BAB NQ — Restaurant in Manchester

Contemporary bar/restaurant specialising in kebabs. If you like kebabs then you'll love this place. If you don't like kebabs then you honestly should try this place. It's different from any other kebab shop.

The kitchen is open - nothing hidden. There's a small bar serving alcoholic drinks at the going rate.

The Greek fries are very unusual. I'd never have thought of putting yogurt, chilli sauce and crumbled feta cheese on chips, with what I THINK was finely chopped black olives. It shouldn't have worked - but it did. I meant to take a picture of them but I'd polished them off before I'd realised. They go so well with the ice cold Italian beer on tap I'd used to wash the down. The lamb bon bons were supposed to be the side star of the show but for me these fries were perfect with lager. And did the job while I was waiting for the main event to arrive.

I'd opted for the pork souvlaki kebab because where do you see that in England? Normally its donner or shish.

First things first, it's served open flat so you can immediately see what's in it. I like this because it gives me a chance to taste the meat and a couple of other elements on their own without anything else. Perfectly cooked. There's no nervous chef here taking it to Chernobyl and back, this is confident cooking. Next I tried the crackling. It was so tempting I nearly ate it all before realising I'd better wrap this thing up and eat it as intended with all it's component parts working together.

The bread was nice and thin, the way it should be. Fresh, charred and earthly rustic. I want to say primitive, but in a good way, natural, healthy back to basics material. I'd wager money there's no more than 3 or 4 ingredients in that bread.

There was a perfect ratio of meat to bread to accompaniments. Fresh tangy yogurt to keep it moist. There's no cash 'n carry mayo on these kebabs. The spicing was perfect. The heat component came from a single whole grilled chilli. Take it off or leave it in, mine was left in because I love it spicy hot. But it wasn't too hot, it was slap bang in the middle of the Goldilocks region of just right.

A kebab of this quality for just a couple of extra quid on top of what you'd pay in a greasy kebab shop anywhere - it's really good value.

This was my first visit but it certainly won't be my last. I want to go back, I want to work my way through the rest of the menu. This is...

We went for an early dinner and between the two of us, we ordered the trio of dips and 6 crispy chicken wings as starters to share, and for our main course we both ordered the Mixed Bab.

The dips tasted fresh and homemade and there was plenty of flatbread served with them. We were expecting the usual pitta type bread, but instead we were surprised that they were crispy (fried probably?). They were nice and crunchy and after the flatbread had been eaten, there was still quite a lot of the dip left so we kept that for our next course.

The crispy chicken wings were my favourite, not overcooked and still juicy and tender, but we both agreed that it needed more seasoning. Despite scotch bonnets in the description, we felt that the heat was very mild and once the crispy skin had been devoured, the chicken itself tasted a little bland.

The main courses were impressive to look at but we felt that the chicken was again under seasoned and a little dry. The lamb was soft, but perhaps not as juicy as we would have liked. There was minimal sauce so we felt the overall kebab was a little dry, so we were glad that we had the dips left. The cheesy chips which were part of the kebab were pointless in my view - the cheese had gone cold over the chips and instead of a melty sauce experience, it didn't add anything except chewy cheese.

I would go back again to try something else, but I wouldn't prioritise it as I didn't feel that impressed. We were both stuffed though and the portion sizes were generous.

The service was a bit stilted - we had to wait to be seated and although our order was taken quickly and our food arrived quickly, it was difficult to get attention from a server and it wasn't busy at the time we were there.

I think it's ok, worth trying if you like kebabs obviously, but I didn't feel the food or the experience was enough to make me say...

Myself , my boyfriend, my daughter and my Dad 'ate' here on Monday the 18th of December and it was easily one of the worse culinary experiences of my life. We ordered the festive meze platter to share as a starter , only to be informed they didn't have one of the products that was supposed to be on it. We accepted this and we were offered a larger portion of one of the other items on the platter , we asked for extra squid. When the platter arrived everything was bland and overcooked , and the 'extra' squid was 4 small inedible chewy rings. Then came the mains. My partner and I had been wanting to visit the restaurant for months after reading great reviews and seeing pictures of the food that looked incredible. Disappointment was all that followed. All four of our mains were very underwhelming and dry even with the extra sauces we had ordered. I wish this was the worst part of our visit but sadly it was not ! Mid way through our mains a MOUSE ran right through the middle of the dining room. We immediately stopped eating and I went to inform a member of staff and all I got was a huff. We were not the only ones who saw the mouse and the attitude towards paying customers was disgusting. I was told the mouse was in the restaurant because of ongoing building work above the venue had 'released them from the walls' all this signified to me is that this was not the first occasion a fury friend had been present. I was then told under no circumstances were there any vermin in the kitchen, if there are vermin in the seating area they will be everywhere. Absolutely horrendous we will never return, not only because of the severely overrated food but because of the utter disregard for the severity of...