AKKAD Mediterranean & Iraqi Grill — Restaurant in Glendale

IRAQ 🇮🇶 Excerpt from Eat the World Los Angeles: With its subdued small sign on the front of a building perpendicular to E. Colorado Street, it would be easy to never notice the tiny advertisement of an "Iraqi Grill" in Glendale, especially as it follows the mundane but ubiquitous "Mediterranean" adjective that restaurants from the Balkans to deep into the Middle East add to their description. This is of course an effort to attract a wider crowd with a word that may be less intimidating, but it hides the uniqueness of what is on offer.

With its clean design and pleasant Arabic music playing, Akkad is a nice break from a hot Glendale day at any time, but it may shine brightest during breakfast. At 10am when the doors open, you can find otherwise rare items on a special breakfast menu section which is actually available all day long. Amongst these is makhlama ($8.99), a flat omelet of sorts that is cooked with ground beef, tomatoes, onions, parsley, and a very subtle spicing.

Despite answering "Mild or spicy?" with the latter, makhlama remains a mild dish. Squeeze in as much of the lemon juice as you can, and maybe add a dash of the sumac or black pepper that is on every table. A bottle of Yucateco is there as well, for this is Los Angeles after all. The dish is served with a gigantic piece of just-baked khubz, and meant to be eaten together. This flatbread is quickly cooked, remaining soft and fluffy on the thicker outsides and very crispy in the...

I know many restaurants that serve Persian and Armenian cuisine, but Iraqi, very difficult to find. Until I stumbled upon Akkad in Glendale, which serves authentic Iraqi food. This was my first time having Iraqi food, so definitely a new experience for me. But my experience here was quite nice. I was able to try the famous Masgouf, the national fish dish of Iraqi. Along with the kibbeh labaneah, which is a beef bulgur balls with yogurt soup, and the kibbeh mosul, which is the bulgur crust with minced meat. All of it was really good. It's some of the most unique Middle Eastern food you can taste in LA. There were so many more items on the menu that I wanted to try, but I guess there's always a next time. I recommend going on the weekends, where you will be able to try the weekend specials that offer even more iraqi dish choices, such as their nuzi and biryani rice.

Overall, I would say check this restaurant out. The food is delicious, authentic, and the owner is super chill. The parking is also pretty good here, and the food is reasonably priced. All of the cooks here come from Iraqi, so you are getting the real deal here. It's the closest you can get to the cooking of that country.

I shot a YouTube video of my experience here at Akkad, which you can find on my channel called...

MONOSODIUM GLUTAMATE (MSG), ANYONE???

I dined at this establishment today and witnessed boxes of MSG, under pretty name of "Accent Flavor Enhancer" delivered to their kitchen. See picture of item I saw delivered.

So this review is NOT about food or service (although my mouth & throat were burning afterwards followed by a heartburn, after the dose of MSG consumed). This review is about the FACT that this restaurant uses Monosodium Glutamate (MSG) to enhance flavor of their food. WHY? Is the food so bad? Is it why people leave nice reviews because the true taste and/or freshness of food is clouded by the load of MSG applied???

Monosodium Glutamate (MSG) is used to enhance flavor of processed, blunt or tasteless foods. It also leaves a nasty aftertaste of burning sensation in the mouth, simalar to when you ate too much regular salt.

ALERT: Monosodium Glutamate is an excitotoxin which over-stimulates your brain sells responsible for interpretation of flavor in your brain and basically hijacks it. MSG is also connected to obesity and dysfunctional digestive tract, among others.

OWNER: by using this chemical you are cheating your customers and putting their health at risk. Promise to remove Monosodium Glutamate (MSG) from your kitchen and I will remove...