Babylon Qithara has two Calgary locations: a kiosk in Eau Claire Market and a small restaurant in a mini-mall on the corner of Sunridge Boulevard, across from Sunridge Mall. Popping into the latter for evening takeout, I’m ignored by a harried, gruff server, but the chef gets to me with a smile as soon as his hands are free. The Mediterranean restaurant offers both counter service and sit-down meals. All the food is prepared by both the servers and the chef in full view behind a glass counter.
The service is unpolished but the food is competent. While I wait for my meal to cook, the server and chef push out a dozen other meals. Looking up from a takeout menu of shawarma, donair and falafel sandwiches plus Mediterranean entrées and fish dishes, I admire the ornamental waterfall that tops the stone entryway and is sandwiched awkwardly close to the ceiling. My food is ready. I’m given an extra vine leaf and free pita bread for my uncomfortable pre-order wait.
Back at the house, I break out the food. The mix kabob platter ($19.99), in its Styrofoam container, includes skewered grilled chicken, beef and a long chunk of ground lamb. Also contained in the platter is a lemony salad of chopped lettuce, tomato, cucumber, as well as a helping of rice and potatoes.
I had ordered a full Babylon salad ($7.49) to accompany the platter (which makes for a lot of salad), but when I open its box, the thing is clearly a fattoush salad ($7.49). The toasted pita chips are the tipoff.
It’s a good-looking meal. The lamb kabob is darkly grilled and dusted with what looks like coarse paprika. The meat is flavourful, but also a bit dry. However, eaten with the accompanying bed of moist yellow rice and three sauces (hummus, tatziki and white, Caesar-like mystery dip), this is a non-issue. The tatziki, with its yogurt and shredded cucumber, is creamy and cool, the hummus and white sauce are just as creamy but much more savoury and rich, with a heavy garlic load. The potatoes are deeply delicious, soft and lightly browned. The salad included with the platter is generous and tangy.
The beef kabob, skewered with onion chunks, is a bit overcooked, but likewise is transformed by the sauces and salad. The chicken, also skewered with onion, is my favourite and the moistest of the three meats.
The fattoush salad tastes similar to the salad included with the platter, which is fine by me. The crisp pita chips have stayed that way in transit. They’re mixed with chopped green olives, whole dark olives, chopped onion, peppers, tomato, cucumber, feta cheese and lemony olive oil dressing. It’s wholesome and delicious.
My small order of vine leaves ($4.49) is hopelessly stale — inedible. The pistachio baklava ($1.49), however, is thick with crisp pastry layers, sweet and powdered with crushed nuts. This was a good meal, if a little rough around the edges.
The next day, wanting a more complete sampling of Babylon fare, I stop into the Eau Claire kiosk for a shawarma sandwich. My choice is the regular mix shawarma ($7.49). Like its northeast location, this counter is doing brisk business, with customers sitting down to eat their sandwiches in the central area just south of the food court.
The mix is half-chicken, half-beef and is wrapped in pita bread with banana peppers, tomato, parsley, sliced dill pickles and a discreet amount of pickled red cabbage. Of the optional sauces — tahini and, I think the man said “salsa” — I go for the tahini.
I detect a pattern: dry meat, yummy sauces. The beef and chicken meld together into one middle-ground meat taste. The other ingredients are standard shawarma. It’s a decent sandwich, but the formula needs tinkering. Unlike the vine leaves, my side tabouleh salad ($4.99), made with parsley and lemon, is fresh and delicious.
Like its service, Babylon Qithara’s food is uneven. However, it’s generally OK. Some of it is satisfying, even delicious, once you manage to place your order.
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