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Kebab plates come with rice, grilled tomato and pepper, and a potent red pepper sauce folded with onions, paprika and parsley. This inconspicuous restaurant resides on Plaza Ararat’s back end in Unit Z and serves great charcoal-grilled kebabs to customers who eat at tables that wrap around trees. Longtime grill master Vic Sarkisyan is from Yerevan, Armenia’s capital, and has been a consistent presence in a tile-lined kitchen for Armenian-Russian-American owners who took over Hamlet’s Kitchen in 1997. Their pork kebabs are particularly great, especially khrchik, bone-in rib tip chunks that still have cartilage attached. This cut provides a wonderful chew that sheyka (boneless baby pork) can’t match.
Malek's Grill & Kabob
There’s an additional less-crowded location in the East Village. Topped with our homemade garlic mint yogurt sauce, garnished with our lamb gravy and yellow split peas. Chunks of boneless chicken breast marinated with traditional Afghani spices. Seasoned ground beef and lamb mixed with fresh herbs and onions. New York’s restaurants struggled, and many closed forever, during the darkest days of Covid, but Sami and his family not only persevered but have expanded the business, too.
About Sami's Kabab House Astoria
The housemade pastas and pizzas — like the thick bucatini all’Amatriciana with braised Italian bacon, and the “angel and devil” Neapolitan pie with mozzarella, spicy soppressata, and hot honey — sometimes draw a packed house. Lentils in vegetable broth with herbs, spices and seasonal vegetables. In common with many immigrants to New York City, Sami worked for a time as a street vendor. At his most successful, he operated a pair of coffee-and-donut carts, across the street from each other, near the southern edge of Times Square, in Manhattan. However, after the attacks of September 11, 2001, new security measures in that crowded district meant that Sami couldn’t set up in his usual spots. From spanakopita and mole-covered enchiladas to bulgogi bagels and Neapolitan pies, here's what to eat in Astoria.
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Shawarma off a twirling spit roast is available in chicken or a mix of beef and lamb. Get it packed in a pita or fill up with a platter doused liberally with spicy harissa and Duzan sauces. Originally named Hallet’s Cove, this Queens neighborhood along the East River was rechristened Astoria in an attempt to get financier John Jacob Astor to invest there. Nowadays, this vast neighborhood of brick and frame houses, with the east-west avenues given over to commercial enterprises, features one of the city’s most impressive collections of restaurants.
Tehran Market
Life has many joys, in to me learning about the many different options that come with cooking is one of the great ones. Kensington is a residential neighborhood that borders Windsor Terrace, and it’s a great place to find some of the city’s best Bangladeshi food. Things seemed to start off ok for Sam’s Mediterranean Kabob Room, as it got a big boost in business for a few weeks after the Kitchen Nightmares episode aired on TV. He seemed that the show initially brought a bunch of business for around two weeks after the Sam’s Kebob Room Kitchen Nightmares episode aired. After the episode aired, things seemed to be good for the business.
Sam’s Kebab
Kebabs come with mammoth servings of meat on a bed of rice pilaf. Head to this neighborhood institution before it gets bulldozed. The blue-and-white paper placements at this open-till-midnight spot won’t let customers forget that it was once voted the best diner in Queens. Still, it’s a local favorite for hefty breakfast combos, multi-level hot sandwiches, and a nostalgic banana split. Greek options also abound, with waiters in penguin-esque suits. Regulars know to grab a bag of chips and a beverage before stepping up to the counter, with cash ready and an exact order to share with the notoriously gruff staff.
Afghan Delights, Delicate and Rugged, at Sami’s Kabab House in Queens
Don’t miss the chicken in mole negro or the beef rib with mole coloradito, at this jazzy and colorful place. If the diner had been invented in Casablanca or Rabat, this is what it would look like. The breezy corner storefront is the most fun in summer, when the sides swing open and the smell of sizzling tajines wafts out onto Steinway Street, served with the traditional baguette. Also to be admired are the opulent vegetable couscouses and the grilled merguez platter, all at shockingly low prices. Boneless chicken thigh marinated with traditional Afghani spices. Tender chunks of boneless lamb marinated with traditional Afghani spices.
Sami's Kabab House opens in Glen Cove - Newsday
Sami's Kabab House opens in Glen Cove.
Posted: Fri, 30 Oct 2020 07:00:00 GMT [source]
Chicken Breast Kabab Single Skewer
And our lamb kabab, however tender, would look like many other New York kababs except for the accompanying heap of Qabuli pulao, steamed rice caparisoned in raisins and julienned carrots. The sweetness of the raisins, and especially the carrots, wonderfully complements the fluffiness of the rice and juiciness of the meat. In Afghanistan, lavish versions of Qabuli pulao are prepared for celebratory occasions; in Astoria, we can celebrate whenever we like. Later in 2022 another son, Ali, opened his own small cafe a block from the kabab house. The menu has also been revamped with a menu of new cintemporary Mediterranean dishes and recipes, the staff sample the food and love it.
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The family argue loudly yet again after service and the argument spills into the street outside. They try to serve raw chicken to a customer as the Chef says it is cooked on the outside so he thought it also was cooked inside. Gordon discovers mouldy food in the kitchen and in the walk in fridge he finds huge buckets of chopped parsley, bendy celery, soft cucumbers and rotten lettuce. Gordon arrives to observe a dinner service and meets Sams wife, who doesn't think the children should be working in the restaurant. Gordon calls the staff together and tells them his criticism of the food, to which the chef admits he has given up.
Eating here is like sitting in Ali’s living room, and you’d better be prepared to convivially interact. There’s no shortage of competition in Astoria’s Greek scene, with an estimated 20 Greek restaurants, but Taverna Kyclades stands out. The seafood-heavy menu’s stars are the grilled octopus and heaping portions of grilled fish. Expect a wait for tables in the indoor and outdoor seating areas.
The left case touts raw cuts like whole chicken, beef ribeye, and lamb leg. The right case holds marinated meats like pork baby back ribs, spicy chicken thighs, and lamb lule. Less common delicacies include Cervena venison ribs, Kurobuta pork, and marinated branzino chunks.
There’s something about specialty cooking that has always appealed to me. This LIC spot is Sami’s second location, and it's more of a takeout hub than their bustling Astoria restaurant. There are only a couple of small tables in the narrow room, but if you do eat in, you’ll get to enjoy some fresh, hot naan right out of the oven. Ashak, indistinguishable from mantu from the outside, reveal green interiors lined with Chinese leeks, the closest Mr. Zaman can find to Afghan gandana.
In addition to takeout orders and deliveries to homebound customers, Sami donated meals to a local hospital through Queens Together, a nonprofit organization that supports local restaurants and food businesses. Founded, in large part, to help feed frontline workers, Queens Together continues to provide relief to people who face food and economic insecurity. Almost before we’d sat down, tea and rice pudding had arrived at our table. We’d arranged a time to speak with him at his namesake Afghan restaurant in Astoria, Sami’s Kabab House, and we’d quickly discovered that refreshments were an essential prelude to our conversation. Thanks for stopping by, and I do truly hope this site will end up being your go-to for all things kebabs, grilling, smoking, or so many other ways of cooking.
Sam Dumanyan is from a small town called Jrvezh located east of Yerevan in Armenia. He had a restaurant there and after he moved to Los Angeles, opened his eponymous restaurant in Van Nuys in 2021. Sam’s Kebab touts waterfall and blue-sky photo murals and specializes in skewers that he plucks from an enticing display case by the register and grills over charcoal either out back or in front. Emin Davoudi-Chigani runs Foothill Market & Deli in a Sunland strip mall and spun off the butcher shop as Meat Guys in early 2021. A printed menu lists proteins they can cook in an open-mouthed, stainless steel gas grill, but it’s just as easy to pull from display cases.
The compact shop provides comfortable seating and a politicized clubhouse atmosphere in which all are made welcome, and the kebabs are righteously grilled over charcoal. The hummus topped with fava beans is particularly fine, and so are the triangular spinach pies. The menu is brief and unfussy, drawing in part from Mr. Zaman’s ancestry, half-Uzbek, half-Tajik. In his hands, Afghan mantu (dumplings) are smaller-scale, almost demure cousins to hulking Uzbek manti, but still retain a touch of shagginess. Their delicate skins are loosely packed with ground beef, musky from cumin, and just barely pinched shut.
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