Shish-Kabob Palace

Shish-​Kabob Palace is fantastic!
The menu has a wide variety of salads, appetizers, soups, fish dishes, shish-​kebabs and entrees. I got delicious avocado salad and baked pies with pumpkin for the starters. The main course consisted of rice plov and some kebabs. We had chicken, lamb and seabass skewers and liked them all. All the products were fresh and dishes had the warmth of home-​made food. It is BYOB too!
The service was prompt. Our waiter Eugene was quite courteous and helpful. Overall we had a pleasant dining experience in Shish-​Kabob Palace. So I would highly recommend going to this place.

Our go to when I’m in the area visiting my parents. I’ve only come for lunch. I get the Greek salad Minus the questionable looking meat and cheese they put on top. My Mom says the cheese is a thin shredded feta which I didn’t even know existed and that its great. The salad itself is light and just in a simple oil. It’s filled with huge tomatoes and cucumbers.
We also get the mushroom soup. Just get a cup… It’s huge! It’s definitely a bowl size! It’s filled with mushrooms and potatoes! I would take a huge pint of this home. Hits the spot every time!
We get a order it sometimes a half order of the piping hot bread. Oils for dipping is on the table. Sometimes we get tea which comes in a pretty little pot with nuts and sugar cubes.
My Mom says the skewers are fantastic.
We alternate this and Uzbekistan further down on Bustleton. The food is very comparable but this is place is always empty and less noisy and stuffy and a lot closer to my parents.
Service is fast.
The place is usually empty during the day although my Mom had said it gets crowded for dinner.
The tvs are blasting with music videos in Russisn is it? … very entertaining.
Décor is nicer with drapery, linens and such.
High chairs available.
Take out too!
A hidden gem of the NE.

Shish Kebab Palace is yet another fine Uzbek restaurant in Northeast Philadelphia. This establishment has the added treat of also serving up some dishes from the ancient Bukharian Jewish tradition. The food here is hearty and tasty and anyone from Central Asia would probably feel at home with the menu. I love their choice of soups and can personally recommend the famous Lagman stew-​like soup as well as the unusual Rasolnick (pickle) soup. Appetizers are also varied and quite generous for the price. I thought their Beachak — a samsa filled with pumpkin — was totally superb. The Hanum take 45 minutes to prepare (hey it’s great that they make them from scratch rather than reheating frozen pre-​made hanum.) They are also excellent. The serving of hanum is so large it could def also work as an entrée. The national dish of Uzbekistan — Plov — is a sure bet for the main course. The lamb ribs were the only disappointment for me in the whole meal — just a little too fatty with not enough meat. But overall, I was def impressed with this restaurant. Philly is lucky to have so many fine Uzbek restaurants.
A tip — On weekend evenings Shish Kebab Palace is so popular, don’t try to eat there without a reservation.

My husband and I recently discovered this wonderful restaurant. We loved the charm, warmth, and friendly service, and food that took me back to flavors my grandmother made. I love the Samsa. It’s a meat pie with a flaky dough that is baked in a clay oven. It reminds me of the meat knishes from my childhood. The eggplant sate is wonderful as well as all of the
Shish-​kabob that we have tried. We’ve been back with friends that also enjoyed the experience as much as we have.

It was a great treat to have dinner at this place. The food was fantastic and the menu had a large variety of options. From the eel salad, to the traditional chebureki, incredibly delicious manti and their signature soup (lagman) we had a feast. And of course… the shish-​kabob. I strongly recommend the skirt stake kabob as well as the lamb ribs. I can go on and on but the bottom line is the place was great, the food was excellent and from my experience, the service was very good. There is enough space to host a big group of people and even more importantly it is BYOB. I am very happy that I was able to find this place and will definitely be going back.
Great food guys!

Love this place!!! I have been there plenty of times and It never disappoints! The food is so fresh and mouthwatering!!! Clean, fresh, and the best service around! You will not be disappointed!!!

Pretty nasty and dirty place .
Using cheap processed food and dirty forks and dishes. As well as horrible service and even worse owner of the place .
Don’t waist your time and go to place like Samarkand or Uzbekestan ! Way better places.

This was our first time there. It was our anniversary and we rook the kids. The place was very clean and nicely decorated. The food was amazing and the waiter very nice. It was a bit expensive relative to the portion size but that being said we did bring left overs. All in all a nice experience.

THIS IS MY FAVORITE RESTAURANT!!! :) I love this place sooooo much I could just live off of their kabobs. The chicken kabobs are my favorite and have a distinct, almost smoky flavor. Their soup is delicious! Bread and hummus is a yummy appetizer as well. The service is very nice and they always make exceptions for me, even when they’re full and I don’t have a reservation. I wish I could just live next door to this place and eat their kabobs till I pop!

Since the very first time I discovered and visited this establishment, I’ve been hooked. Their [uniformed] waiter/​waitress service is «Russian Good» (don’t expect lots of smiles and fawning… they get straight to the point).
Just about everything on the menu is tasty… the sweet potato french fries, beef or chicken samsas, veal liver, cow tongue, avocado salad… hell, even the rice pilaf is well-​flavored (not necessarily «spicy» but well-​seasoned). I don’t ever remember having to add salt to my dishes. and that’s saying a lot, since I add salt and hot sauce to almost everything.
Most times when we go there, we can find a seat. It’s a bit tougher on the weekends and «prime dinner hours» when the place is usually taken over by large groups of Russian families show up, kids in tow (from teens to tots). Clearly this is a family restaurant. Oh, and it’s BYOB, so yeah… good times are being had on a daily basis at this place.
My only «problem» whenever I go there is to be careful not to over-​indulge, because the portions are sizeable, the food is damn tasty, and the price is right. Now if they can get the wait staff to start smiling more, being nicer, and truly earning their tips, I’ll update this review and make it a full 5 stars.
Honestly I dunno what these guys at Shish-​Kabob are doing right, but other «authentic XYZ cuisine» restaurants in the area need to take note.

a hidden gem and my new favorite restaurant!
shish-​kabob palace is an unassuming place from the outside, but be sure not to pass it by — the food is not to be missed! i’ve been looking to try russian cuisine, and this certainly did not disappoint. came here last weekend and had a wonderful experience. everything we had was SO fresh and the food is obviously prepared with care. russian food can be heavy, and though we ate a good amount, we didn’t experience that bogged down feeling — the quality ol the ingredients really makes all the difference.
be sure to try the avocado salad — it’s out of this world! very light, yummy and healthy. i also highly recommend the pierogies — try the cherry ones for dessert! prices are very reasonable AND it’s a BYOB.
a truly authentic and lovely spot. i will be back for sure. 5 stars — excellent!

My daughter and I went here last night & had the most delightful time
The restaurant is small and charming
The waitress was wonderful & the food was filling and tasty
Prices are very reasonable and its a BYOB
I plan on going with my husband next week

We were looking for a place that serves Russian food. Thanks to google maps for bringing us to Shish-​Kebab Palace. The staff was very friendly and helpful. The food was delicious. We ordered «Olivie» salad, the portion was big enough for two, so we shared. Then we got 2 soups (harcho) — nice and hot! And of course a pilav! Very fast service, and the bill was only 25 $. Highly recommend! Will definitely go back!!!

An excellent BYOB spot with amazing kabobs. I highly recommend their Plov and lamb and liver kebobs. Also, you can always find a free parking spot right in front of the restaurant.

Don’t waste your time and money here. The food is bland, the management is horrible, and the staff have no idea what they’re doing.

The kebabs are really good. I never liked the Plov from here, taste like par-​boiled rice is used. Bland atmosphere but again the kebabs are good!

I had wanted to check out this joint for a while because I love kabobs and it is close to home. I came here with the family recently and had a decent experience.
First, the place is a lot nicer inside than it is outside. It’s pretty nicely decorated inside and from the outside I expected it be not decorated with cheap furniture and plastic forks. I was definitely surprised when I opened the door as I was under dressed.
The service was OK. Everything came out relatively quickly, although I waiter wasn’t particularly friendly. He wasn’t rude, but not friendly.
The food was good. The menu is very lamb heavy. I don’t really like lamb anymore, so I stayed away from it. I had a chicken kabob and the skirt steak kabob. The chicken kabob was juicy and almost smoky flavored. Delicious. The skirt steak seemed like it was left on the grill just a tad too long, but also very good. The «Greek» salad was tasty, but far from a true Greek salad. So you will be disappointed if you are expecting a traditional Greek salad with Greek (crumbling) feta cheese. They use a different kind of feta (I think Bulgarian) and shave it to the top of the salad to make it look like pencil shavings. Also had the Uzbek plov — I think it’s called Bascht which was very interesting. It’s rice mixed with herbs (cilantro), spices and bits of veal. I liked the flavor a lot, but the rice itself seemed to me like it wasn’t cooked long enough. Kind of chewy.
The best thing I had was the cheese filled pastry. It was like a boureka but it had a different name which escapes me. Should have ordered more of those.
If I go back, I’m definitely ordering the cheese filled pastry and the chicken kabob.

I drove down to Philly instead of meeting my friend in the middle, as we usually do. She wanted me to try a Bukharan/​Russian restaurant she raved about, so I made the hour trek, surprised that the potholes on U.S. 1 didn’t derail me, since there weren’t any!
The strip mall restaurant has an inviting appearance, stucco «bricks» halfway up the wall, interesting wall décor, and lighting that’s neither too dark or too bright. My friend toted along a bottle of Argentine wine for our imbibing pleasure.
Since it was soooo cold out, we both decided to warm up with bowls of Kharcho Soup, full of lean veal meat, rice, and veggies. It’s listed on the menu as spicy, but is only slightly. The extra little kick was welcome. We also ordered the bread, delicious when warm, but it has too much salt for my taste.
My friend Lily insisted we try a Samsa, a meat pie made with puff pastry, so we got one of those and also a Beachak, the same thing but with a pumpkin filling (no meat). Loved the pumpkin, but not the meat filling so much. The pastry part was done perfectly.
We also shared a beef stroganoff, and I was happy to find that it wasn’t as heavy as the usual kind, with much less sour cream. We could choose a side dish to go along with it, but since there weren’t any noodles, we went with mashed potatoes. To this we added an order of roasted vegetables, which turned out to be just some slices of eggplant. It was tasty, but I would have liked an assortment rather than a single veg.
One thing we got to try is not on the menu, and most likely never will be. A group of 10 men was at the table next to us. In addition to the red wine they brought, they were pouring white liquid into glasses out of what looked like 2-​liter soda bottles. Not shy, and very nosy, we asked them what they were drinking. Yogurt soda! They gave us tastes of it. Smells like buttermilk, fizzy like soda. Definitely an acquired taste, which we acquired pretty quickly!
Thanks to the mostly great food, and also the attentive service from our very young blonde waitress, we filled ourselves to the gills. With tax and a 20% tip, it cost us a very reasonable $ 20 each.
Next time I meet my friend for dinner, I won’t mind driving to Philly again. And my friend? She’s going back tonight with her husband and daughter!

Thanks to groupon for this find!
So every once in a while, my sister and I go out to dinner. And this time she contributed with a groupon to this place!
When we first walked in, we were accosted by an angry Russian woman chewing like a cow, pointing her fork at us and giving us an evil look. That wasn’t enough to scare is away– just gave us something to laugh about.
After waiting at least 7 minutes for someone to get our drink order, we placed our order for some appetizers and you guessed it– kabobs!
Now I can’t speak Russian so bear with me! We got the fried meat pie appetizer which was delicious, pierogis, and my sister got some fried pumpkin dough thing. All three things were absolutely incredible. The fried meat pie thing– as gross as the English translation makes it sound, was awesome.
I got the lamb kabob and the skirt steak kabobs. They were cooked perfectly– not chewy. And so so good. My sister got the chicken one and the skirt steak and she loved them too. Their French fries were to die for also!
The problem came at the end though– as we were waiting for someone to grab my card to pay, we got annoyed after waiting at least 10 minutes so we walked up to the counter. The lovely lady who was pointing her utensils at us started with the dirty looks again. But this time, we were two feet away from them and they were making eye contact with me– and they still didn’t stop! Then they started taking pictures of us while looking absolutely disgusted. I don’t know what we did to piss them off but it made us extremely uncomfortable.
I’d like to go back– especially because it’s a BYOB. But those women kinda ruined it for me.

Unbelievable! That one-​word description perfectly defines my experience at this little gem of a restaurant located in the armpit of eastern Pennsylvania.
This is my first gamble on Russian/​Uzbek cuisine and needless to say I will be back for more! The bread (simple as it may sound) was a wonderful treat that seems to be a blend or Italian and French bread.
The potatoes with mushrooms/​onions were out of this world! They are thinly sliced wedges garnished with rosemary, onion, and mushroom slices. Baked to perfect with the perfect amount of salt, they were some of the best I have ever had!
We tried the Plov was an extremely surprising treat as well. The rice had a nearly Indian/​basmati flavor with soft carrots, sweet-​ish spices and chicken that literally falls off the bone.
I do not give away 5-​star ratings freely and this place is well deserving!