Ali Baba Grill — Restaurant in Golden

YUCK!!! If I could give the food, cleanliness and customer service a negative 1 million stars I would.

When I walked in the girl taking orders was eating behind the computer. She charged me for my extremely overpriced pick up order and then went and packaged my food without washing her hands.

When I got to my car I opened my hummus shawarma and was very disappointed to see it wasn't shawarma at all. The menu said thinly sliced chicken and the pictures on the menu reflected the same. They served me large cubed meat with an interesting glaze on it. When I brought it back in to talk to the girl eating at the counter, she said "let me get the owner to deal with this." He quickly came out and I showed him the photo and description on his menu and said "this is not shawarma." He replied "I know, but this is what my customers like" we discussed back and forth.

While I was waiting for my refund I watched the cook serve fries on a plate, dip them in sauce and eat them while he was cooking other peoples food. Within the same 20 seconds of eating his french fry, while wearing his cooking gloves he grabbed pita off the grill to plate for someone dinning in. Yuck!! He is eating while cooking?!

I brought this to the owners attention and he started speaking a in a different language to his chef. I then went to tell him how gross it is that his staff is eating while serving food. The counter girl responded "so what I can't eat lunch?" I said "Yes, you can eat lunch! Away from the food you are serving to customers!!!! That is so disgusting!!" I told the owner that "I'd be calling the health board." He got very upset. And said "get out, we don't want you as a customer anyways"

Upon walking to my car the owner, cook and counter girl followed me to the parking lot yelling "fu** you!" and other nasty things while throwing their hands in the air. I am appalled by the food quality, service and cleanliness. I will be contacting the health board today to report this establishment. If you enjoy authentic Mediterranean food, DO NOT GO...

Back again for our yearly trek to Denver. Ali Baba still as good as last year. Adding some photos this time.

Adding an update and this is a little late in doing so. Back to Colorado again and to Ali Baba's in June. Brought friends of ours this time as they enjoy a variety off diiferent foods. My wife and I had the Lebanese meat combo again. I just love this option. Everything was the same as a year ago. I wish we had an Ali Baba's in Montana. Our friends had Vegetarian Lovers and the Meat Lovers. They were overwhelmed by how much food was received. That did not stop them from sharing there food between them and us. Our friend could not stop talking about the baba ghanouj (those that do not know what this is, it is mashed, cooked eggplant that is mixed with tahina, olive oil, and various seasonings) included with her dish as she has not had it for years and she said it was some of the best she has had. Lastly the hummus is still to die for. Recently had some hummus at a place in California and was not fresh like Ali Baba's. Seems like we always compare hummus at other places to how Ali Baba's makes theirs. Overall give Ali Baba's a try. We will be back as soon as we can!!!

The below was from a year ago as I have not figured out how to add an additional posting.

Had the traditional Lebanese meat combo (two person) meal with my wife. It was awesome!!!!!! It has been too long since I have had Lebanese cuisine. The salad that comes with it was fresh. Nice big slices of tomato and cucumber. Great hummus and bread. Could not ask for a better meal. We will be back next...

• Review Oct 8th 2023 update * In reply to business owner's comment: Do you call your new, pencil-sized and bland-tasting shawarma a "traditional style shawarma"? You gotta be kidding me.

On the positive side, your (beef) Kobideh is still good. And it its fairness, I wasn't aware that we can still ask for the previous/original-style shawarma. But in our defense, (1) Nobody told us to expect it to have changed, (2) Nor that we have the option to go for the previous style. If the previous style is also respecting the portion/quantity that is supposed to have, then it's all good.

Thank you, and sorry if my review sounded harsh, but put yourself please in my family's shoes - our sons said "hmmm, where is our beloved shawarma? What is this joke?".

• Original review below * The Alibaba Golden location is going DOWNHILL, plain and simple.

Alibaba owner, what the heck happened to your shawarmas !? They are now PENCIL-like in thickness, and looking more like a crepe or pancake. No tomatoes, no lettuce, nothing.

This was the LAST time we went to your location (Sept 30 2023). We'll never buy from you again. Piece of shaite shawarma, and piece of shaite Alibaba.

I hope your greed is satisfying you. This felt like being ripped off. Not the shawarmas that I knew from until 6-12 months ago (2022).

I hope this business will declare bankruptcy very soon - that's how bad...