Dining In: Saffron Kabab’s skewers and flatbreads had been a cut above

Saffron Kabab
2949 Carling Ave. and 1729 Bank St., Unit 105, saffronkabab.ca
Birth:  Monday to Saturday, 11: 30 a.m. to 9 p.m., Sunday 11: 30 a.m. to eight p.m.
Costs: kebab dinners for one $16.99 to $30.99

Closing week, after we all of the sudden had a number of extra mouths to feed, I picked up my cell phone and addressed the project with three straightforward words: “Saffron Mix 10.”

Now not up to an hour later, attributable to the sigh I positioned with the no longer too long ago opened Saffron Kabab on Carling Avenue west of Pinecrest Avenue, we had been digging in to a runt but meaty feast ($91.99 for the “Saffron Mix 10”).

One large tray held 10 kebabs as promised (four ground pork kebabs, three chicken breast kebabs and three “filet mignon” kebabs), plus some supplementary cubes of meat in lieu of some chicken drumsticks that had been supposed to had been share of the meal. One other tray held ample fluffy long-grain rice to closing for days. Smaller containers held lentil soup that we conception could presumably possess conventional a piece of extra punch, a fresh salad, hummus, garlic sauce and tomatoes cooked till their skins had been deeply charred.

For our casual, impromptu al fresco dinner, Saffron Kabab’s halal-butchered kebabs did the trick, even supposing if we needed to atrocious them, we would possess given the saffron-tinged chicken chunks high marks, followed by the pork chunks after which the extra dry ground pork kebabs. All had been smartly-seasoned and all upheld the high traditional maintained by the half-dozen or so slightly identical Iranian full of life locations from Orléans to Kanata I’ve tried since 2015.

A serving of rice that comes with the Saffron Mix 10.

Truly, Saffron Kabab has two locations. Its first, opened a number of years ago, is on the stretch of Bank Avenue south of Heron Avenue that’s dotted with a lot of Heart Japanese food companies. The Carling Avenue gallop-off opened this spring, involving in where a Shawarma Palace had been.

We made a second sigh this week from Saffron Kabab, in share because we needed to possess extra chicken kababs ($46.99 for six skewers), but moreover because we wished to strive some different items on the menu.

We encountered a number of frustrations with food being unavailable. We had been suggested that to sigh the ash reshteh, a Persian soup thick with beans and herbs that’s like a cousin of minestrone, we would must call the Bank Avenue declare. There had been moreover no darkish-meat chicken kebabs on hand.

Tranquil, what we did salvage made us feel smartly-supplied for.

Lamb chops ($21.99 for four), whereas dry and overcooked, had been nonetheless soft and in fact tasty.

We moreover tried two of what Saffron Kabab calls “pita pies.” I knew these pies as Turkish pide flatbreads from the pleasant examples made at Pita Bell Kabab, somewhat further east on Carling Avenue. Saffron Kabab’s flatbreads had been richly flaky but gentle and un-oily, belying the comparison normally made between pide and pizza. We sampled flatbreads topped with sausage and cheese and with morsels of saffron-tinged chicken. Both had been perfect-wanting.

We moreover had some of Saffron Kabab’s truffles. A chunk molten brilliantly yellow ice cream ($5.49) tempered its sweetness with rose water, saffron and pistachios. Kunafa, a faded Heart Japanese dessert of shredded phyllo, sugar syrup and cheese ($8.99 for a medium), looked a piece of too soggy.

A pair of different Persian full of life locations in Ottawa — I’m thinking of Persis Grill on Tenth Line Avenue, Parsital in Stittsville and the trendy Persian-impressed Ayla’s Social Kitchen on Preston Avenue  — boast wider menus than Saffron Kabab. But there’s nothing corrupt with specializing in necessities, namely when commendable kebabs and pita pies end result.

phum@postmedia.com