Baba Ghannouj Mediterranean Bistro

I’ve been too a lot of Baba Ghannouj in the area but I guess they are all owned by different people. This one has to be the worst I’ve ever been too. I was looking for something quick and healthy after a workout class in the area.
It was around 8:30 at night and it seems that they wanted to be closed already. I ordered a chicken kebab on a salad. I would think this is a pretty standard dish but it took almost 30min to come out.
I appreciate the nice women who was cooking, the other man behind the counter wasn’t very friendly. They didn’t seem to want to server anyone. After waiting 30 min for our meals they turned up the air and music to make sure we’d leave as soon as possible.
So disappointing I was just at the Miami blvd. location not long ago and it was absolutely delicious. It’s cheap and the chicken was tasty but everything else was just a big disappointment.

I wasn’t overly impressed with the service and my food from here. I wanted something really quick that wasn’t considered fast food for dinner. This place is convenient because it’s so close, and I hardly ever venture there so I thought I’d give it a try. I love Mediterranean food and the menu has a lot of great options. I chose the chicken gyro, something simple and quick. Instead of the cucumber sauce I requested hummus. I wasn’t a big fan of the gyro. It was lacking flavors, the chicken wasn’t overly hot, and the bread was a little soggy with the hummus on it. There was plenty of chicken and tomatoes in it so the portion size was generous. However, I did order a side of the cauliflower, and this was really only about 5 pieces of cauliflower. The cauliflower was also super cold. I’m not sure if it was supposed to be cold like this, but I would have liked it better warmed up. It definitely had potential because it was very flavorful and had good spices on it.
I told them I needed my order quick, and it was so I appreciated that. The staff behind the counter was friendly. The prices aren’t bad, especially for a combo deal of getting a side and a drink it was still a bit under 10 dollars which is a good deal.

If a store’s staff is so lazy they can’t be bothered to turn on their «open» sign, take the hint and run away. My husband and I walked in and it took a solid 5 minutes for the chatting staff to come out and help the jerky guy that cut us in line and THEN help us. They couldn’t pronounce the name of my husband’s sandwich, and if gyro meat doesn’t come from a rotating spit, it’s not a decent gryo. Even my falafel was bland and tasteless. The bathrooms were gross and I couldn’t wait to leave. Neomonde is a 15 minute drive away and a million times better!

Four stars for the taste and authenticity of the food. Negative one star for their gross establishment.
The falafel was awesome, and their fries were okay. I wish I had done takeout, though, because the restaurant itself is pretty gross. They use the same tongs for pita as meat, for example (vegans beware), and despite a recent health inspection the place is just generally unclean. I would go there again based solely on taste, but I won’t dine in. And I don’t think I would ever order meat there, I wouldn’t trust it. (I ordered the falafel and hummus wrap.) Also, their fries are meh. Not worth the combo price.

The owner is really nice and even came out to make sure our food was good. I always order the lamb and beef gyro lunch special because it comes with a side of fries and a drink for $ 6.95. Some of the best gyro I’ve ever had. They even have a Groupon and other online promotions. So glad this is close to my apartment and work.

Came in with a groupon deal and met no resistance! Rare considering most places I’ve been to seem to get upset about it. Food is great, gyros are fantastic. The owner served us personally and was very insightful.

I was very hopeful coming into this place tonight! Hubby and I absolutely LOVE Mediterranean, and we were sorely disappointed.
First of all, there was only one other person in there when we placed our order, and he was already waiting on his food. We thought, Great! In before the dinner rush! We ordered our food, reasonably priced, and the young woman who worked the register said it would be 10 minutes. Some people came in after we sat down to wait.
We didn’t get our food for over 25 minutes! We wanted to dine-​in, but WTF! At the 20 minute mark, I stood up and lingered watching them make the food. THEY FORGOT TO MAKE OUR FOOD! I only saw the kafta kabob being made, and the pita was sitting on the plates on the counter, which we obviously received cold, and it wasn’t until I geared up with this pissed off and frustrated look, that they started putting our food together! 20 GODDAMN minutes later!!! I watched this happen with my own eyes! I went to the register fully intending to get my money back and just go eat somewhere else, but I cooled it, and asked how much longer because it’s already been over 20 minutes. so she apologized and said it would be right out.
We eventually got our food, nearly half an hour since she said 10 minutes. The pita was COLD, I’ve never gotten cold pita at a mediterranean eatery before. The Kafte was chilled by then, the rice was hard, and the gyro meat tasted weird, like overly processed… like frozen and packaged somewhere and sent in this funky shapes like nuggets… I’ve never seen such a thing!
My hubby doesn’t complain much, and he’ll eat mostly anything. He looked up and said to me «kinda dry, huh?»
and negative stars for the pop music… yuck
I’ll never eat at any of these places again. Perhaps these good reviews come in from when the appropriately cultured people are doing the cooking.

A big fan of this Baba Ghannouj location… love how there’s plenty of parking, seating, and the food is made to order.
My Go-​To at Baba is their $ 6.95 lunch special:
— Lamb and Beef Gyro
— Sub the fries for the cauliflower side
— Add a side of grape leaves
— YUM!!!

I missed that they had moved but they have a great new location — perfect lunch spot for you RTP-​ers. The owner was fantastic and asked for my opinion on some new menu items. Word on the street is they’ll be doing some dinners for two for $ 15! What a deal!
We got the classic lamb & beef and chicken gyro platters because who can go wrong with those classics! Everything was hot and fresh and delicious! The hummus was creamy and perfect and I’m pretty sure I could drink the tzatziki sauce it’s so dangerously tasty. I’d love to come back and try the buffet — just missed it by an hour!
This is a great spot with lots of space for catering or just a tasty lunch. Check it out today!

Wow! So happy this place opened up near work. Buffet is awesome. Way more convenient for lunch. Everything I tried was good. Will definitely be back!

The Lamb Gyro was delicious and now that the restaurant has undergone a major face-​lift, it’s nice to dine-​in too. Friendly service. Good prices.

Currently CLOSED FOR REMODELING; sign posted on their door says April 5 – 8 when we arrived tonight attempting to eat dinner there — although there website says nothing about this. So we drove a bit further to the East 54 location (surely they would be open?) to discover they were also closed. Very frustrating!

Four times at Baba Ghannouj now, and I’ve been pretty happy here with my selections. I do often get my two favorite things, which are the gyros and and the falafel, but each time those choices have been very satisfying.
Most recently, I went on a Saturday evening while it was hardly busy, and the falafel side I ordered was PERFECT — as in, fresh off the fryer. They are really flavorful, I’m never disappointed with those. Same with the lamb gyro. The tsaziki and the lamb are amazing together. The cooks make sure it’s not one of those dry gyros. If you feel like doubling up your meat, you will get a gyro on crack, you can’t even call it a gyro sandwich — it’s so full it doesn’t fold up!!! Mmmmmm!
For the presentation of the place, the food at least brings my rating to a 4-​star. They could improve their tables. They are always too narrow to comfortably sit in, and the plastic topping to serve as a table cloth is sometimes sticky. But again, for what it’s worth, I’m pretty happy getting my Mediterranean fill here :)

Baba Ghannouj has good food. On the menu is the usual Middle Eastern fare like Gyro, falafel, hummus, stuffed grape leaves, kabobs, salads, fattoush and more. On my most recent visit I had the lamb shawirma wrap with fattoush as a side. Very nice. I will order this again. Every time I have been here it was not very busy for lunch.
Food B
Staff C
Décor C
Location C (strip mall) plenty of parking
Health Inspection Grade 90.0

Used a groupon. Was a nice experience but not a place I’d probably go again. The meat was over cooked with a little burnt taste. The cucumber sauce was very good and helped compliment the food. Yellow rice was cooked very nicely :). The staff was quite (not rude, not friendly).
Did not feel like the place was amazing clean, they did have a 90 sanitation score.

I liked this place! Cute inside! The guy was super super nice too:)
Got the chicken kabob platter and loved the baba ganouj which had a lot of smokey flavor! You could see them smoking/​grilling it behind the counter
They also cook the meat to order so it took a little longer but totally worth it! The chicken wasn’t dry at all which is what usually happens when I order kabobs
Would definitely go back if having a Mediterranean craving!

I hate to be a Debbie Downer but no. No sir. Probably not ever again. Not even remotely a fair substitute in Dirty Durham for some of the other Mediterranean food I’ve had since I’ve been here.
Wait. Let me start over. I’ve done this a little out of sequence already, but my best friend who works in HR tells me when communicating bad news to always use the «sandwich» method and put the bad in between some good so here we go:
GOOD: It’s cheap (as it should be) Dang it! I’m not very good at this.
BAD: The food. And seriously, if you’re gonna put a TV in your establishment, don’t insult your customers by making it so small that literally no one in any seat in the restaurant can see it.
GOOD: There’s some kind of hot sauce they use to season their chicken (that may or may not make the chicken look radioactive) that’s pretty good by itself.
And that’s all I have to say about that.

I like this place, it’s got a decent selection, but was it ever busy tonight. They could not handle the crowd. Must have waited a good 20 minutes for food and I feel bad for those who ordered take out. Food was good, service was friendly. The place was super hot with the open bbq grill fired up, until the owner strolled in around 8pm and flicked on all the air conditioning units with his laser tag remote.
Lamb gyros were decent, and plentiful with fresh tomatoes, lettuce and tahini. The baba ghannouj was smoky and served up with some hot fresh pita slices. Grape leaves were a good compliment as a side. If they could work on their efficiency, it’d be so much easier to get food.

So, hot damn this place is expensive. I just dropped $ 11 on a gyro platter meal with a soda. This platter meal should have been more like $ 7. This was a fast alternative and I took it to go and the to go box was just a mess. Barely closed and as I was travelling it with it in a car and then through airport security it literally went everywhere. So, details Baba, details.
The Greek salad was pathetic. Regular salad, and not too much of it with a bit of dressing with a bit of low quality Feta. The gyro meat was delicious albeit greasy and was about 6 solid pieces so definitely the highlight of the meal. The white sauce was decent but, the hummus was completely tasteless. The pita was delicious.
Definitely a pass. I wouldn’t recommend. (Maybe it’s better eat in?). I also hail from the NYC area, so we have some pretty legendary joints but, even they are cheaper. I thought NC was supposed to the land of college basketball and a less expensive way of life?

I love Baba but I am sorry to say that I like the Main St location better than this one. The food at least was really off last weekend. I got my usual, chicken shawarma– and the pita was tough, there wasn’t as much sauce, idk. it just wasn’t as good as it’s been.
Also there were ants crawling all over the wall beside the booths. I know ants are so difficult to get rid of, so I didn’t make a fuss. but it was still kinda gross.
A few weeks prior I had a «buy one, get one free, wrap or platter» coupon. The coupon itself did not say that it could ONLY be used at the Main St location– but the lady at the 54 location acted like I could not use it there. So maybe the two baba’s should have a conversation and have the locations put on the coupons rather than make the customer’s confused about where they can be used at.