Friends Kabob, Vienna

[Ravana]

Friends Kabob (right before the intersection of Gallows & 123, next to Word Market/Linen's and Things)

Their Chickpea soup is great.

[revsmile]

I second the friends kabob rec-- everything I have ever had there has been great. don't go expecting any atmosphere though.

[Ravana]

I second the friends kabob rec-- everything I have ever had there has been great. don't go expecting any atmosphere though.

That's true.

Although there is some soccer from the middle east playing on the tv sometimes

[Biotech]

Friends is 2 minutes from my house and is my first choice on days I'm working from home or hanging out with my toddler. The lamb kabob was good as is the above mentioned soup. One warning though, the ground meat used for the kofta kabob is not always the freshest. I had a pretty nasty one there last trip, but I'm mostly picking up lamb kabobs anyways.

I have no frame of reference for this joint as this is the first time I've seen anyone discuss it.

Are we sure they are halal? not that it matters to me from a religious view, but I do like searching out halal or kosher meats for better and fresher quality than the big stores. I remember their halal status being in question by the local arab community in Vienna (believe it or not, with a name like Topoleski, I am partly lebanese).

[DonRocks]

Are we sure they are halal?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I'm not sure, but I did find this on the web.

For whatever it's worth, I've only been once - sometime last summer - and a carryout Friends Combo 1 (kubideh and chicken kabobs) didn't leave me with that much of an impression one way or the other. The typos on their carryout menu are breathtaking.

Cheers,

Rocks.

[Ravana]

I'm not sure, but I did find this on the web.

For whatever it's worth, I've only been once - sometime last summer - and a carryout Friends Combo 1 (kubideh and chicken kabobs) didn't leave me with that much of an impression one way or the other.  The typos on their carryout menu are breathtaking.

Cheers,

Rocks.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Zabihah.com seems to be a pretty reliable site for halal restaurants from what I have heard.

Those typos are awesome fun btw

[Pete]

I tried Friends Kabob for the first time today and was not disappointed. I ordered the Spicy Thigh Kabob which were nice and charred on the outside, but tender and juicy inside. Not too much heat to them, just enough to provide a nice flavor. The kabobs came with Kabuli Rice, which contains raisins and carrots (their menu says that Kabuli Rice is only served on Friday and Saturday). The kabobs were also served with the standard salad as well as a chickpea and potato combination. The tanduri bread was very good, although not as good as the bread at Flame Kabob in Fairfax.

Total damage was $7 for plenty of food. Since it is not too far from both home and work, I'm sure that I will be making many return trips.

FYI, their menu does not mention that they are halal, so I would assume that they are not.

[DonRocks]

Not many restaurants have changed more for me in between visits than Friends Kabob. When I was last there, it was a tiny, start-up operation, seemingly struggling to survive; It's now primarily a patio, and at 9 PM on a Sunday evening, there were 30-40 young people outside, smoking hookahs.

Friends is open until midnight every night except Friday and Saturday, when it closes at an eye-popping 3 AM. No alcohol is served.

Having an uneasy feeling about the quality of the food here, I hedged my bets by ordering from the Side Orders section, and I'm glad I did, because I escaped with minimal financial damage. It's possible to find worse kabobs than at Friends; I'm just not sure where. A poorly heated, poorly tended grill was supervised by two girls who didn't want to be there, and produced three kabobs that tasted of bitter powder and not much else. Surprisingly, the skewer of Lamb ($6.50) was arguably the worst of all, with no taste, and the texture of a sun-baked Jimmy Chu. The peppery Kubideh ($3) was better, but mainly because it was coarser and fattier; the best of the three - but only in theory - was the Spicy Thigh ($5.25) of chicken, with its harsh, acerbic, powdery sprinkle which was deeply absorbed into the meat. Whoever packaged this gruesome trilogy at least had the decency to throw in a tomato wedge. By contrast, the Tandoori Bread ($1.50) was a decent version - flavorless, but freshly baked, and in desperate need of something to wrap itself around other than bad kabobs.

Needless to say, there has been an ownership change here.

Cheers,

Rocks.