Kabobs offers more than its name suggests

When Emad Qasim opened Kabobs on George O’Neal Road (Map it!), he heard his restaurant’s name had reached across the city within a week.

“My friend told me within seven days, our name was everywhere,” he says. “If you would have told me that would have happened when we opened, I wouldn’t have believed you.”

Last year, he teamed up with a family friend to develop the Greek and Lebanese restaurant that opened in the first week of July. In the first months, Kabobs has built a steady crowd thanks to its location near the Shenandoah neighborhood and inexpensive yet tasty menu.

While Kabobs does offer the standard fare of chicken shawarma, gyros and falafel, Qasim emphasizes fresh flavors and traditional cooking methods in the kitchen. Rather than frozen falafel patties, he grounds the vegetables daily. He and a few family members work long hours to stuff grape leaves and cabbage rolls and prepare baklava, cheese bites and spinach pies.

“Sometimes we stay up all night long,” he says. “The first night we opened, we were almost out of everything on the menu. The next day, we had everything prepped and ready to go.”

The family’s love of cooking comes from his mother—there wasn’t a thing she cooked that wasn’t tasty, Qasim says.

“I come from a family where we all know how to cook, especially my mom,” he says. “It’s inherited. We all picked it up from her. It’s in my blood.”

Another big factor for Qasim is the amount of spice in each dish. Rather than being content to use premade mixtures, he blends his own spice mixtures and marinades for meats and dishes.

While business has calmed down with the school season ramping up, Qasim says he’s still getting compliments. Those patrons’ opinions are driving him to deliver a consistent, quality product.

“When I go outside and ask customers how they like it, they always give me an ‘A,'” he says. —Matthew Sigur