Ali Baba

Good enough but really a 3 ½ star place.

They have been delivering lunch for my company for years and their service is very good. They have the most authentic mediterranean food. Denise, their catering manager, is great to work with. Recommend their lamb shawerma, falafel and roast chicken w/​garlic sauce.

This location is officially CLOSED as of today. It will REOPEN on Monday January 24, 2011 in their new location on San Mateo Ave! I can’t wait to attend the new opening on Monday.
According to the owner, it’s more of a sit down place rather than this locations «fast food» type appeal to the lunch crowd. She even said there will be belly dancers on the weekends! YAY!

Good lunch option if you work in the area. This place is really small and sitting is very limited. 11:30 is a good time to come to beat the lunch hour rush.
This place has awesome food. I always get one of their combos (comes with a small drink), kebabs or off the grill selection. Lamb is my favorite. Also, the garlic sauce is to die for. I use it for about anything.
Food portion is okay, a bit pricey. Expect to spend an average of $ 10 for your meal.
They also do catering. My work has been using them for years. Those meetings are always bearable knowing a good meal is waiting for you.

Great little lunch place right around the South SF area. We love going there!
Now for food reviews. I don’t generally eat a lot of mediterranean food, but I thought the food was pretty good. The meat is a bit dry, but the lentil rice was a perfect accompaniment. The best part is the sides. I love the cucumber, tomato salad!
Weird rule: $ 50 minimum if you want delivery.

I come back here again and again after I have a hard day of work and want some good hearty arab food. This is a fast-​food arab restaurant and should be judged that way. So I give it a 5 out of 5. But some people want to treat it as if it was a fine dining experience which it is not. Food is make beforehand to facilitate quick orders. Therefore don’t expect everything made for the order (which would take time.)
So be warned. This is a fast food Mediterranean restaurant. No waiting for your food. Quick, easy and at a reasonable price.

This place is hard to find because it’s about a mile or so off Grand Ave, and the only thing around it is car repair shops and truck loading zones. It’s worth the search because the food really good!
I got the beef schwarma. It’s a soft pita with hummus, pickled beets, and tons of beef. The beef is the kind that they carve off the rotating spit, so it’s tender and warm. The combo option allows you to pick a side (falafel, yogurt cucumber, stuffed grape leaves, and many others). I’ve pretty much tried all their sides and they’re all yummy.
For dessert, they have an assortment of baklavas. My favorite is the walnut one. It’s flaky and delicious!
The current place is pretty small and it’s usually hard to get a seat. I guess they realized this because they’re moving to a larger location on South Airport Blvd soon!

I LOVE their rotisserie chicken gyros and falafels. Their gyros are so big I eat half for lunch and save the rest for dinner. The rotisserie chicken is extra juicy and flavored perfectly! My cowoker and I had a tradition of getting gyros here before heading to SFO for a work trip. I’m sure our neighbors on the plane are always jealous.
As for the other items on their menu, we use to (when we worked out of Brisbane) order Ali Baba for lunch calls every other week. THATS how much we all loved Ali Baba.

I ordered food at Ali Baba’s to be delivered for the company I work for. It was fairly easy ordering online and everyone was excited because we tend to enjoy eating Meditterranean food from different places.
Delivery was on time, but the food was ok.
The pita bread was stale and the food was cold. It tasted like they had cooked everything the night before, packed it up, and delivered it the next day.
I’ve definitely had better.
No more luncheons from Ali Baba’s.

We came here for a lunch one day after my coworker got back from London and decided he couldn’t live without shawermas. I’ve had Ali Baba’s before during a catered office thing, and it was delicious. However, this time around, not as good as I expected. I ordered #2, came out to $ 9.12, but the meat was dry and not flavorful. I saved half of it so I could come back and squirt some Orange Sauce (La Vic’s) on it for an added flavor. My coworker also wasn’t too impressed. Of course, we all just came back from trips to NYC (for halal street food) and London, so our reviews might be a little more bias.
Overall, I wouldn’t go back unless it was to order huge portions (paid by the company), in which we could all share and try some of their better side dishes (i was a fan of their tomato cilantro thing). 3 stars for the quick service though.

Been here a few times… I really like their rotisserie chicken, it wasn’t dry at all, had a good taste to it. I tried their chicken shawerma I wasn’t too impressed by it but it was ok. The hummus and cucumber salad are good.
There are more items I’d like to try on their menu. It’s kinda pricey but it’s worth it.

Tasty food and well priced. I usually order one of the Ali Baba combos, the chicken shawerma with the greek salad is my favorite.
I like being able to pick up lunch that is under $ 10.00 that isn’t a deli sandwich for a change.

I love this place. We order from here all the time for work and I’m never disappointed.
Their chicken is so juicy. I love their lamb as well.
My favorite is this garlic spread they have. I manage to dip everything in that spread along w/​that cucumber yogurt sauce. Mmm… my mouth is just watering thinking about it.
Definitely one of my South City favorite places :)

Our work occasionally has catered lunch from this place, so I can’t comment on dine in other than the place looks really small and is located in the strangest of all industrial places.
The hummus and tabbouleh is not bad. Their pita bread is average, I actually prefer it slightly more crust and toasted rather than pale white and flabby. They have this strong white garlic dip that is good. The lentil and rice is okay, ate it with the lamb and chicken kabob. Chicken was a bit dry, lamb was good.
I couldn’t really get excited about the food other than to say it is not bad and filling and it didn’t give me any outstanding bowel problems.

Lady at the register has been nicer than usual the last few times I’ve gone in so they earn a complete 5 stars. Oooh i think I’ll have a falafel today. :)

I love Med. food. Hummus, kebabs, everything! I work super close (on South maple) so I just hopped on by here. The lady behind the counter isn’t exactly the happiest, but she was very cordial, and most of all, she washed her hands after handling money!
The falafel combo comes w/​3 falafel balls, one garlic sauce, and a pita for 2.50; individually you could purchase these items for about 2.10…eh.
The falafels were CRUNCHY and yet soft… I could honestly do w/​o the sauce; it had no flavor and I felt like I was just dipping extra calories instead. But the falafels were crunchy and beautiful inside — yummmmm.
Hummus is super smooth, but no flavor! I had to add my own olive oil at home, but I’d order again b/​c hummus feels so healthy!
Great find, thanks Unilocal

This place is truly a mirage. After spending 15 minutes out of my lunch hour driving to In N Out burger in Millbrae only to find out they’re closed for 3 hours for either a power outage or building maintenance, I frantically sped back up to South San Francisco to wander to find a quick and fulfilling meal. Good ol’ Unilocal Mobile led me down a bumpy industrial road to finally find Ali Baba! Praise Allah, I can eat now!
The menu was a little confusing as to what sides came with which plate, so pick up a to go menu and look on there. I went with a Kassem’s plate, which was AWESOME. Tons of moist chicken, smokey lentil rice, a tzadziki drenched cucumber side salad, a handful of kalmata olives and a big ol’ pita. Heaven. There was enough meat to feed two and plenty of rice for a nice snack later.
I had to get an order to go for my boss as well so I ordered a kebob plate for her. These take just a little longer since they are cooked to order. She loved it. SCORE!

UPDATE: They have changed the options to switch the salad to other things on their side order menu. Great Job!
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My client’s office is located in the industrial area of South San Francisco (duh, its the «Industrial City») and there aren’t much options for bites to eat aside from the usual fast food and chain restaurants. I was introduced to Ali Baba through my mentor and I’ve been going here since.
I’m a big fan of the Kefta whether it be a wrap or served over basmati rice. There really isn’t much to choose from, so beef, lamb, chicken or veggies but I’ve tried them all and liked them. Try the hummus. Its quite good but not the best I’ve had. I would give this place 5 out of 5 if they change the options in regard to the salad from the plate specials. I love veggies but I have a hard time eating their salads because its not crisp and served warm. I would prefer if they had an option to choose hummus or another side, aside from the salad.

Get here early since this place got packed rather quickly for lunch and there aren’t that many tables. Forget about getting a table here if your with more than 3+ coworkers and get here after 12:15. The tables are compact and couple that with the fact that there are no other decent ethnic restaurants for lunch in the SSF area and it’s simple supply and demand.
I would have to say Ali Baba does a better job catering than actually having a restaurant. Solid food but not so solid service, parking, commute, seating, etc.
The layout and decorations here is what you probably would get from crossing a bazaar and a cafeteria. All sorts of trinkets all over the place.

The place is located in the heart of an industrial area. Lots of car repair and auto body repair shops. The food is very reasonably priced and the atmosphere casual. I love the fact that this is a walk up to order kind of establishment.
I always have a kabob plate and the food is always delicious. Nothing fancy here. Just good old middle eastern food at a good price. Parking is available in the back or the street.
Now that I don’t work in that area anymore, I come here a lot less, but if I am ever in the neighborhood, I would come here again and again.
NOTE: They now close on Saturdays:(