Kebab King

Great Kabobs. Not much ambiance but the food is great.

I’ve been driving past this place for months and finally tried it last night. It used to be a bbq place. I’m not sure what this restaurant is really called because on the outside the sign says Kebab King and the menu says Shawarma House.
The service is GREAT! I’m assuming the man behind the counter is the owner. He was very friendly and welcoming.
Another good thing about this place is that they’re open late on a weekday. It was Monday night almost 10pm and this was still opened. Woohoo, a different option other than fast food!
I ordered the beef and chicken shawarma combo plate and it came with pita bread, hummus, rice, and a little bit of salad. The rice was soft and fluffy. The hummus was soooo good! I love their hummus because it was not too tangy with lemon juice and it was really creamy. Unfortunately, the beef and chicken were really dry. The flavor was good, but still lacking a little bit in comparison to the other shawarma I’ve tried at other establishments.
The hummus has me coming back. The actual food… eh. I’d still stop and eat here if in a bind though, but it’s not the first place I would run to.

cool little place to get a good gyro at a good price.

This isn’t Kebob King anymore, a new owner is in process of changing it, but the big sign still said Kebob King while the menu said Swarma Place. The owner is awesome and the swarma is outstanding. The owner is living the American dream. He is from Iraq and was in the 1991 Gulf war forced to fight for Sadam. He was wounded in battle (by the US) and was rescued by US soldiers where as he recovered he became friends with one who sponsored him to come to America. Now 20 years later he is starting this restaurant. He makes the Swarma meat fresh every time by hand in this crazy complex method that sounded like something from the food network. And his love for the food shows. It might be a simple start but its excellent Middle Eastern food by a true American.

We ate at Kebab King yesterday. I got a Greek salad and my companion got the steak and chicken kebabs. It took a really long time for our food to be ready, but it was utterly delicious and the place is really clean. Super nice staff and a cute little outdoor patio to watch the comings and goings on University in Hillcrest.

First, there was only one worker the night we went. She did an amazing job of taking our order, cooking it and serving it to to our table all the while dealing with other customers. She was awesome!
Food was better than average. Not great but a huge value for your money. I would gladly eat there again. Shawarma was really good. Their gyro type sandwiches are HUGE and the bread was outstanding.
Where are the fountain drinks or iced tea? That really is my only complaint!

I’m not a snobby foodie by any means, but the fact that the owner couldn’t afford to remove the BBQ signs from the restaurant should have been my first clue. Admittedly, I could have asked a few more questions before I ordered, but when they brought my «gyro platter», I was certainly surprised to see that it didn’t include pita bread or tzatziki sauce… just a pile of gyro meat and disgusting yellow rice on a paper plate. I’m not sure if it was just the day I was there, but the ice/​soda machine was also out of order, so you just get a can of soda. Lame. On a bright note, it’s just across the parking lot from Golden Spoon, so after you realize you picked a shit hole for lunch, you can at least get a tasty frozen yogurt.

Looking for a Doner didn’t want to drive downtown. Searched Unilocal and found this place. Seeing the rating I was a bit skeptical, but after reading reviews felt a lot better. I got exactly what I was hoping for and expecting. A very good lamb Doner filled with high quality veggies and lots of meat.
Plenty of parking combined with a clean pleasant environment, I will be sure to return.
Try it with out reading the other silly reviews first.

Maybe I’ve caught this restaurant on a ‘Good Day’ and then again… maybe not, but I do have to give a fair review of the Kabob King and that’s exactly what I’m gonna do.
In my hunt for some of the Best SHAWARMA in San Diego, I stumbled upon the KABOB KING restaurant in Hillcrest. Sure, the menu is cheap, but the shawarma was one of the tastiest ones I’ve ever had… and it came with french fries and a soda for a little over $ 5 dollars. That’s pretty cheap for a combination plate.
The Shawarma was made on a torta like bread (grilled just right) and most of the time, when you get a bargain this cheap, they cut corners… not with this shawarma. It had LOTS of lamb meat in it and was complimented really well with the rest of the shawarma type ingredients (onions, lettuce, tomatoes, yogurt shawarma type sauce, etc…)
Where this restaurant lacks in the drinks… canned sodas? This is why they lose a star in my rating. I’d prefer a fountain drink over a can soda any day of the week and the canned soda was kind of a let down for me.
Other than that, the service was great, the food was good, the prices are cheap, and the people that work here are nice.
4 Stars!

This place is terrible. I had a chicken kebab salad. The chicken was pre-​cooked and was so dry and cold. I even specifically asked if the chicken on the salad was kebab chicken (I saw them making other meat kebabs when I was there), and the girl said that it was… but I think my chicken must have been cooked last week. If I hadn’t taken it home to eat, I would have returned it — it was that bad. I won’t be going back.

Overall, just so-​so. I got a chicken doner kebab, hawaiian style (which means that pineapple is included with the veggies), served on a pita (you can choose between pita or wrap). with a drink, it formed their combo for only $ 5, which is a good deal.
As you can tell from my photo, my kebab was slathered in sauce. The chicken felt a little on the dry side, with the sauce trying to cover it up. but with veggies and pineapple, it was not bad… just not great.
My friend fared better with the chicken kabob plate:
Lots of freshly grilled chicken on skewers with veggies on a rather orange rice and some side salad. I think he got the better lunch than me, and even his visual appraisal of my pita was: too much sauce.
Staff was friendly and brought our food out to us outside, but suggested that i tip in cash in the jar and not on the credit card receipt. Does the owner not want to have to input tips to the credit card company later? or not share tips with the staff? or was the server behind the counter just fishing for a bigger tip when we purchased our lunch?
The BBQ sign threw us off at first while we were hunting for food in the area, and we would have gone to Mama Testa’s until we saw the kebab part of the sign. They ought to take the BBQ part down — while it is grilled, «BBQ» alone on a building to me means pulled pork, ribs, brisket, cornbread, etc.

I had a lamb doner, and it was very good. Authentic? Dunno, don’t care. It was good, flavorful, BIG, but not too big, and cheap. Dr. Pepper is sold by the can, there, as well as many other drinks. This includes Greek beers.
The help knows me from its BBQ days. Sometimes this can be a bad thing, but the young woman up front was easy going but professional. Pretty easy exchange with no awkward smalltalk.
I miss there being a dessert menu. Baklava is not my thing. Preferred the cheesecakeo the BBQ joint, but I didn’t see it offered. Maybe they can bring it back. Hey, this isn’t Greece. Not even too many Greek folks around this ‘hood. You can afford to be at least that inauthentic.

They get 3 stars for having such a good deal. $ 4.99 for a lamb or chicken doner with your choice of fries or a drink. Sure, I’ve had better tasting kebabs in SD but for probably about double the cost. You get what you pay for right? The food is decent, it just isnt as bomb as some of the other kebab shops around town. Wouldnt mind coming here again as long as the deal stays.

Saturday was my first time at the kebab king and the food was great! I ordered the Shawarma with lamb it was huge and very tasty. My husband and brother ordered the chicken kebab and they said it was very good (they ate everything).The girl in the counter was very nice and the food came out fast. I will def come back :)

This goofy place makes as much sense as a football bat.
First of all, they don’t serve real kebabs. The lamb doner wasn’t served in the traditional pita, but rather in a friggin burrito wrap!!! It’s like Greek and Mexican food threw up on each other.
So this place used to be a BBQ joint. The new owner put up a sign that says Kebab King, but I guess he couldn’t afford to take down the BBQ sign because it is still posted on the front of the restaurant.
Also, they still use the floor mats that have the old restaurant’s name and logo on it. They must have bought the place with everything in it. This shows how cheap the new owner is, and the food reflects the cheapness too. I bet burrito shells are cheaper than pita bread.
The doner meat was decent, but the lettuce was a bit wilted.
The kebab burrito was MASSIVE though. It was about 8 – 10 inches long. I could only eat half of it. And the price was about $ 5, which was a good deal.
But at the end of the day, the lettuce was not fresh and I felt like I was eating a damn burrito. BOO!

You get what you pay for, and here it’s a cheap version of Mediterranean food. It’s not all that great, and the hummus is insanely garlicky so be warned. The price is affordable, especially compared to Sajj which is practically across the street (and already under new ownership), but Sajj’s meat is far superior in taste and quality.
Also, it was a major struggle to order over the phone. The gentleman that answered barely spoke English and I had to repeat myself so many times I finally just switched my order in hopes I would be given the right thing (and just to get off the phone.)
Go elsewhere. There’s like 45 974 386 506 856 new Kebab oriented places within two miles of this place. Trust me, most of them are probably better.

If you want to feed people for living you have to know the food business or be a good cook!!! You can’t just open a restaurant and think it will be a good business to pay your bills! This place is neither, not a good cook and not a good restaurant owner. The chicken on the roll was dry the pita bread was served cold the fry was mixed fresh with old and the over all was bad experience even dough I paid only $ 5 plus tax it still didn’t mean I will compromise on flavor. Do your self a favor spend this $ 5 at McDonald… at least they have good fry…

I love kebabs, we always eat a shitload of them when we’re in Europe so I was excited when I saw this restaurant was going to open.
But my kebab was more like a gyro-​meat burrito than a doner kebab. It was served on a room-​temperature flour tortilla instead of a flatbread and the meat was sort of cold. We had a side of soup that was way too fucking (WTF*.) hot and filled with mushy noodles. The fries were below average.
* — Copyright Sean W 2012.

This new place has a smart owner who knew when to
Change hats. What once was American BBQ is now Mediterranean Kebabs. Place still looks clean but there was no music and with the low temp weather lately it left me a little cold. Staff seemed quiet almost as if they were frost bitten but the food warmed me up. Decent portion and good value. Kebabs take a little longer so be patient. Here’s to the future success on this difficult corner.