Haji-Baba — Restaurant in Tempe

Ordered food for our office of 7 people on Friday 12/08/23 around 1:30pm said would be ready in 20 minutes. Got there and waited another 20 minutes in line and when I got to the counter he went over the order again and it was incorrect. Thank God I brought the paper with me and I gave the order again. Then he actually puts the order in. Waited another 30 minutes and the order was still incorrect. I think it was the older gentleman who owns the place with the glasses helped me this time and we went over all the food one by one but didn't open them up just went by what was written on each item. Some things were missing others things just wrong. After another 25 minutes doing that because the cook left the kitchen and had to wait until he returned. I go back to the office all our food was cold and only 3 orders were correct out of 7. Us other 4 had atleast 1 thing in our order that was wrong. Only one person was willing to go back and get what he ordered which was a Fallafel sandwich because he's vegan and they gave him a chicken kabob sandwich but the wrapper said Fallafel. I have never experienced such a terrible screw up with a order! I said to the guy with the glasses when he was helping me "its probably because you guys are really busy"...he said " no its because people aren't doing their job" end quote! That was our first time eating there...

Food was plentiful but severely lacking in quality and taste. So disappointing since the menu looked delicious. Dolmas and foul mudammas tasted like they came straight out of the can—yuck! Hummus tasted like commercially processed “fake” food, like Saba’s, made with blended oil instead of tahini, and lacked lemon, garlic, and salt. Tabouli tasted mostly like parsley, and lacked tomatoes, cucumber, lemon juice, mixed spices, . (I suspect they don’t follow the traditional way of marinating the bulgar wheat with the whites of the green onions, spices, and dressing ingredients before tossing into the parsley, remaining green onions, cucumbers, and tomatoes.) Honestly, if you’ve ever eaten good middle eastern food (or make it at home), this was not good at all! The only two redeeming factors here were (1) they served whole wheat pita if requested, and (2) the Kafta was seasoned nicely, although sadly, not the traditional mix of beef and lamb.

Atmosphere was authentic: many middle eastern grocery stores traditionally had a few tables where they served food, nothing fancy, but usually good. Service here was sparse, and although they were quick to seat us, disappeared after the food was delivered. Honestly, I cannot recommend this place, although I really wanted to…can’t understand why they have been rated so highly, unless they really...

You have to try this place out if you love Mediterranean food and if you are REALLY hungry. Yes come here really hungry because the portions are huge!

There is a small market that is attached to the small dining area. It's not too pretty but don't let that stop you from trying out their food!

We stopped by for dinner and it was starting to get busy when we arrived. There aren't too many tables but they were definitely doing their best to clean them as soon as people were done.

We were helped right away and menus were given to us. They have sandwiches and a ton of entrees to pick from. We decided to order one shish kabob, one gyro plate, and a chicken schwarma plate.

My chicken schwarma was delicious! It came with a ton of chicken, hummus, delicious basmati rice, and a piece of pita. My husband had the shish kabob plate and the also came with rice, grilled vegetables, and a side salad. He also had a small guava drink for $3.50 (no refill) but it was well worth it.

Each plate was priced about $10 each. We spent about $45 and were there about an hour. Portions are really big and so we still had food leftover.

I would definitely be back to try the chicken schwarma in the...