☰
Open daily for lunch and dinner, Ali Baba serves authentic Lebanese/Middle Eastern cuisine, with live entertainment (starts at 10 p.m., with live belly dancing Fri, Sat, & Sun.). Also, offers a full bar and premium hookah.
| Event | Hours | ||
| Happy Hour | Mon-Fri 4pm - 7pm | ||
| * 50% off drinks and appetizers and $10 Hookah specials. | |||
Lunch: 11 a.m.-4 p.m daily.
This restaurant was reviewed in the June 2008 LVA; some of the information contained in the review may no longer be accurate. Over the past few years, we’ve made two recommendations for Mediterranean cuisine: Paymon’s and Chicken Go-Go. The latter was specifically Lebanese and recommended by Lebanese native and poker luminary Freddy Deeb. Since it went out of business, the next time we ran into Freddy we asked for a new recommendation. “Ali Baba,” Freddy said. “It’s better than the other and it has the good lunch buffet.” Indeed. Ali Baba’s buffet, served 11 am to 3 pm daily, is an excellent way to go here. The $12 spread will scratch your Middle Eastern itch better than any buffet in town, with fresh tabouli, fattouch, hummus, and lentil soup for starters, and several entrées, including kibbi balls, shredded chicken, and meat pie on the day we were there. There’s a decent crowd for lunch and many eat the buffet, so things stay fresh. This is a great way to get introduced to these tastes. Ordering from the menu (11 am-10 pm), you’ll find all the traditional Lebanese preparations of lamb, beef, chicken, quail, and seafood. Appetizers, called mezza, are big in this cuisine and Ali Baba has a huge selection—you can make a meal out of the combo plates for $30 or $60. There’s kabobs, shawarma, falafel, raw beef kibbi, rotisserie, and concoctions that we’re not familiar with, but sound fantastic, such as samke harra (Lebanese baked fish). A band and belly dancers perform in the evenings. Good food and good fun.
