Review Location:70 Gerrard St W
Toronto, Ontario
(Major Intersection: Bay and College)
Because Rob and I were in the college and yonge area, for dinner one night we came to Kabab Grill. This restaurant advertises itself for serving traditional healthy Lebanese food. I can't vouch for the authenticity since I've never been to Lebnon and had their food, but there were several items on the menu that I had never seen anywhere else.
One of these would be the lebenese pizzas. In the restaurant, they actually have a different counter for the pizzas off to the side, and a big stone oven. I actually really wanted to try this, but by the time I decided on this new food exploration, the orders had already been placed. Oh wells, next time. Kebab Grill has a "fast-food" style of ordering, where you pay first, and have the food delivered to you. It wasn't too busy that night, but despite that the service was horrible. The food didn't come for the longest time, and it was practically a mission to get extra plates to share the food that we ordered.
Lebanese Pizza Oven
Ordering counter
The seating area here is on the second floor of the restaurant. Because everything is mostly self serve, there were many vacant tables with plates, cutlery and garbage still left behind waiting to be cleaned. Not a big deal since it wasn't busy, but would be problematic to find free tables if it ever get a bit more traffic.
"Baba Gannouj" (5.49) -Rich smoked eggplant mixed with sesame paste
"Kebab Grill Plate" ($9.99) - 1 BBQ meat, 2 Kebab, 1Tawook
"Falafel Platter" ($7.99)
I was always told that if you don't have anything good to say, you shouldn't say it at all. If this were the case, there would be no further commentary for this post. While I'm unsure on the specific characteristics of authentic Lebanese food, I did not enjoy this meal for the most part. The meat served on the Kebab Grill plate was charred on the outside beyond consumable, and very dry for the parts that weren't burnt. The falafel was slightly better, but again found it very dry and not crunchy enough. The most disappointing out of everything was the baba gannouj. It is probably one of my favorite appetizer to have pita bread with, and this one was definitely not cream of the crop. It was much more sour than I am used to. In comparison to everything else, the side salads that come with the platters were acceptable, but you could tell that it was just an ensemble of ingredients that they use to stuff the shawarma wraps.
I am just genuinely surprised to see that this place has such a high review score on food review websites like Urbanspoon. Reading into them. I realize many of good reviews are dated and most are for the Lebanese pizzas which we did not try. Unfortunate to say, based on the service and food that was served during my visit, I definitely would steer clear of returning.
