Sunday, October 24, 2010

Denver Eats - Shish Kabob Grill

Well what do we have here?! I had 3 drafted posts that I have not completed from way back in March when I was finishing up my Denver Eats posts. It is now almost the end of October. Yes my friends, it has been that long. I have since then changed my life course, but one thing remains the same. I love food and eating and since I now have down time to finish things up, I shall be trying my best to be consistently updating this blog. Hopefully it works out or I will be on another hiatus, which no one would be surprised about.  Well then, let the posting begin!

Day 2, dinner at the Shish Kabob Grill.

Picture of the building taken online

1503 Grant St. (at Colfax Ave.)
Denver, CO 80203
Phone: 303-837-8800
Fax: 303-837-8805

So, after going to the Denver Aquarium and walking around, we went to grab dinner and we decided on Greek/Mediterranean and stopped here.

Interior of the restaurant and the restrooms,
which I became quite acquainted with.

Alright, I know it has been a while since I have actually eaten here, but I do remember what was in it and if I liked it or not, so here goes.

Mixed green salad with dressing

The Look: Mixed greens (like the mixed greens you can buy at Costco)
The Taste: For me, usually what makes or breaks a salad is the dressing and sadly I have to say that the dressing broke this salad and I did not like it. Why? Maybe because the dressing was VERY vinegary. I love vinegar on my dumplings and vinaigrette dressings on my salads, but my goodness... it was more vinegar than dressing and that is just something that I am not that used to. It was like malt vinegar and salt for fries (which I do enjoy once in a while), only on a bed of greens. Like the Charlie Brown's salad, it was not my favorite.


Hummus

Pita

The Look:  A little mashed up blobby mound on a plate drizzled with olive oil and topped with a bit of tomato and parsley to garnish served with a small basket of warmed flat bread. 
The Taste:  I have yet to have really bad hummus or pita.  I don't think you can every go wrong with this...unless they add a lot of tahini in it, in which case it wouldn't be too tasty because it would be a bit bitter.  For those that do not know what tahini is, it is just a sesame paste (yes like the sesame paste used in Asian cooking).  It is quite delicious, but I think a little goes a long way with this stuff.  I think any type of carbohydrate with spread is delicious. 

Falafel and Hummus Plate

The Look: Little fried crispy balls with salad and hummus.  Presentation wise, it could have been plated a little better because that hummus was smeared like a little well, and it looked like there was a lot, but the bottom was a very thin layer; a little deceptive. 
The Taste:  If you have not had a falafel, it is a crispy and delicious fried mashed chickpea ball with seasonings.  I find that some places have super dry falafels, but this one was pretty moist.  Good with the hummus and pita and salad.  It was like a little wrap.  I still like the ones from Falafel Drive In more, (I have yet to blog about that probably after all these Denver posts), but these ones were better than some other ones I have had.

Chicken and Rice Plate

The Look:  Chicken over rice served with some yogurt sauce.
The Taste: Like chopped up chicken kabobs over long grained rice.  We ordered this because I wanted falafels and rice and I think my friend wanted the hummus and was willing to eat the chicken.  I will admit, I love grilled meat with a bit of the char on it.  It is deliciously carcinogenic and this chicken had that nice seasoned charred meat taste.  I also really like long grained rice (I eat a lot of short grain sushi rice usually, so when I get this rice, it is like a treat).  Honestly, I think chicken and rice at almost any restaurant is usually a pretty safe thing to order.

And to the last thing that was ordered:

Chicken Kabob Wrap my friends ordered

The Look: Middle Eastern burrito.
The Taste:  The same chopped up chicken kabobs that were on the rice, but wrapped in a pita.  This was like the chicken and rice dish, but like a to go version of it.  I really like these food on the go types of things and my friends seemed to like it a lot, so I am thinking it was as good as the rice dish.

I know my thoughts on the food from this restaurant are vague and not too detailed, but really the memory I have of this place is NOT the food.  It is the restroom.  You see, in Denver, I had a hard time with the altitude and I had more bloody noses there than I have had in my entire lifetime.  So, after dinner, I believed I was having a case of the sniffles.  NOPE.  It ended up being a bloody nose and I rushed off to the restroom (I honestly dislike public restrooms, but I swear I visited EVERY PUBLIC RESTROOM on this trip), which was very clean inside. 

I was in there for about 10 minutes before my friends decided to check up on me because they thought I might have passed out in there.  I, sadly was very much alive and had to listen to my friend talking to the staff about my incident.  Some more time passed, I was still in there, got check on again another time or two.  Not the best of nights for me. 

Needless to say, I was terribly embarrassed, but it eventually stopped and I shamefully opened the door trying not to be noticed.  Everyone that worked there was SUPER nice though, and they asked how I was doing and were really REALLY friendly.  I liked their friendly customer service which made a bigger impression on me than maybe the food, but I was still very embarrassed.  What a great memory right?  Good food AND nice service, who could ask for more?