Bab Al Hara

They have very good food, a problem they really they have very slow service you have to wait one hour to get your order but like i said they have good food if u have time and not to much hungry i recommending otherwise they kill you from hunger. Hopefully they hire some professional waitress.

2 stars cause not everything was that bad-​Delivery: 50 mins. from order time. Fries good, blob of mystery chicken ho hum, bland. Added hot sauce to get through it. Gyro: bland and not really anything good can compare was very tasteless. Taziki sauce terrible! Tabo: good add some mint for freshness and feta for texture. Fruti salad: excellent, more dressing would be nice for a to-​go order. ½ TB for a 6oz salad was dry. Feta strange flavor to it, not the taste of most feta sold out in the world. Pita was good. Mozzarella sticks: as chef Ramsy woukd say;fresh frozen and taste like fish! Using the same oil for every thing is just gross! idea: change the oil more often. Great for one try out, but wouldn’t return if things aren’t changed.

This place is months new, has really good customer service. I’ve been there twice and although I feel the my need a little bit more Time to excel I would definitely give them another shot

First and foremost I would give this place a 0 star if I could. My wife and I decided to order from Bab Al Hara when we received a menu on our door. I decided to order the filet mignon tikka plate which was $ 11.45 (expected for a filet mignon plate) and a gyro sandwich which was reasonable in price at around $ 5. I was asked if I wanted hummus or babaganush which I ordered hummus. Here is where things went south. We got the food and opened the containers and I instantly knew the food was not going to taste good. Plain white rice with 6 pieces of over cooked and dry «filet mignon» and a few sliced cucumbers and pickled turnips (which I told the lady I didn’t want which is not really a big deal I was just trying to save them some bucks so they don’t waste food). I got a tiny container I believe is a 5 oz sauce container for hummus which tasted like it came from prepackaged cans with no flavor. The so-​called «filet mignon» tikka was the worst of the worst. Over cooked, dry, and has no seasoning or flavor! I mean put at least some salt! And it was not filet mignon. It tasted like chuck roast that was cubed and cooked which I would have been on with but it was bad, so bad that my dog didn’t even bother with it when I offers it to him. Rice was plain and also without flavor. I didn’t bother with the warm cucumbers or the turnips. Now to the gyro sandwich… it was decent considering the meat was also prepackaged. They give you 3 slices or gyro meat a ton of veggies and a teaspoon of I believe it to be Greek sauce. It was dry and they didn’t bother giving us any extra sauce. My wife took a bite and said she was done. Went to trash along with my tikka plate. Never again will I order food from there. I’d rather order from Sahara or Luna Grill for my middle eastern crave. This place won’t stay in business much longer if they continue to offer below average food to their customers.

I love this place! Open late and has a large variety. Family runned place. Everyone is very friendly and facility is very clean. Food was fresh and DELICIOUS! all credit cards accepted and take out and delivery is always an option.

This place has me mix on my overall rating and feelings about the place. I am settling for a 2.5 stars at this point for the following reasons: I stopped in for an early dinner and ordered the Gyros Plate which consisted of sliced gyros meat, a side salad, yellow rice hummus, pita bread, and a side of house sauce for $ 7.95. A reasonable price I thought.
However, even with the good price, the meal needed some improvements. First of all, although the sliced gyros meat had good flavor, they did not provide enough to make for a filling meal. On the other hand, they did provide a huge pile of the yellow rice rice which was very good. I would of rather had a lot more gyros meat and a lot less rice.
The side salad was nice. It was a good mix of greens, onions, and tomatoes with a pretty good herb oil based dressing, but I was not to happy with the pita bread slices. They provided plenty, but they were not properly heated. They tasted good, but the texture was not right given they were cold in the center. Nice warm moist pita is much nicer.
I was however very pleased with the side of hummus. In fact, it was the best item I ate, and second being the gyros meat. The hummus was well made, tasted great, and had a very good creamy to meaty texture. I really liked the garnish of olive oil and spice.
The young lady at the counter who took my order and brought me my food was nice. The guys in the back were not as friendly, as I said hello and they ignored me a gave me a look.

This will be my second review since Bab Al Hara decided to appeal my first one, which I spent a considerable amount of time on while being both constructive and respectful. Bab Al Hara (Formerly Happy Pizza & Ribs) is simply a new name for the same unsuccessful face. The former restaurant, which specialized in everything from BBQ to Pizza to Seafood was not open very long. I hate to see local businesses go out of business, but when they’re cutting corners and the food is not fresh (aka frozen seafood), the consumer will be heard, whether its on Unilocal,or the business owner’s bank account.
Anyways, I was super stoked to see a fresh restaurant on the street, and am always of fan of middle eastern cuisine when Im passing through El Cajon. At first glance from the inside, Bab Al Hara is almost a spitting image of Happy Pizza and Ribs. Bab Al Hara (like their predecessor) is also a jack of all trades. They specialize in middle eastern cuisine, burgers, BBQ, pizza, and seafood. Ive had their pizza twice (both via delivery which is super convenient), and their chicken gyro plate with all salad, not rice (gotta watch the carbs at times).
The pizza was extremely similar to Happy Pizza’s, and was somewhat tasteless. Their chicken plate was decent, but for the price, was nothing compared to the nearby Ali Babas, Sagmani’s (which is a great value), or Sarays. I would go to this place based on their willingness to deliver to our office when were working nearby… but other than that, its not the cat’s pajamas. For your money, and for fresh pizza or middle eastern, go across the street to Ali Babas or down the street to URBN pizza. Thank you for taking the time to review my review :)

Was excited about the delivery service… wish the food was close to subpar… but it was horrible the beef kabob was very thin and dry also they forgot our hummus… will never order from them again

Come here for party and we been waiting more hour to to eat, there is servers. Food was ok, never back here

The service is unbelievably slow. On jury duty and thought I would try it out for our lunch break since it’s directly behind the court house. Simple order of sandwich and falafel. 30 min later, still no food, so I walked out. 5 dollars lost, but a Cheap lesson about this ridiculous middle eastern, fast food type restaurant. Will NOT waste my time again.

Wait time during lunch break is unacceptable! They tell you 10 minutes and it turns to 45 minutes!

I was driving after midnight when their neon lights caught my eye and I decided to stop. Service was fairly quick considering the type of food being served. I ordered a combo for 1, but it can easily satisfy 2 people. My food came with 1 Chicken Tikka, which is flavorful and juicy. The chicken kabob was a little drier, but that’s expected and it was good texture and flavor. The beef kabob was good, but not as good as the chicken. Now I haven’t had any good kabobs since 2011, when I moved fr DC to SD, but this place is very good for the price (8.95). I will definitely be returning.

Amazing customer service. Was there on a raining day and has some soup. And there fries supreme was delicious and my wife also like there gyro wrap… Will be coming again.

This restaurant was opened in what used to be the «Happy Pizza & Ribs» location on Ballantyne and Main.
It has only been open for about a week and they are still having «new restaurants» issues. Although the food looks good, the service is painfully slow.
Although it looks like it is supposed to be a fast food style establishment, food is served on actual plates.
I was hoping to try a gyro and a beef kabob, but I was told that they were out of gyros meat, so I ordered a beef and a chicken kabob.
The gentleman who arrived prior to me asked to cancel his order as he had been waiting for 45 minutes, and then they could not find his order so they can refund his charge.
After nearly 40 minutes I finally got my kabobs (just supposed to be meat in a pita, with some onion & tomato — I could have cooked it from scratch quicker). I only live 5 minutes away from here and when I got home, they were cold. Now I might be wrong, but, it is my understanding that a kabob should be chunks of meat placed into the pita with onions and tomato and normally a sauce. What I got was not chunks of meat, but ground meat, without flavor, formed into a long Patty that was put into a dry pita on the lettuce and tomato. No sauce in the kabob sandwich, or on the side.
El Cajon has a large middle eastern population and there are a lot of really good places where you can grab a quick bite.
This ain’t one of them.
Until they get their act together, I would recommend going to «Greek Chicken» about 3 blocks down the road