Kababish Cafe

We were intrigued that this new restaurant was selling Pakistani cuisine and decided to check it out the other weekend. Kababish Café is a hidden gem tucked away in West Chatham Street, so if you’re an East Chatham regular… it’s time to check out this wonderful restaurant!
We started off with the Chicken 65. The chicken was very moist and well-​spiced and fried. However, we found that the chunks of chicken were rather large and so the flavor had not penetrated through the chicken. We would suggest marinating and frying smaller chicken pieces so that the outstanding flavor comes out more!
For entrees, we decided to get the Pakistani Chef specials, the Haleem and Nihari stews, and some Kheema. They were definitely some of the most unique dishes we’ve ever had. The Haleem has a very mild taste. It’s almost like a thick paste of wheat, lentils and shredded chicken. It went well with naan. My partner felt that it had too much clove in it, but I didn’t really feel like it was overspiced.
The stars of the night were the Nihari stew and the kheema! The nihari stew is this spicy, hearty brown broth with boneless lamb. The flavor of this stew is incredible! It’s efinitely the type of stew that would go perfectly with some crusty bread on a cold winter night. The lamb was *out of this world*. It was the most tender lamb I had ever had in my life. It also didn’t have much fat, and did not smell gamy at all! The owner told us that they boil their lamb with ginger and garlic for hours to make it tender and get rid of the heady smell of lamb!
The Kheema (minced lamb curry) was also very delicious and paired perfectly with Basmati rice. If I had a minor gripe, it would be that the kheema was missing green peas that I’m used to having in a kheema. But the flavor was spot on!
This is a family-​run business, and they are very friendly, and service is great. They make all of their food from scratch and you can just tell from the quality of the dishes that the chef takes great pride in everything he cooks! We will definitely be back in the future!

OMG! This is definitely worth the 4.5 miles from Apex to get here. Other reviewers have more than adequately reviewed this gem so I will not try to compete. We shall return many times for sure.
Today we had the seafood in curry lunch special which includes appetizer, dessert, and naan. Of course the chef and his wife were extremely cordial and explained the dishes we ordered as well answered all our questions about the cuisine.

They say that the best way to man’s heart is through his stomach. With one bite of Kebab, Chef Yousuf and Kebabish café went straight to my heart! There are plenty of great Indian restaurant in this area, but this little place is special. Being someone who cooks Indian food often, I was in awe when I tasted the food at this place. This is how Indian food (more specifically North Indian/​Pakistani food) should taste. Do yourself a favor and go to this place. Almost everything I had in this place was delicately made and perfectly cooked. The food was so good that I went to this place 4 times this week! I even got it for 15 people in my office and everyone loved it.
If I have to be nit-​picking, I have to say that they might have to improve their speed of service as I was waiting for a little longer than I wanted for my food a couple of times. But being a 1 month old family run restaurant, I will give that a pass and hope they fix that soon. But when the food arrives, you realize that the slightly longer wait is well worth it.
Chicken Biriyani– Very very good!
Kebabs Platter– Exceptional! This is as good as it gets. The Lamb Bhoti Kebab was a little chewy-​er than I would have liked. But the other kebabs melted in my mouth.
Butter chicken– Very very Good!
Saag Panner and Dal Makhni– This reminded two of my Punjabi friends of their grandmom, Enough Said!
Haleem– Exceptional!
Chaat Papdi– Couldn’t not get another one.
Dessert– This is where Chef Yousuf needs to get a lot of respect. Anyone can make indian desserts very sweet and get away with it. But it takes a real chef not to do that and make it the right way. I had the Rice pudding, Gaajar Halwa and Falooda. All three were understated, delicate and brilliantly made.
My over-​zealous review might sound like they paid me to write this. lol. But, few places have made me this happy after every meal. A must TRY if you ever want to eat good Indian food. I also don’t think a take out will do justice to the Kebabs, but other things in the menu will be fine for take out.

We were in the mood for a different Indian restaurant so we decided to give this a try. Previous reviews varied so much that it intrigued me.
It took me a few minutes to find it. Tho it’s right at the intersection, it’s down off the road and parking was tricky. We were able to find parking out front but I assume otherwise you’d park in the back near the apartments?
We were warmly greeted when we walked into the nearly empty restaurant on a rainy Monday evening. Our server gave us many suggestions when we asked for recommendations. Too many things to try! We decided on some of our Indian favorites tho the kabobs, biryani and other chef’s specialties were so tempting.
They started us off with complimentary papadam with the accompanying chutneys. Tho slightly oily, the flavor was nice and not overcooked.
The saag paneer was delicious and seasoned perfectly. Some restaurants purée the spinach to baby food consistency but this still had some texture to it and the paneer was nicely cooked as well.
Chicken Tikka Masala became my friend’s new favorite dish and was extremely tasty with many pieces of white meat chicken.
Hubby ordered Chicken Vindaloo and missed the traditional bright red color. Lol. The flavor was good but he ordered Indian hot and that was missing despite the chili sauce they served with it. He felt it was too tangy to add to his dish for the heat. Slivers of ginger on top didn’t appeal to him but I enjoyed it.
We had two orders of naan– one plain and one with cilantro and chilies (the «bullet»). I fell in love with the bullet one. Soooo yummy and a little spicy! A cilantro yogurt was also served with it.
Overall, I was feeling at least 4.5 starts but my hubby’s issue with his dish leaned us towards the four. I’d definitely go back!