Jump to content

Sinbad Mediterranean Food & Bakery - Owner Abu Abbas' Iraqi and Middle Eastern on Duke Street in Old Town - Closed


Recommended Posts

This place opened up on Duke St where Maggio used to be, by the bike shop.

The menu looked so interested - typical kebabs, hummus, dolma and the like. But, there were many other things I've never heard of - stews, fried fish dishes, lamb shank, etc.

It had the feel of Amoo's - families, native languages heard, family owned and operated, but it's Iraqi not Iranian. From the few yelp reviews, this is the only Iraqi place in the area and the Iraqi community is very excited and impressed with the cooking.

The place was packed, almost all middle eastern crowd. We tried to place a carryout order and they just couldn't get to us - after over ten minutes, we still couldn't place an order so ended up leaving. I know they were super busy, but we were starving and had some little kids involved and it wasn't going to work out.

The food I saw looked impressive, they have Iraqi breakfast at 9a and it looks like a real solid operation. I'll try again to eat there soon, but when someone else goes, please report!

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

It had the feel of Amoo's - families, native languages heard, family owned and operated, but it's Iraqi not Iranian. From the few yelp reviews, this is the only Iraqi place in the area and the Iraqi community is very excited and impressed with the cooking.

I'm racking my brains trying to come up with another Iraqi restaurant in the area, and Sinbad is the only one I can think of. They serve samoon with meals which I don't think anyone else does (I suspect it's packaged, but you can always pretend).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This place opened up on Duke St where Maggio used to be, by the bike shop.

The menu looked so interested - typical kebabs, hummus, dolma and the like. But, there were many other things I've never heard of - stews, fried fish dishes, lamb shank, etc.

It had the feel of Amoo's - families, native languages heard, family owned and operated, but it's Iraqi not Iranian. From the few yelp reviews, this is the only Iraqi place in the area and the Iraqi community is very excited and impressed with the cooking.

The place was packed, almost all middle eastern crowd. We tried to place a carryout order and they just couldn't get to us - after over ten minutes, we still couldn't place an order so ended up leaving. I know they were super busy, but we were starving and had some little kids involved and it wasn't going to work out.

The food I saw looked impressive, they have Iraqi breakfast at 9a and it looks like a real solid operation. I'll try again to eat there soon, but when someone else goes, please report!

It's on my list....down the road a bit from Med. Bakery, so it will be a two-stop trip for me.

Has anyone had a meal here? This is fascinating and I wasn't aware of it. Will definitely put it on our list but would love a review or two.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

My wife and got carry out a year or so ago and although I don't remember much in the way of details, I know we liked it. We were on the way home from somewhere and just stopped in and ordered carry out and waited. I remember the staff was super friendly and *I think* they brought us some tea or some little bite to eat while we waited.

It's a little bit out of the way for where we usually travel during the week or we'd probably hit it more. In fact, this thread is a good reminder to do that!

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Have tried it twice and liked it very much. Haven't tried it enough to give a thorough review, but I look forward to going back.  Uniqueness of this cuisine in this area alone gets it some points. I have only done takeout and lunch, so can't comment much on the service.   For lunch, service was family run business relaxed (which means don't get upset if you have to remind the server about the diet coke you ordered.)

My short take on the food: the rice, kebab, shawarma stuff was good enough, but that's not what I am going to order when I go back.  The nicely cooked lamb shank served over their homemade Iraqi bread that is soaked in a delicious tomato sauce like a torta ahogado, that's the stuff I am zeroing in on.  My wife also swore by a stewed eggplant dish in the same tomato sauce. Thus, my current ordering advice is this: think bread, sauced and stewed.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Went to Sinbad last night and overall liked it a lot, although not everything was great. Service was nice, if a bit language limited, and slow to get the first batch of food (which consisted mostly of not cooked to order appetizers like hummus and baba ganoush). I've heard good things about Iraqi kubbe, and in general I really like it, so we ordered the cheaper one (jerich, not Mosul), fried, and the flavor was good, but a bit tough.

Iraqi kabab was good, ground meat, cut with sometimes soft (bread? Reminded me a bit of English sausage in texture), on good rice. Msakhan was a smallish piece of chicken with great spicing on a very thin flat bread and amazing soft cooked onions. Lamb shank on rice totally didn't do much for me, but I'm not a big fan of lamb shank to begin with. The dish described as kubideh (?) in a tray was good, if not exactly what I was expecting. Basically baked ground lamb with a good tomatoey sauce, loose (not like meatloaf).

Kanafe for dessert was ok, but cheese was a bit saltier than I expected. I suspect I was thinking about kataif when it was being ordered.

On the whole, we liked it a lot, and will probably be back. Have to try a few more things like the makluba, maybe masgouf, and the lamb shwarma (which we had on hummus).

And the bread was great. Can't believe I forgot that. Fluffier than most pita you get around here, which is my preferred style. There's also the thinner bread which came under the msakhan (more like lafah, but even thinner than the lafah I've had), but I didn't notice that on the menu by itself anywhere.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Driving by this morning, I noticed new signage on this building.  Apparently, it's going to be Smoking Kow BBQ.  Interesting that they would pick this location for a BBQ joint with Rocklands half a block away.  Nothing I could see from the road about when it will open.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...