Ayhan’s Shish-Kebab Restaurant

This place was amazing and is definitely a little hidden gem. I had just picked up my wedding dress from David’s Bridal and me and my fiancé were going to go to the Cheesecake Factory but they were crowded as hell to the point where on the way in I got stuck in the revolving door entrance because some asshole was pushing so fast my purse got jammed in the door! Smh. anyways the service was great. they bring you an amazing garlic sauce with bread for starters! And the drinks are amazing! Ambience is nice. service outstanding. and food is to die for! I will definitely be back! :-)

out of business in Rockville Center
a loss
could tell you what I liked but you can’t get it there anymore

Their food is always fresh and healthy. They also have great lunch specials if you work in the area, and all portions are very generous. The atmosphere inside the restaurant is great, too, with Christmas lights on the ceiling and Greek décor.

Hmmm… it’s hard to know where to start. The positives are always a good place. So, the positives it is… the service was fantastic. My waitress was friendly and attentive. She took my order immediately and brought my food quickly. She also checked on me a few times to make sure I had everything I needed. The other positive is that it’s incredibly close to my hotel. Like across the street close. That was super nice just to walk here. The glass of Merlot was sweet, but okay.
Now for the not-​so-​positives. The stuffed grape leaves were pretty mushy and lacked much flavor. The leaves were also too mature as the veins were stick hard. I ordered the gyro as my main entrée. It was basically a pile of meet on top of pieces of hard pita, rice, veggies, and yogurt. It came with a salad of shredded Iceberg lettuce and had so much Greek dressing on it that I could barely eat more than a few bites. The meat was over salted, but tasted good. It was topped with a type of red sauce… maybe marinara? The rice was supposed to be basmati, but was more like your standard ricearoni from a box. There were some cooked frozen veggies from a combo bag on the plate as well.
All in all… I ate enough so that I’m not hungry, which is the main reason I came to dinner. It’s been a while since I’ve had box ricearoni and reminded me of my super poor grad school days. The memories were nice. So, thank you!

One may choose their own topping on any of their delicious salads. Delicious baclava.

My friend and I went here because we were starving after a yoga class. My friend says she’s been before and we were in the mood for Greek. I decided to give it a try. The waitstaff was a little slow at first but in lieu of that we were seated quickly, put our orders in and were served fairly quickly. They gave homemade bread and an olive oil, lemon and pepper mixture to dip the bread in. It was tasty. I ordered the falafel ball platter which came with veggies, a salad of my choice and I substituted the rice for the bulgar wheat. I had the villager salad, which was really really good and the falafel was good too. We also had the dessert sampler for dessert which consisted of pistachio, walnut and chocolate baklava and a piece of galaktoboureko, my fav Greek dessert. Good job Ayhans!

There are times when service is bad, and then there was the time I just had. The food is great, but waiting an hour for two kebabs, some rice, and peas is too long. I am a returning customer, but I will never return again. An hour passed with no service. No water was offered to us. They even lost our order, asked us again, and then it still took another half hour. They were offering free pita bread and Greek yogurt sauce. But still no water. Or food. It was not only us, but other groups of people, yelling how they were unfed, unhappy, and done with Ayhan’s, while walking out of Ayhan’s. After the poor excuse of a meal, they still didn’t take any money off of our bill for the poor service. They did not even apologize. I know I will never recommend Ayhan’s again. And I will never dine at Ayhan’s again. You shouldn’t either. When service is bad, it’s bad. If it is as bad as my past experience, just call it Ayhan’s.

Food and service were excellent. We had the zucchini latkes and meat pie appetizers. Arugula salad with grilled shrimp, eggplant with ground lamb and beef, and beef/​lamb kabob, sirloin shish-​kabob wrap. All were delicious.

We decided to pick up some take-​out for 6 people on our way through Southern Long Island. It was easy to order — the staff was very polite and helpful and the order was filled quickly and correctly, well-​packed and fresh. The food is delicious and a little different than standard Middle Eastern fare. Some standouts are the eggplant latkes and the döner kebab served İskender style.

Had the Five kebab sampler, it was great!

Food is good and prices are right. Service depends on who you get. Owner seems very nice. We go at least once a month here.

We have eaten in a few of these locations this one was just as good as all of them the food here is always fresh and delicious. The wait staff is excellent.
One big problem.
We came very close to not even eating here. My party was greeted by the hostess she stated wow another large group am I being punished tonight. We were a party of 8 … Half empty restaurant. With all the locations in Rockville Centre and for that matter Nassau County that we could have chosen, …we went here. It wasn’t that busy. Just a poor way to greet customers. How many people would or have just walked away. Bad for bussiness. Sad cause the place is great. Saturday night 3÷8÷14.

i love the food here!!!

I have passed Ayhan’s dozens of times, but neither the décor nor the menu have lured me in until recently when I was craving a hearty salad.
My boyfriend and I stopped by for lunch. It was pretty empty, a total of 5 tables of at least 15. The hostess promptly seated us but we did not see the waitress for awhile. Granted, she was probably the only one working so I’ll let that slide.
My boyfriend ordered a kebab lunch special which was served over the most dilapidated salad I have ever seen. The lettuce was brown and it lacked veggies.
I wasn’t too hungry so I ordered a salad with shrimp. The salad was very basic. 4 pieces of shrimp was an extra $ 6 bucks. A $ 1.50 per shrimp? You’ve got to be kidding me. This isn’t some upscale seafood restaurant.

Came here for lunch during a weekday and was surprised to see only one other table besides us. My boyfriend ordered the Iskender lKebab and I ordered the Doner Kebab which were both ok but nothing spectacular. Our waitress was very inattentive! i personally left the table 3 times: once to ask for extra bread, second time to ask for water and the third time to ask for check. Each time I approached our waitress she was on the phone and would only come to our table when the food was ready. Considering that restaurant had less than 10 customers the service was so terrible that we will not be returning here and I would not recommended to my friends.

This review might not be fare as I have only sampled one item from them that I had through take out. If I go back again and do like it I’ll definitely update the review. I had the baklava as a snack on my way home from work one day when I was going to the train station to get home. It wasn’t very good at all, the ayhan’s in Baldwin made it better. If I go back and eat a good or decent meal here I’ll update the review and rate it at least three stars.

The food was OK, but another problem surfaces right after I payed the bill. I put my change $ 13 in my pocket, but then took out my telephone as we got up from the table. My wife and I went towards the door when I put my hand back in my pocket to make sure that I had everything and the money was gone! I walked back over to the table where it was being bused. The staff member told me that he saw nothing! THIEVES WORK IN THIS RESTAURANT! In less than 30 seconds, they STOLE MY CHANGE! For $ 13, they would rather lose a customer. DO NOT EAT HERE!

I’d say this place is slightly below average Mediterranean cuisine. And in my opinion, just not worth the risk even for such a bargain (they always have coupons and deals everywhere to try and get the volume up) especially with so many other choices and after recently visiting the Rockville Centre local for a brunch and seeing that:
1) They neglected to turn on the Sternos that heat the brunch items until we asked them to
2) Served our 3 year old daughter spoiled milk
3) When mentioning the spoiled milk to the server getting yelled at
4) Both the manager and the server defending the spoiled milk with the fact that the date has not expire (meaning they could have issues with how they handle their food)
Could I be hyper sensitive? Sure! Especially when you read stuff like this about Ayhan’s from a 2001 New York Times article:
Now Ayhan Hassan’s chain of restaurants is ground zero for a flurry of food poisoning cases. At a news conference today, Nassau County health officials said they had received more than 500 calls from people who had eaten from one of the establishments, reporting diarrhea, stomach pain and other symptoms of shigellosis, a highly contagious gastrointestinal illness. Eleven cases of shigellosis have been confirmed, according to Dr. David M. Ackman, the county’s health commissioner, and nine people have been treated at area hospitals since Tuesday.
I am sure that most of their customers get better treatment and hardly ever get sick, however I know that my family will NEVER visit any Ayhan’s locations.

Very disappointing! We’ve been to several Dish-​Kebabs (including this one) and this is the first time we’ve left unhappy. It started out by being seated in a little corner behind the door in a mostly empty restaurant. Luckily, we had a very attentive waiter.
I ordered the crab stuffed bronzini and specifically asked the waiter if it was real crab and received an emphatic «Yes.» Needless to say, my fish came and it was NOT real crab, it was the imitation crab. My daughter was also unhappy with her sliced steak salad that was over cooked and my wife’s grilled octopus was a little chewy (very different from past visits).
I hope the management reads this, because we’ve always loved this restaurant and would prefer that this review remains just a blip and is not the start of a change.

Not Istanbul OR Constantinople, not at this place at least.
So I only sampled the buffet. I MIGHT return for an entrée; but everything was barely mediocre. The Turkish/​Mediterranean fare at this place REALLY disappoints. The bulgur was poor and oily, the taboule tasted old and dry, the cacik/​tzatziki was soupy, the falafel was very salty, and what appeared to be doner was very dry. The baklava and kadaif were alright. Perhaps buffet isn’t the right set up for this cuisine.
A few saving graces. Very attentive, courteous, and professional staff. They also prepare a great Turkish coffee. But even that is not enough to rescue this review.