Kabob Inn

We came around 5pm on a Saturday and were the ‘first guests of the evening’ according to the friendly waitress. There were however many seats reserved for rather large (6 people) parties.
Our order:
–Troy Pizza appitizer… very flaverful, comes with a little side salad that you can put on the pizza, we really liked the dressing – $ 4
–2 skewers of lamb kabob with the couscus…4 big chunks of lamb each (surprisingly large) with another small side salad (shared this dish) – $ 15
We got a complimentary appitizer that they probably give to everyone but they said it was ‘on the house’ which was bread and some sort of lentil spread. Bread was warm a nice touch.
The boyfriend claimed ‘this will be one of our go to spots” and he is a tough sell! Just the right amount of food. It was very quiet (well were were the only ones there…), service was good. They also have little sticks of individually wrapped gum in the bathroom. Nice touch.
We’ll be back and will probably order the same thing and next time we’ll bring some wine.

Great little restaurant!
The service was a bit slow, but the food was great!

I am a huge fan of Kabob Inn. They have the best hummus & the food is fab!
The last few days I’ve called & a recording comes on saying the phone number is no longer in service.
Does anyone know what is going on? Are they closed or is there a change of phone number?
It would be a real loss because not only is the food great, but the owners are so nice.

Looking for a new place to eat we stopped in here for fool, falafel and hummus we were warned it would take 15 minutes for the fool. The falafel came first it was a dark greenish color and flat and rubbery with little taste, the other two dishes were the same. The fool literally tasted like mashed beans no flavor at all the hummus was plain and we gave the lentil soup only half a spoonful it tasted like warm dish water.
Now everyone has a bad night but we were the only diners. The staff was very friendly and the restaurant nicely decorated. $ 16.45 with tax was our total for small fal small hummus soup and fool.

Kabob Inn how did you manage such decent reviews? I’ve visited you twice and you disappointed me exceptionally! Aside from the foreign TV programming and music, there is nothing authentic about you! Hummus was lack luster, you fed me a sad shawarma, you only get one star for your salad and even then, I will not be back. So many better options within walking distance…

Absolutely wonderful staff and a nice menu. My beau loved the food and would give Kabob Inn 5 stars for his beef shawarma, hummus and the remainder of my Fatoush salad. I enjoyed my Fatoush salad and falafel well enough — just wasn’t crazy about the textures of the food. The hummus was too creamy for me, the pita chips in my Fatoush seemed overdone and the falafel were a bit mushy. The falafel did have a really wonderful spiciness that I have never experienced before and would love to again!

Got the lunch special to go today. It was my first time there. The staff was very friendly. The place was quiet. The food was incredible. The lunch special was chicken kabob over rice with a salad. It was $ 8.81 after tax. Very worth it. They give you enough to stay full for a long time. The dish came with garlic and hot sauce. A giant warm pita on the side was perfect to scoop the perfectly cooked chicken, w white rice and chopped tomato and cucumber salad with a light oil based dressing. I will definitely go back.

Came here for a comfort food dinner on a night when i was feeling kind of down. I was not disappointed! The service was very friendly and attentive. My meal was a bit expensive for kefta kebab, but totally worth it. Sometimes Middle Eastern is done well and sometimes it’s awful. This place had amazing, fresh, and tasty kebab and yellow rice to go with it. The beautiful Arabic music concert that played on tv had a nice, soothing touch to the restaurant.

I could eat here everyday!
The Kabob roll/​sandwiches are great as a portable snack/​small meal. I also recommend the Kabob plates… generous servings of saffron on rice are hard to come by anywhere! So good. Oh and they make their own hummus! The owner told me that everything is locally sourced and bought daily. One other note is that you may need to call 10 – 15 min. ahead if you’re picking up since everything is made to order, which is def worth it.

I keep meaning to try something else, but the chicken shwarma + hummus is so good that I can’t help myself. It comes with an awesome salad, and you are usually asked if you want hot sauce or garlic sauce. The correct answer is «Yes!». Both are quite tasty and obviously homemade.
The service is great, the prices are fantastic, and it’s BYOB! Ambiance could be a bit better — hence four stars instead of 5.

I gave it another try. I was walking around the ‘hood on a brisk night and I wanted some grub. Because East Lakeview turns into a food desert after 5 pm, I didn’t have many choices. I decided to see what KI was bringing.
It was already broughten!
This time around I ordered the chicken kafta kebab sandwich and the baba ganouj. And, because of the late nature of the evening, not only was I the only person in the restaurant but everything was made fresh for me. I felt like a tool because of that. I try VERY HARD to not go to restaurants less than an hour before closing. Unless you’ve ever worked in a restaurant, I don’t know that I can properly convey the supreme annoyance one feels for someone who sits down for a huge meal 20 minutes to close. It sucks. Don’t do this. And, if you do, don’t complain about a less-​than-​stellar experience. In any event… I was so hungry and disoriented, I didn’t have a firm grasp on the time. Rather than chastise me (as I would have done), the owners invited me to sit for a second and they fired up the grill. So nice.
Because I was already being a major pain in the @ss, I took my bounty to go. This is a good thing, because I ate like I’d never seen food before. Yes, I was hungry, but the flavors really popped. I’d ordered wisely. The kebab was packed with onion, parsley and other spices. The chicken was tender. The pita was soft and the sauce was delectable. I inhaled it and was angry at myself for not ordering a second one. The baba ganouj was just right. Just the right flavor. Just the right consistency (very important). Just the right portion (the eggplant to pita ratio was excellent). And, a small order is only $ 3.
The bar for Medi/M.E. eats is pretty high in the city — especially in East Lakeview. KI easily hits the mark. The service has always been thumbs up. I am psyched to note that all aspects of my meal followed suit.

A new kabob eatery? Of course I’m all over it like white on rice. Or more fittingly, tahini on falafel.
I walked in around 5pm to grab some grub to go and couldn’t help but notice the restaurant was empty. Hmm, an ominous sign? My fears were temporarily derailed by the hostess who couldn’t have been nicer. She encouraged me to take a seat to peruse the menu and came over to offer water while I looked. Maybe I should have ordered a kabob as it’s obviously their specialty, but I have a difficult time ignoring the lure of falafel. It is what it is: I’m a falafel JUNKIE.
Obviously, the food is made to order as it took 10 – 15 minutes to prepare my sandwich. And I use the term ‘sandwich’ loosely as the falafel comes prettily packaged in something that looks more like a long wrap. It’s thin lavash bread instead of the pita most Americans are used to, but having some MIddle Eastern friends has familiarized me with this setup. The falafel was very moist yet browned the way I like it, and it was quite aromatic. I believe the spice they use is a mix called baharat. It’s a bit sweet, yet full and deeply complex. With this seasoning, your falafel needs little else but the onion, lettuce and pickle (I omitted the tomato) definitely enhanced the overall flavor. I scarfed this Middle Eastern burrito down: we have a winner!
Next time, I’ll give the baba ganoush a go. So far, so good guys… my only complaint is that you charge $ 1.50 for a can of soda. That’s quite the markup!

Armed with a friend’s recommendation, I walked in to Kabob Inn on a particularly slow night and ordered the lamb kabob sandwich. The sparsely populated room caused some slight reservation but I trusted my friend and dove in.
Boy was I GLAD! This was one great kabob sandwich at a pretty sizeable portion. The lamb was nice and tender, and the sandwich was stuffed with meat!
At 5.99, this sandwich was beyond worth it.

Yes, I am a fan.
This place is fairly new and seems to be doing ok business. I hope it catches on, because it is a great combination of good food, great prices, and excellent service.
The falafel sandwich is really good. I stopped by the other day to pick one up, carry-​out. The hostess gave me a free ice tea while I waited. So, apparently, the good service isn’t only reserved for when you dine in.
I’ll be back. No, no Austrian accent… this time.

I really didn’t care for this place, and for some reason I feel bad about it.
I was in the area quite honestly I went in here because they served fries and I was craving fries in a major way — and also a falafel sandwich sounded really good. It was lunchtime when I arrived (on a Tuesday or Wednesday) and I was the only one there. I placed my order and waited what seemed quite awhile for my food. Only one other customer came in during this time.
When my falafel n fries arrived, it was hot and fresh and looked really good. I liked that the sandwich was a strange mix of a pita/​burrito/​panini. It was wrapped up like a burrito, grilled like a panini, but with a pita. However, the falafel was still mushy on the inside and I really didn’t care for the flavor. There were pickles on it. Pickles? I’ve never seen this before and hope to never see it again, I really didn’t care for it. I only had water, and was never offered this complimentary tea everyone is raving about. I was pretty disappointed by the whole experience, next time I’m in the area, I think I’d go elsewhere.

I don’t know how I missed this place for the several weeks it has been open, I walk by here all the time. I guess I wasn’t expecting it to be here.
Anyhow, decided to give it a try last night.
Like the others, I was happy with the hummus and its «Basra Hummus» swirl presentation. It tasted good, the thin pita decent, and the portion for a small was pretty good.
Our service was very, very good and attentive.
I ordered a beef-​chicken-​beef kofta-​kebab-​schwarma combination plate and my friend ordered the opposite.
The salad was very good — if with a slightly ascerbic lemony taste. I’d be curious to ask them about what was in the dressing as it was refreshing but with a little kick.
The meal itself was very well seasoned and I asked to try the companion garlic sauce, which was sort of a non-​Tzatziki substitute with a twist. The quality of the meat was high, well cooked, and I could tell it was fresh and well-​prepared. It was a lot of food once you added the bed of rice, so I would say this is enough food for anyone. At $ 14 this was a good deal for such a large amount.
The music and décor was clean and fresh and gave this place a little bit of an authentic feel, with some area music in the background and a TV on the wall. It was bright and clean.
I had one real issue which was there is a side room down the hall to the bathrooms that had the door open. Two men were in there and at least one of them was smoking and the second hand smoke was coming right into the hall way, which kind of made it feel like I had to go through a smoking section to get to the bathroom. They might want to be careful about this — fussier patrons might not come back if they experience this in post-​2008 smoke-​free Chicago restaurant world.
Other than that this was a pleasant surprise. It was better than I thought it would be from first glance (a large neon «open» sign in the window made me think it was more of a «grab and go kebab place» than a «nice sit down place»). By a fair margin.

Let me deconstruct my meal…
The hummus was fresh, creamy and addictive as I kept picking at it even after I was stuffed. If the bread was pita, it was a thinner and slightly tougher yet still tasty version. The falafel, though fried a bit hard, packed an enormous amount of flavor. Instead of the balls they are usually rolled into, the falafel were slightly flattened and easier to cut. The yogurt sauce had a decent viscosity as opposed to the watered down variety I’ve had at other places. When ordering an entrée, you also get an order of Jerusalem salad (lettuce, tomatoes and cucumbers in a vinaigrette dressing). While I thought the dressing was a bit oily/​heavy for the lettuce, I still enjoyed the citrusy tang and freshness of the spring veggies.
For my entrée, I had the combination platter. This consisted of a combo (ground beef & lamb) kufta kabob, a beef kabob and chicken shawarma. Though, I wasn’t too crazy about the over zealous sprinkling of the orangey brown seasoning or spice (? is it paprika? apologies to paprika if it’s not you and I’m picking on you…), all of the meat had a good flavor. My favorite of the three had to be the beef kabob with it’s tender and juicy consistency. The combo was served over a bed of basmati rice and with a garnish of tomato and onion slices.
Dining in between the lunch and dinner rush can be a bit weird as the staff at some establishments aren’t sure how to treat you. I can attest that this was not the case at Kebab Inn. The waitress was attentive and made me feel welcome even though I was the only customer at the time. All the dishes arrived in an appropriate amount of time and at the proper temperatures. They even threw in a free order of their tasty, cinnamon-​flavored black tea. Yummy!
This place is possibly owned by the same people who run Al-​Amira, the 24-​hour Iraqi restaurant in Albany Park. I suspect this because that was the business name printed on my receipt.
I actually want to give Kebab Inn 3.5 stars, but 3 is a good start for now. I will return to try the lamb shank, fool, kubba (sp?), bourak and sandwiches.

Not sure how I feel about this place. So excited that yet another medi place is right next door to me. I really do adore Aladdin’s, so any place that can beat it would have to be amazing.
Stopped by here tonight since I’ve been walking by it for days now.
BYOB establishment. Nicely decorated, plasma tv with some ethic karaōke type channel on – without the words… so I guess it was just like a music channel?
Small menu, but doable. Cheaply priced pita wraps and variations of appetizers in small and large sizes.
The hummus as a small size was $ 2.99 and it was huge! The hummus here was very oily, I was surprised. It was literally seeping off the edges of the take out bowl. They gave me a very large pita folded over 4 times – I wish they gave me more like Fattoush restaurant does :(
I ordered the chicken kafta wrap ($ 4.99) which was pretty good, but it didn’t taste much like chicken at all, but very very flavorful.
I’m sure I“ll order from here again or come to dine in with BYOB, maybe I’ll order the shawwarm or beef kebob.
I’m a sucker for medi, so I will give it another chance.
…But in the meantime, Aladdin’s is equidistant from me compared to this place – soooo, that would be my first choice.

I like this place. I’ve stopped in twice to grab a carry-​out for lunch. The chicken kebab pita sandwich and lentil soup are fantastic!
I highly reccomend this place! I would suggest calling ahead for the carry-​out option; it usually takes about 15 – 20 minutes.

The bf and I were strolling past on a sunny Saturday looking for a bite to eat, when we walked past Kebab Inn. I think it’s brand new in a location that «Mimi Gallery» used to be in, as I couldn’t find this restaurant anywhere online (am I making this up in my head?).
It’s B.Y.O.B., for now. I think it’s fairly new, because we sat in the window table and everyone who walked by did a double take and came back to grab a menu. Three other people also strolled in to have a bite to eat as well throughout out dinner.
The food was good, but nothing spectacular. I would definitely recommend the baba ghanoush, you could taste the smokey flavors. I also would recommend the chicken shwarma.
The service is great. Our waitress was very attentive and came back to check in on us just the right number of times.
Oh, and did I mention BYOB? I love that it’s BYOB ANNNDDDDD just a block away from World Market.