Food, Outside the South, Restaurants

Mister Kabab - A Middle Eastern trip up North

We don’t usually go to the QC area to look for places to review, but upon the suggestion of one of our readers (we’re interactive, see!) we decided to check out Mister Kabab to see what the hullabaloo was all about. We’d been hearing tons about the place; great food, rock bottom prices, so they say, and despite the distance we figured, hey, what the heck, it’s a Sunday, there’s nothing else better to do.

Nick: We just came from a jog in Tierra Pura in Tandang Sora, so I was hankering for something on the heavy side. Mister Kabab’s is easy to access from any place in QC…

Betty: Assuming you don’t get lost; we overshot the place and had to make various u-turns, traverse narrow back roads, and drive in the face of oncoming traffic. But Nick was behind the wheel, so it wasn’t so bad, wehehe.

Nick: Yes, I’m not a very good driver. And I was hungry. Someone told me Mister Kabab shawarmas are the bomb. After that really pleasant experience at Little Tehran in Better Living, I was aching for more Middle Eastern food.

Betty: So after parking and securing the car (I get really paranoid in this area; it’s only a few blocks from Banaue, stolen car parts capital of the world, after all), we make our way to the packed open air dining area of Mister Kabab. It’s dark, and my first thought is, “I hope the pictures come out OK.”

Nick: It seemed like a pretty popular place; plenty of diners, a good cross-section of the QC crowd. I had a really great view of the skewered inverted cone of meat they use for the shawarmas; pieces of beef were falling like drops of ice cream from a cone. Yummy.

Betty: The menu was impressively extensive and temptingly cheap: nothing over a hundred bucks, except for the lamb. I wanted to order some Chicken Chelo Kebab (P65), some Beryani (P90 for both chicken and beef, P120 for lamb), and a Persian Burger (P50). Unfortunately for my adventurous appetite, the voice of reason prevailed in Nick, who reminded me that there was only one (rapidly growing) stomach to stuff that all into. He was having the Shawarma and that was that. He wasn’t about to eat my tira. So I settled for the Kebab and some additional Beryani Rice (P25); Nick ended up eating my leftovers anyway (the Kebab already came with rice, so it turned out my Beryani Rice was redundant).

Nick: But the poor children in Africa?…. anyway, I did have the Shawarma Sandwich (P50), and I thought it tasted just the same as everywhere. My opinon is what really counts is the sauce; no good sauce, no good shawarma. And the meat looked so tempting… I do recall eating a good shawarma at our local Uniwide, and the sauce rocked. Just the right tang for the onion, and just the right kick for the pepper sauce. Mister Kabab, you let me down.

Betty: Ouch, that stung. Hmmm… well, the rice was OK, but Little Tehran’s was better, and the Kebab was fine too. But yeah, I guess it was oversold. You know how someone insists you *must* watch so and so movie because it’s *sooo* good, and you watch it and, well, ngwengwengwe… (No offense to JM; we’re really glad he put us up to this, in a manner of speaking.)

Nick: The beryani at Little Tehran was a lot more colorful, like little shavings of red and yellow crayons. It was “funner”.

Betty: Yeah, I guess it was. Plus, it was brighter there, so we could actually see the rice. But I can see the appeal of this place; if I found myself back in this area, I’d come back to try their other stuff… like the “Vavishka,” hehe… I wonder what *that* is? And the prices really were low (P65 for my kebab versus P150 at Little Tehran, though I don’t know how many pieces that is). Oh, and their Yogurt Drink was just as good, and it cost 15 bucks less at P30. Cheap food is always welcome.

Nick: Mister Kebab strikes me as a place for the plebeian college crowd; very little money, but very adventurous. If we’d come there with a battalion of Southerners we’d probably get a much better eating experience, sampling bit by bit the different dishes available. Hey, why didn’t I visit this place while I was in UP? Well, I am still poor…

Betty: All in all, Mister Kabab was an interesting experience. Despite all our whingeing, we’ll be back. Just not all the way from Alabang.

Mister Kabab
West Avenue corner Quezon Avenue
Quezon City

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