Review: Kabob Korner
Author: indianapoliseater | Filed under: Food Reviews, Location: Indianapolis, IN
Kabob Korner
6066 East 82nd Street
Indianapolis, IN 46250
http://www.kabobkorner.net
Spurred on by a post on IndianapolisAmy’s blog, its proximity to my home and an overwhelming desire to expand my food horizons, I recently gave some Afghan food a shot on an overcast Saturday afternoon for lunch.
When you first walk in to Kabob Korner, the first thing that strikes you is that it is very basic. I can’t remember there being any sort of artwork or anything on the walls and the tables and chairs were just there with no effort to dress them up or make them look nice. The menu board was just a basic menu board, although they did have pictures of all the dishes on the wall to give those uninitiated people like myself at least some sort of idea what they were ordering. It also seems as if they are trying to align themselves with more of a carryout motif than they are a eat-in restaurant look.
What I Got: Lamb Kurma Chalow $7.35. Lamb served on top of basmati rice mixed with the special tomato and onion sauce.
First visual impression: This was slop served on a styrofoam plate. Based on the menu picture on the wall, I was expecting more.
First taste impression: This was slop served on a styrofoam plate. And yes, I am trying to be cute by typing that a second time. While the lamb was tender (at least the four small pieces of lamb I was able to find were), it was flavorless. The rice was undercooked and the sauce, while hot, was pretty basic. There’s no reason to go into a lot of effort describing this because it didn’t seem there really was a lot of effort put into cooking my dish and turnabout is fair play. I will say though that I could feel the sauce burning in my body for several hours afterward, although that wasn’t specifically caused by the sauce that comes on the dish (I’ll get to that in a minute).
Would I Buy It Again? Absolutely not. While I hate to bash a small, family-owned ethnic operation like this, I just have to in this case. The owner and what I assumed were his sons were working that day and they were all very nice (I never thought I’d be in a place where the owner was discussing Alexander the Great and his army in Afghanistan with other customers), talked to me individually and were clearly taking pride in their work, but nothing they served me was overly impressive or even tasty for that matter. Overall, I was very, very disappointed in this visit based on what I had read in Indianapolis Amy’s previous review.
One more quick note: remember the burning that I talked about a bit ago? Well, that was mostly self-inflicted. When I was grabbing my utensils, they had a station set up with hot sauce. The only note on the sauce said “Very Hot Sauce.” Well, that’s basically like putting drugs in front of a drug addict…I couldn’t resist. Since I have a huge and sometimes misplaced ego when it comes to eating hot food, I openly took the challenge of having some of this hot sauce despite the fact that the seeds from the peppers were infesting this sauce everywhere. Needless to say, this was not one of my wiser decisions. Below is an up close view of the sauce and let’s just say from now on that I’ll be calling this sauce “Red Death.” Maybe one of these days I’ll actually grow up and stop letting my ego get the best of me. Ha!
-IndianapolisEater
Tags: afghan, Food, kabob korner, kurma chalow, lamb
Dang, that looks like something you’d throw together out of desperation when your cupboards are nearly empty. Also….where’s the meat? I see like, MAYBE three chunks.
Yuck! That looks like something a hungry college student would put together. Let’s see, all I have is salsa and rice, yep, that goes together!
Even if a picture doesn’t say everything, the first test a restaurant must pass is the eye-test, and that picture is a fail. It looks AWFUL.
Doesn’t look good… I think that I would’ve rahter hit the LJS that is in the picture. $7.35 for rice/sauce 3 chunks of beef is a lot.
oof – IMO a pretty damn harsh review.
I’ll say that I’ve enjoyed a few meals there… and the owner was a very kind man (who I sensed would bend over backwards to make sure a customer left happy).
I dont think “slop on a plate” is very fair. then what’s Yats? (haha, which I also love) how about some Indian food? I love a nicely spiced, stew-like meat sauce over rice. I also love sambal (which I’ve thought a close equivalent to the hot sauce — you can add to your liking — @ the kabob corner)
Ok, at this point I sound like I’m Mr Kabob’s nephew or something
Cheers, Tom
@tom h: I would agree with you that some foods that look like garbage end up tasting really good and I was hoping that would be the case with this. I eat Chinese food, Indian food, etc. all the time and those aren’t going to win any beauty contests, yet I love them because they taste good. That’s what I was holding out for after I got my first look at this when it was served to me.
Unfortunately in what I was served, it turned out that they put about as much care into the flavor of the dish as they did into the appearance of the dish (which like I said, I was willing to discount if the flavors were good) and that was the reason for my harsh review.
Also, it did pain me to write a harsh review on this place becuase like I said toward the end of the review, the owner and his sons were generous and friendly people. They were just off their game with what I was served.
I’ve heard good things about this place… but that’s pretty sad portion size. Perhaps if it was a better portion of meat. But for what you got? Maybe $3 worth.
I’d suggest two things for a return visit.
1) Order an actual kabob–the place isn’t called Kabob Korner for nothing.
2) As Tom indicated, the owner is a stand-up guy…If you’re not satisfied, *tell him*. He’ll make it right.
I’ve always had excellent experiences at this restaurant–I think yours was a combination of an off night and ordering the wrong entree.
umm what lamb…looks like rice and sauce to me….poor showing
I think telling the server/cashier when you have a negative experience, and letting their response dictate whether you walk away more disappointed or less, should be considered part of a complete review. As it stands this is not a complete review.
I think Erin has an interesting point, if the experience is based on stuff like cleanliness, service or improper food preparation. And, in those cases I usually do speak up. For food taste, though, I tend to feel that a restaurant should be judged on its average days to anonymous people. It seems your experience was just your subjective view on the food presentation and taste, not service level or cleanliness of the establishment. If that is what they serve on a normal, daily basis and the service was good, then it is up to you to figure out if you’d buy it again.
I sometimes feel a personal need to want to like any “authentic” foreign food. I’m not sure where that pressure comes from, maybe some personal ideal to be open-minded. But, for instance, I dont’ care for sushi, though I love almost every other asian food I’ve had. And, that said, I don’t care for meatloaf either, even if it is “authentic”. And, I really don’t care for intestines. Sometimes, you just don’t like a food.
@Indy Grub Review: Well said and a perfect way to put it. I could not have done a better job articulating those exact same feelings, so I’m glad you did it for me!
@Erin. I don’t complain either. If I complain and then I blog about it, my anon status is over. I take what they give me.
@IndyGrubReview: I simple look at what the restaurant is trying to do and then consider how well they did it. Lots of variables to that question… quality, presentations, ambiance, service, value etc…
IE: I was sorry to read about your experience at Kabob Korner. I’m obviously (from my post) a fan– and a fan of their old place (Kabul). I almost always get carryout and have enjoyed what I’ve ordered– especially the quabili pallow (lamb, brown rice, raisins, carrots) and the chili sauce and another sauce– which is a green chutney.
Hope you give Afghan food another try. Not sure if there’s another Afghan restaurant here…but there are some excellent ones in Chicago and St. Louis.
My husband and I dine at Kabob Corner regularly – I really love their flavor profiles and have always been very satisfied with portion size, cleanliness of the establishment and friendliness of the owner and his employees (I suspect all family members).
Do try one of the kabobs next time – I like the ground beef kabob and my husband likes the sirloin and the chicken.
Love the rice and sauce combo.
Hope you’ll give it another try and that it receives a more favorable review if you do.