Saleems

Saleems is closing by year end. An Indian place is opening in it’s place.
See Post Dispatch article for details.

I have dined at Saleem’s several times and love their food, the only thing I dislike is their location. I wish that they were back in the Delmar Loop, however the food is worth the drive to the Chesterfield/​Ballwin area. Somehow dealing with Manchester traffic does not seem to bother me when I am on my way to Saleem’s.
The food is amazing, and unlike Aya Sofia the atmosphere is much more casual and more friendly where as Aya Sofia is more focused on the dining experience, Saleems focus on the food, not to say that the experience is anything less just a little bit more relaxed. The owner is almost always there and is extremely friendly.
I typically stick with an order of Hummus and an order of Safina, which is marinated char-​broiled chicken, topped with a garlic butter sauce. Amazing! I have also tried the Shish-​taouk, which ismarinated char-​broiled chicken served kabob style. The food is full of flavor and very reasonably priced. If you are a little hesitant about trying Saleem’s check out Garlic Paradise on the Travel Channel, they recently showcased Saleem’s in a recent episode. Just watching it made me hungry for some Safina, yum!

Went tonight with college friend. Hearty thanks to Kathi M. for the admonishment of not going down the stairs!
Got the garlic potato dip, $ 4.95 — cold potato dip seasoned with raw garlic, lemons, olive oil and spices; served with pita. Disappointing that the pita wasn’t warmed. But the dip was sensational. Dining partners was surprised it was cold. EEK!
Dining partner chose chicken sharwarma, $ 16.95 — marinated in Middle Eastern spices chicken on a bed of rice, topped with onion, parsley, lettuce, tomato and tahini (smashed sesame seeds).
I chose Kibbe, $ 14.95 — Lebanese meatloaf with tabouli and rice.
We shared, so the dishes came out on platters with serving spoons. Good call, server, who didn’t tell us her name.
Nobody was in the house except us until just when we were ready to leave. Then two separate couples came in. The owner/​chef/​I don’t know knew one of the couples, and came out to converse with a hearty greeting. Never did he stop by our table and thank us for coming.
The food was OK, but this spread (including two glasses of wine) cost $ 70. Kinda steep. Minus a star for the price-​point!
We opted out of dessert after looking at the dessert menu, which featured baklava (which is Greek), crème brûlée (which is French), strawberries flambé (which is French) and something else from another country. The only Lebanese dessert was Lebanese ice cream, whicn featured their own home-​made vanilla ice cream (how is that Lebanese?).
We were disappointed that there wasn’t more presence of garlic «where garlic is king.»

The place was empty except for a person at the bar, the owner, and the bartender… all of which were really friendly.
We talked of Dearborn and hummus etc.
I LOVE Chicken Tawook (white chicken shawarma) sandwiches.
The sandwich was called a Shawarma sandwich but did not have the dark chicken meat but white chicken meat (which makes it a Tawook but I’m a pain heh.)
What is it?
Choice of chicken marinated in Middle Eastern spices. Served in pita bread with lettuce, tomato, onion, and parsley. Topped with tahini sauce.
AND IT IS SO GOOD! If you love garlic you will ADORE this.
This is a HUGE sandwich, which is good because it costs $ 8.95.
The hummus was not that good to me. They put some sort of fried pita bread with «garlic butter» or some such nonsense and it was an oily mess. I am TOTALLY willing to give the hummus another chance as it was horrible, I just had high expectations with seeing how long they have been in business and how many times they have been noted for being yummy.
This place is tucked in the corner of the strip mall, so it is not facing the road. The best part is walking past the interesting Arabic store that had all the woman’s clothing and just an assortment of middle eastern items. including tea sets. If I had time I would have totally gone in there.
menu:
TLDR: Get the Shwarma sandwich and bask in garlic heaven. Hummus is passable. Hidden in a corner, d