This place was so good! Does anyone know why they closed? I have been going to Ali Baba’s ever since the place opened on lower Greenville. When that place closed and they opened up in Lakewood, I would go at least twice a month. It totally bummed me out yesterday when I had my taste buds all set for some good food only to find a small sign on the door and all lights off. I was just there before Christmas and nothing was said about closing so this must have been very sudden or hush hush… PLEASE re-open to another location in the area… driving to Richardson to get a fix is not going to be easy!
Kaela W.
Classificação do local: 5 Dallas, TX
I feel like words do not do this place justice. You just have to try the food to understand how amazing it is. Do not even get me started on the saffron chicken. I like to order it with an extra side of rice so I can turn it into a second meal later on. Their Tzaziki sauce is perfect, as is the hummus and dolmas, and everything else I’ve tried. Everyone I have ever dragged to this place has loved it. If they ever go out of business for any reason I will be absolutely devastated! Edited to add: I woke up this morning to an email newsletter announcing that my Lakewood Ali Baba has closed. So, I’m devastated and also afraid I might have evil magical powers.
Rw F.
Classificação do local: 5 Arlington, TX
My favorite Lebanese/Mediterranean place in DFW. I do not get to visit due to he distance but if I am in the area I plan to make a visit. Good home cooking. Everything done very well in a family run restaurant. Almost like you are a guest in their home except it is buffet. I’ve never been for dinner. A must if you like Mediterranean food.
Jami O.
Classificação do local: 5 Addison, Dallas, TX
Ladies and Gents it doesn’t get any better than ali babas! $ 12 buffet filled with awesomeness. If you love Mediterranean or Indian food, go now! In fact even if you don’t love it you should still check this place out. You will not be disappointed!
Todd D.
Classificação do local: 5 Dallas, TX
Delicious! Quick friendly service! Get the olives and feta, the hummus, the falafel, and the gyro! And order some fresh pita bread to go!
Ryan K.
Classificação do local: 4 Dallas, TX
Three words: Mediterranean Meat Buffet. Tried the buffet for the for the first time. Had lots of veggies, sides, great tomato soup and tasty meat options. I tried the chicken kabob which was great, the roasted chicken with crispy skin(it was a little dry), shawarma and lamb kabob. All which were quite tasty and bottomless. Great place to get a lunch Mediterranean meat coma.
Kevin H.
Classificação do local: 5 Dallas, TX
My wife and I eat at Ali Baba once a week. We order chicken kabobs, hummus and Greek salad and it’s always delicious and the best Mediterranean we’ve found in Dallas. Staff is always friendly and has the take out ready in 15 – 20 minutes consistently. I highly recommend if you haven’t visited before you should give it a try. BTW the warm, fresh pitas that come with the food are fantastic!
Patrick L.
Classificação do local: 4 Euless, TX
Daaaaaaaaang, love it. Been for both dinner /lunch and this is a go-to place for me. It is a tad on the high side of the price range but the portions are so large that you really get your money’s worth. The lunch buffet is EXCELLENT! It is pretty much everything you could possibly want to fulfill your mediterranean cravings. Salads, soups, cold dishes, all different types of meat — cooked in sauces, cooked rotisserie style, cooked on a skewer. I mean, it was pretty awesome. I loved that the cooks were constantly bringing out freshly cooked foods. Definitely focused on quality here. Buffet price is currently $ 12.99 but the quality is there and the variety is there. I think the quality is slightly lower than dinner just because it is going to sit in a warmer but overall you get the best bang for your buck. For example, I had the Saffron Chicken for dinner and it was very rich and the chicken was tender. During lunch, the same flavors were pretty good but not as rich and the chicken was starting to dry just a tad. Either way I was happen but small knock on quality. Either way, this is a go-to for me and I don’t think I will be getting my Greek on anyway were else!
Scott L.
Classificação do local: 3 New York, NY
If you imagine an everyday cheap dingy middle eastern hole in the wall — Ali Baba’s is a slightly better cleaned up version. The food quality is happily average for a buffet, the selection of about 15 different dishes seems varied enough but not so many items that it becomes ridiculously trashy. Proteins like kabobs, falafel and roasted chickens, desserts like rice pudding with pistachios and brownies, sides like baba ganoush, hummus, cucumber vinaigrette salad, hot pita bread. Nothing is outstanding or flawed, and you’re bound to be satisfied. After I walked in, the host barked«$ 12.99» instead of hello. Pay before entering. The narrow patio surrounding the restaurant is quiet and spacious. food — it works crowd — vanilla worker drones like you might see at Sunday School the digs — generic and clean, might’ve been a Mexican restaurant before.
Krystal R.
Classificação do local: 5 Dallas, TX
This place has the BEST Mediterranean lunch buffets around. Awesomely moist chicken, crisp veggies, yummy rice, and AMAZING hummus and pita bread. Everything tastes super fresh and the buffet is refilled frequently. The environment is clean and service is great. They also have a pretty good wine selection. My favorite is the saffron chicken with rice. Mmmmmmm! I’ve gone here for dinner as well and it’s great too but the best time to go really is for the lunch buffet. It’s just more bang for your buck. They have it on weekends too!
Benjamin L.
Classificação do local: 4 Dallas, TX
As much as I love working Downtown, there’s a serious void with the Mediterranean lunch variety. My boss and I had mentally prepared our stomachs for a Mediterranean lunch buffet and we had driven to Lower Greenville to try Qariah’s lunch options. We found the place to be closed so we headed to the next closest option: Ali Baba. I’ve had catering from Ali Baba about a hundred times and I knew the food was already good. But this was my first time physically there for lunch. Once we scored a parking spot along Abrams, we darted for the door. Lunch time is strictly buffet only and you pay in advance of your meal. I would assume this is for speed of service and not so much for a rampant issue with dine-and-dashes. The price is super reasonable for all-you-can-eat and the food quality. To start off, the cleanliness of a buffet isn’t something that I take lightly. Ali Baba does an excellent job of keeping the buffet area spotless and refreshed. The variety is phenomenal and while Mediterranean is one of my favorite cuisines, there’s something for even the pickiest eater. Chicken shawarma, gyro meat, pita, baba ghanoush, hummus, chickpeas, moussaka, dolmas, and much more! It’s literally a smörgåsbord of goodness! Don’t expect a full-service experience at lunch hour but you drinks will be brought to you and your plates shall be cleared in case you make a dozen trips to the buffet. We weren’t necessarily in a hurry, but if you are on your lunch hour, it’s easy to get in and out quickly. Lakewood isn’t the quickest drive from my office, but this place stands out as an excellent option whenever you crave Mediterranean!
April S.
Classificação do local: 4 Sulligent, AL
I’ve not had a bad experience at Ali Baba worth reviewing here. Service is a bit spotty, but just a little slow or inattentive sometimes — nothing completely unforgivable. The food is reasonably priced and the portions are pretty large. I’ve tried the gyro, hummus, falafel, and saffron rice; everything was just as I wanted it. Lately I’ve just been ordering over the phone and picking up something on my way home from work. Works well enough for me, and I can just stick the leftovers directly into my fridge.
Jules R.
Classificação do local: 5 Dallas, TX
My friends and I have been going here since the early days on Lower Greenville. We were afraid with the move and expansion, perhaps the food quality would slip. But other than the mystifying change to their garlic sauce(hey, why mess with perfection?), everything remained excellent. In fact, new menu offerings expand the variety and make it even easier for everyone to find something they like. Among those, especially enjoy the spinach with garlic, and the haloumi cheese. Yes, it’s salty. That’s part of what makes it good. if that’s a big deal for you, you shouldn’t be eating most Mediterranean or Chinese dishes. Their tabouli is the best I’ve ever tried. I like that it’s more a green salad rather than being so heavy on the bulgur wheat as many are. Hummus, also among the best. The grilled chicken, fabulous. And the kibbi’s good as well, if you like that type of dish. It has the slightest flavor of cinnamon, but it doesn’t detract from the flavor. My only complaint is that the food is so good, we almost always overeat. But you can’t take away stars for that!
Toni G.
Classificação do local: 5 Roswell, GA
Fabulous food. I rolled out of there for 12.99 Very fresh tasty food and friendly service. For some reason this was 100 times better than the Campbell one.
Lenore E.
Classificação do local: 5 Dallas, TX
Come here very often for their amazing lunch buffet. The food is so tasty and flavorful it’s hard not to love every item on the buffet.
Jeff J.
Classificação do local: 3 Dallas, TX
Man oh man — this place is good. I’ve modeled my own hummus recipe after theirs(white people love hummus btw). The key is Tahini and they definitely deliver. If I could live off of hummus, rice/noodle and chicken skewers I would. I’ve been coming to the Lakewood, Irving and(formerly) Greenville or Preston locations for more than a decade . Why only 3 stars? Salt. Man, i mean you bloat from salt after every visit. The other seasonings are enough to make this better than most Mediterranean places, but lately… the salt. It wasn’t this bad a few years ago. Still, one of the places I love, frenetic lunch buffet or cricket chirping dinner and all.
Kaia V.
Classificação do local: 3 Berkeley, CA
I came in here with a friend on a Saturday night around 8pm. We had tried to go to Cedars, but they were jammed to capacity, and after waiting in the line to pay for the buffet for about 25 minutes, we decided we should just go elsewhere. Ali Baba popped up as an alternate, so we drove down to it and were pleased to find it lacked the insane crowds at Cedars. We ordered a bunch of mezzos — hummus, babaganoush, grape leaves, that cheese thing, fried cauliflower, falafel, and a salad. I asked if the salad could be had without bell peppers and the waiter said yes, so when it arrived and had bell peppers, I wasn’t super impressed. I sent it back and told him I didn’t want another(since when I ordered it I was asking if they could make one without bell peppers, not give me one with fewer bell peppers). Being allergic to them, having them show up in food that I’ve ordered specifically without them doesn’t make me want to be a repeat customer. That said, the food was really good. I am historically not a fan of grape leaves, so these were about average on my scale of I don’t care about these things at all. The falafels were super tasty and came on a bed of mixed greens with some tomato slices. The squeaky cheese(haloumi) also came on a bed of greens with sliced tomatoes. The cauliflower was amazing, and pretty ample in size given the price tag of $ 6. It came with a side of tahini, and though I wished they offered tzatziki on their menu(not on the printed menu on my visit at least), the tahini wasn’t too overpowering for the cauliflower which sometimes is the case. I enjoyed their hummus, though it is a bit more liquidy(more tahini-y) than that of Café Izmir. The babaganoush was fine — it’s again not one of the things I consistently love in general. The pitas were warm and perfectly fluffy and not too chewy. Our cache was accompanied by a small plate of sliced tomatoes, pickles, white onions, and olives, which were useful for moving the dips into one’s mouth sans pita. Overall, the experience was kind of strange — the dining room was empty but for one other table. The staff were wandering around doing prep work and whistling — and if you know me, whistling is not something I go to restaurants to pay to hear. If they hadn’t been doing that, I’d say the food merits 4 stars, but with the whistling and lack of attention/focus of our server makes my rating more on the 2 star level. Split the difference — take out worthy.
Noor B.
Classificação do local: 4 Phoenix, AZ
I like Ali Baba. The food is always good. It may not be the best mediterranean I’ve ever had, but it’s always a delicious staple. Baba ghanouj is awesome. I always get some as an appetizer; accompanying pita bread is soft and delicious. Mediterranean and greek salads are always made with fresh vegetables and make me feel slightly less guilty about indulging. Mediterranean salad is a little sour so skip it if you aren’t into citrus flavors. Kafta kabobs are delicious, and the vegetables and rice are wonderful. Really rich and a big portion if you want to share. Saffron chicken is served in a lot of sauce with rice; it’s good and I recommend it if you are familiar with Indian flavors. Falafel and hummus are also good. Lunch buffet is big, with lots of variety and a good value for what you get. It’s also a good way to sample different dishes you don’t want to commit to a new, unfamiliar dish at dinner.
Roxanne K.
Classificação do local: 4 Augusta, GA
I wanted to dislike this place seeing as how the word«buffet» is not in my vocabulary. But when a friend suggested it for lunch I thought«what the hell»… I didn’t try everything and I liked what I had. The tabbouleh was delish if a little tart and I though the hummus were… ok. I did notice that the food actually had flavor, and I didn’t really expect that. The lamb meat was full of flavor and the chicken was tasty… but dry on the buffet. I felt like many things were swimming in sauces that seemed unnecessary and perhaps that’s what the people don’t like. I passed on those and went for things that were easy to identify. For the price I’d say you get a hell of a choice and all you can eat. If I went back it would likely be for the buffet again.
Michelle N.
Classificação do local: 1 Dallas, TX
This place serves Americanized Middle Eastern food. The meat was okay but extremely over-priced, my only guess for this is that their rent is high! The hummus was no good: bland and tasted like it came out of a can. The pita bread was even bad! How do you mess that up? What makes me an expert? I’ve had real home made Arabic food, my ex-husband is Arabic and my boyfriend is also Arabic. My boyfriend went with me here! We both had high hopes and he was disappointed more than I was. I guess they have to tone down the spices so Americans will consume it. The best Middle eastern food is Afrah in Richardson. This place was so disappointing and way over priced!