Aladdin Restaurant

by Deanna Y.

I would give this place a extra .5 star for being so pet friendly, but the actual food is a-ok.  I would like it a lot more if the prices were a bit cheaper and the service a little faster.  But for a pizza or kebab craving, this will do the trick.

by D S.

I LOVE Aladdin's! I've been coming here since I was a child and I've only had one meal that wasn't outstanding (there was a new cook who didn't get the proportions quite right on the hummus that night). The waitstaff and cooks are always very nice and accommodating. For example, when my father and I were waiting for takeout last time, they offered us complimentary bottles of water, which were quite refreshing on the hot summer's day.You MUST get the hummus and pita bread, it is the creamiest hummus I've ever tasted. Their recipe was published in the Union Tribune one time and we tried to recreate it, but to no avail. There must be some magic used to make the hummus that delicious and creamy. When you do takeout, make sure to ask for extra pita bread if you're sharing a full order of hummus with the family.The pizzas are good; I loved the Rajah's Cheese Pizza as a kid and my parents have always been satisfied with their Mediterranean style pizzas.The lentil soup is quite good as well and the chicken kabobs are nicely seasoned and well cooked.Overall, Aladdin's is a great place to eat and is perfect for a quick takeout dinner. They are a bit pricey, but the food is great and the portions are a fair size for the money.

by benedetti g.

agree with scott l. all the ambiance of a mall, without the delicious food you want in an authentic hole in the wall.

by Jill W.

Aladdin is goodSwell mediterraneanGet humus for sureOk, there's a haiku dedicated to Aladdin! Seriously though, I had a chopped chicken salad with pistachios, olives, feta, and lots of other little healthy knick-knacks thrown in. It was awesome! And a huge serving. The humus is very good and tastes authentic to the middle east. There's much more to sample. Here's another haiku about that:Gnaw a beef kebabMaybe eat a pizza tooSave room for dessert

by Jessica C.

My coworkers were raving that this place serves the best hummus in San Diego.  True, their hummus is pretty good, but their chopped chicken salad deserves even more kudos.  The sun-dried tomatoes lent a nice sweet tang, the pistachios a satisfying crunch, and the dressing and feta on it were made for each other.  And did I mention it was huge?  I split it with a coworker and still had leftovers.  Overall, the place was charming (they sell decorative boxes in one corner of the restaurant) and the service timely and friendly.

by Robert P.

The salads and rice plates are quite good, but everything costs more than it should, so I can't get as excited as I otherwise would.  Wow, I must be tired to write an awful rhyme like that.  Anyway... hummus, rice plates, salads good; pizzas, not so much.  I like the passion fruit shrimp salad, despite the fact that it contains no passion fruit.The service is undistinguished.  The strip mall atmosphere and fast-foody look to the restaurant don't match up with the high food prices.If you just want a falafel or some gyros, you can go to Dino's down the road for much cheaper, but if the prices don't bother you, you can certainly do a lot worse than Aladdin.

by Kim E.Lysabeth L.Darren S.Deanna Y.Lucy B.

I love Aladdin because I regularly show up there with a large group of women (15-20) on Friday nights, most of the time without a reservation. They not only accommodate us, but they actually seem happy to have us there! That's a really hard thing to find - most places treat you like pariahs when you do that sort of thing.So for starters, the service is remarkably and consistently great.The manager (owner?) and servers are super friendly and efficient.  Second, the food is delicious - I've had salads, wraps, and pizzas and everything is always yum. Finally, the prices are reasonable. Depending on what you order, you can get away with ~$10 per person.We had dinner at Aladdin Café last Friday night. There was no wait, we were seated right away. The menu has lost of choices! For appetizer, we had the hommos! It was fresh and very good! The waitress kept bringing out warm pita bread to go with the hommos. Very good! We had to catch our waitress to ASK for place settings. We were in a group of five people and out food came out at all different times, at times about 10 minutes in between!I had the chicken kabob entrée. It was very good but overpriced for $19. My husband had ordered the Koufta Kabob but was brought the chicken kabob. He ate it even with the mistake because his food came out last =(One of our friends had "Abu's Pepperoni Pizza" which he said was "good" and our other friend had the chicken byrani which she said was "very good"!At the end of our meal, we split our check. We specifically told the waitress to use the $20 cash, the, $20 on one credit card, and the rest on the other credit card. When the receipts came back, the $20 cash was not applied to our bill. Again, we had to flag down the waitress to get the bill fixed.The food was good enough that we might visit again!It may seem like I am not very adventurous, but I always have the same lineup of food when eating at Aladdin: Diet Coke w/ free refills, falafel w/ Tzatziki sauce, pita, hummus, and the chicken shawerma.  I'm always getting these items because in a word, they are dependable.  My lineup may be a bit large for some individuals, but there's a good reason for ordering so much food.  The service here is extremely slow.  It's usually the manager (owner maybe?) and another waitress.  If you're with a group, you'll probably get hungry waiting for your shawerma.Perhaps one day, I'll hop on the phone and call someone up from the bullpen for relief in the ninth, but for now, I'm sticking with my starting pitchers.  Too bad the umpires here always stop the game for a rain delay.I would give this place a extra .5 star for being so pet friendly, but the actual food is a-ok.  I would like it a lot more if the prices were a bit cheaper and the service a little faster.  But for a pizza or kebab craving, this will do the trick.Ate here with a couple of friends on a friday night. Food was great! Yummy warm pitas and chicken kabob. The place is a low key place to eat - so easy to stop buy. Will definitely eat here again.

by Lysabeth L.

We had dinner at Aladdin Café last Friday night. There was no wait, we were seated right away. The menu has lost of choices! For appetizer, we had the hommos! It was fresh and very good! The waitress kept bringing out warm pita bread to go with the hommos. Very good! We had to catch our waitress to ASK for place settings. We were in a group of five people and out food came out at all different times, at times about 10 minutes in between!I had the chicken kabob entrée. It was very good but overpriced for $19. My husband had ordered the Koufta Kabob but was brought the chicken kabob. He ate it even with the mistake because his food came out last =(One of our friends had "Abu's Pepperoni Pizza" which he said was "good" and our other friend had the chicken byrani which she said was "very good"!At the end of our meal, we split our check. We specifically told the waitress to use the $20 cash, the, $20 on one credit card, and the rest on the other credit card. When the receipts came back, the $20 cash was not applied to our bill. Again, we had to flag down the waitress to get the bill fixed.The food was good enough that we might visit again!

by Anthony S.

Aladdin has some pretty damn good Mediterranean food.  Their hummus is some of the best I've had in a long time and the pita bread they serve with it is the softest, most delectable pita I have ever had.  But when it came down to writing a review, I realized that I just didn't have much else to say about the place...Do you ever have a hard time writing a review?  Do you think your reviews are boring?  Do you have nothing good to say about a restaurant?  Well, you're in luck!  I've created a handy little YelpLibs review generator for those days when you just can't write another review.  Feel free to use it in your reviews too!Choose a word for each number below: (1) adjective                                (2) type of building(3) name of restaurant(4) adjective(5) adjective(6) color(7) adjective(8) adjective(9) restaurant employee, plural(10)  adjective(11)  adjective(12)  period of time(13)  person's name(14)  exclamation(15)  food, plural(16)  food, singular(17)  food, plural(18)  food, plural(19)  food plural(20)  container(21)  food, singular(22)  adverb(23)  period of time(24)  verb, past tense(25)  small container(26)  adjective Next, plug those words into the review below, cut and paste the results into your own review and you're good to go!"Last night I visited the most (1) restaurant I have ever been to. It was located right in the middle of a (2) just outside of town. The name of the place, "(3)," was lit up with (4), (5) (6) lights. The seats were (7) and (8) and the (9) were less than (10), but the atmosphere was (11) nonetheless. A (12) or so passed, and then a waitress came up to me and said, "Hi, may name is (13), and I'll be your server. Can I take your order?" "(14)!" I said. "It's about time! I've been sitting here for a (12) ! I'd like a bowl of (15), the (16) and (17) dinner plate with extra (18), hold the (19), and give me a (20) of (21)."My food came (22) -- it took about a (23), by my watch. I must say, I (24) the meal, especially the (18), though I spilled some (21) on my shirt. I had the leftovers put in a (25) so I could take it home. I'm totally going back tomorrow, it was (26)."

by scott L.

It seems like the fancier a Middle Eastern restaurant is the lousier the food is and the worse the experience is..with that said:I'll start with the positives since i'm a positive kinda guy. The food WAS good. Was it great? Nah. They DID have some cool artifacts for sale in the back of the restaurant. I'll even call the service friendly.The negatives:Was I in a Middle Eastern restaurant or an ice cream parlor? I didn't feel at home. I could barely hear myself think inside the place. Was I in Iraq or in a shopping. Of course the latter is obvious, but try and make it feel a bit like the Middle East. I'm sticking with Ali Baba.