda. I would’ve been all over that!
Overall this is an okay place. Three stars.

Stopped here on our way to Vegas for StartupBus, we couldn’t have picked a better place!
Service was friendly, fast, and most importantly of all, the food was AMAZING! No wonder it’s the ONLY persian restaurant in town… no others can compete!
I definitely recommend the boneless chicken item :)

Looking the a panini café in bakersfield and couldn’t find one… looking for the next kabob place other fame and skewers. Found this one… although didn’t realize it was far from where we were working. Although this is bakersfield so it only took like 10 minutes ish to get back as we got somewhat lost along the way.
Got the hummus — the pita was a little hard, I don’t think they actually make it themselves. Wish it was more softer and a lot warmer. Hummus was ok.
Got the beef kabob — I never really understood the rice to beef ratio. I wished they put two skewers instead of one or have a bigger portion of beef. Salad was ok… we swapped the salad with the one on the menu. :)
Overall, just mediocre for me!

Went there last week with my wife. I asked for a gyro but they didn’t serve them so they recommended something similar but with beef instead of lamb. It looked like a gyro but no feta cheese and no tazeky sauce. Otherwise, it’s the same.
Food: I can’t say it was the worst gyro I have ever had since it wasn’t really a gyro. But, I thought the beef lacked flavor. The lettuce was the yellow part of iceberg which is not good. The extra side of a 5 ounce cup of tazeky sauce was way over priced at $ 2 and was runny and bland. The food wasn’t bad, just not tasty. Portion size on the meat was very skimpy, probably the least amount of meat I have seen on a gyro. Just one thin strip of meat. Lots of lettuce and tomatoes.
The store was clean and the service was good. There was only one other couple in there.
Price: They were running a buy one/​get one special. We didn’t order drinks. Total price for 2 sandwiches and 1 side of tazeky sauce was about $ 15 which included a $ 3 tip. Not bad for 2 people but only because of the special. However, I would certainly never pay $ 15 for one of those sandwiches and wouldn’t even recommend two for $ 15. I don’t like paying any money for skimpy, bland food.
Unfortunately, we will probably never go back.

The Kabob House is a great place to get your «kabob fix»!! The ingredients are very fresh! The salads are fresh cut. The menu is somewhat simple yet there’s just enough variety even for the picky eaters.
Food~ Recommend either the Lamb or Chicken Kabob with a side salad and of course some hummus! Everything looked. smelled and tasted very good!
Service~ The staff is somewhat friendly but they could be more accommodating after you’ve received your meal. You can tell they recently expanded so they had plenty of room even though they were somewhat busy!
The only other criticism I would give is they use Styrofoam plates and cups… Not very earth friendly so I hope they consider changing!
It’s a solid place to eat if your looking for some good kabobs!

I’ve been meaning to review this place for ages. I love their food, but to do it justice I knew I needed to write my review as I was eating, not just from memory. This place bills itself as the only Persian restaurant in Bakersfield. I am very familiar with Greek and Mediterranean food, but this is my one and only experience with Persian food — and I’m sold on it!
If you’re looking for an upscale, trendy place to take a date, this isn’t it. The atmosphere /​décor is sorely lacking. This is a tiny hole in the wall place where you walk up to the counter to order and then your server turns around to cook it right in front of you. However, if you’re looking to impress your date with amazing food, you’ve come to the right place.
There were only two customers inside the restaurant when I arrived, but to be fair that’s all that can fit into this tiny space. Don’t worry, there is seating outside. Both were Middle Eastern looking men. One’s cellphone began to ring, a stereotypically Middle Eastern sounding ringtone, and he proceeded to answer the phone in Persian? Farsi? Who knows, but it reassured me that the food was going to be pretty spectacular. It always worries me when I walk into an ethnic restaurant and all the customers are white. If it was really authentic, there would be people of that extraction frequenting it, right? I was not disappointed.
I ordered the beef shish kabob plate which comes with salad and rice. The salad was iceberg lettuce with thick slices of tomato and cucumber that had to have been freshly cut because they were still crisp. It was dressed with what looked like Greek tzatziki (yogurt cucumber) drizzled liberally over the top. The dressing definitely had a yogurt base but seemed sweeter with a subtle flavor of something new, dill perhaps (?) which left a smooth aftertaste lingering on my tongue.
In the main takeout container, there was a generous layer of extremely long skinny grain rice that had a curve to it. I’ve never seen anything like it before. There was a smaller splash of bright yellow saffron infused rice in the center of it. The contrast in colors was strikingly beautiful. At first, I thought the rice was dry because there was no sauce on it, but it left a smooth sheen on my lips of something oil based but not overly oily. Whatever. I liked it.
There were two long (over 10 inches?) spears of beef kabob crossed in the middle of the rice. Garnishing the plate was a whole roasted tomato, skin blackening and starting to peel away from the flesh rather provocatively. I dug into it and finished it off before tasting anything else. There was also a whole roasted pepper that looked and tasted like a jalapeño. I bit half of it off in one bite and was grateful that I had a full bottle of water with me, though the rice did much more to cool the flames than the water did. There was a lightly roasted pepperoncini that exploded its warm and tangy moistness across my tongue.
The only blemish on the meal was that the pita bread obviously came right out of a plastic bag and had not been warmed or toasted. I tore off two small pieces of it to soak up the last of the yogurt dressing, then abandoned it.
The meat itself was well done, but not dry in the least, as I had seen the cook basting it during the roasting process. It looked like Greek gyro meat, but the spices were sweeter and more subtle. I finished 1 of the spears and a third of the rice and I was full almost to the point of bursting.
I’m going to have plenty of leftovers for lunch tomorrow!