Monday, April 14, 2008

Cafe Sahara

Eating at Pizza Hut, Olive Garden, Chili's, and the like can make going out to dinner a monotonous experience. Here is our first documented excursion in what we hope is a series of "Mom and Pop", or at least non-chain, restaurants.


Cafe Sahara
3641 East Baseline Rd
Gilbert, AZ 85234


Cuisine:
Mediterranean & Indian

Atmosphere: Pleasantly dark with Hindi Music in background


Customers Present Upon Arriving: Zero (2 came in while we were there)




Drinks:
Nice bendy straws. Table setting lacked spoons wherewith to stir sugar in iced tea - the knife worked well though

Salad:
Arrived 3 minutes after placing order. Delicious dressing on the side


Main Course:
Arrived 13 minutes after placing order. Came with toasted pita bread

Jenni ordered Vegetarian Combination (labeled a Mediterranean dish)
The dish included Falafel, stuffed grape leaves, baba ghannouj, hummus & tabouli

This was the best tabouli I ever tasted. The falafel was very nicely spiced. The hummus was good, and the grape leaves were alright, but I don't know that I would have enjoyed any other grape leaves more.

Peter ordered Chicken in Peanut Sauce (labeled an Indian dish)

This dish came with rice.

The Chicken was a little greasy but thoroughly enjoyed by Peter who said he'd order it again. The rice was tender and all around good

Service:
The waitress was nice and very attentive

Cost:
$9.95 each for our meals plus a $2.25 drink brought us to $23.88

Nutrition Thoughts:
The salad greens were suspiciously iceberg-ish but had the bonus of extra veggies. The dressing seemed homemade and was not very heavy (possible tzatiki). The vegetarian* combo was nice with beans, olive oil, fresh (tasting) herbs, and veggies (in the tabouli) although I do believe the falafel was deep fried. The chicken dish, well, it sure had a lot of protein. The pita bread was unmistakenly made of refined flour but, was very good. All the food we ate seemed to be made at the restaurant (not shipped in bags to be reheated... with the exception (guessing) of the pita bread). Everything seemed very fresh. *No, Neither Peter nor Jenni Jacks are vegetarians



3 comments:

Rachel said...

yumm... that looks good. I love how many details you included...!! Next time we're in the mood for that kind of food, I know where to go!

Anonymous said...

um, hate to break it to you, but Christy and I (and a group from church) had a rather bad experience at that restaurant...I'll never go there again...and probably should have but didn't contact the health department...yeah...

thejacksgraze said...

yikes. I'd like to hear about that story... sorry for the "recommendation"!