Since moving back to CO from CA, I've been dying to find good spots with this type of cuisine. Ali Baba Grill exceeded my expectations when we visited in person. We have since ordered take out, but I probably wouldn't do that again. It's not packaged in a way that maintains the quality as much and the salads are packaged inside the hot meals instead of separately, so we didn't really get to eat that. However, their food, especially the kabobs of all meats, are delicious. Their hummus is top tier! They are also extremely friendly, with a very clean environment inside. read more

Conveniently located on the busy street of 28th in Boulder, I got lucky to find this Lebanese/Mediterranean restaurant as I was heading west and this place (all of a sudden) appeared in the kitty corner of my eye. Lately, when I get hungry I tend to think of this cuisine. As if to say that I was led to it by some invisible force, like a magnet, I made a u turn to get on the east bound lane to rush to it. A small restaurant but on the outside, I sensed some authenticity. After taking a few photos of its exterior, I stepped inside with high anticipation. On Yelp, it's got a solid 4-star rating left by the past diners/takeouters. Sounds promising. A young lady upfront said a quick hi followed by a question "For here or to-go?" to which I said "to-go. The menu has a good selection of both small (appetizer) plates to entrees. Their menus are somewhat fancy booklet style. Depending on the item, there are some accompanying photos of them. I wanted at least a few items so I went with 1) Fava Beans ($9 from the Appetizer section) and 2) Vegetarian Lovers Combo ($17 from the Entree section.) And for the next 45 min (from Boulder to Denver) on a beautiful mid Sunday afternoon, I had go through a very agonizing time smelling the mouthwatering smell of the two dishes while I was fighting the traffic jam caused by an accident on 36. Once I was home though, I wasted no time to savor the two dishes. And this is how my early dinner went: 1) Fava Beans - this dish could utilize more seasoning. It's a little bland or I should say boring. On the positive note, it does taste clean and healthy. I do like simple in many cases where I abhor something that's oversalted. That said, this dish pass my taste test. At the same time, it's definitely not something I highly recommend. 2) Vegetarian Lovers Combo - I can comfortably say that this is a solid dish. There are two falafels that are triangular shaped (never seen them shaped like that). Both baba ghonouj and hummus are in the top two compartments portioned generously. In the main compartment, house salad, rice and tabbouleh are beautifully and carefully placed. One large pita bread that was cut in half was in a piece of foil separately so it wouldn't get soggy. Oh let's not forget, there was one grape leaf on top of the tabbouleh which I saved it for the last. When I finally ate it, I realized that this is/was the star item of the whole combo plate. I've eaten super oily grape leaves that are too soggy in oils but this was perfectly moist and yet not oily. Small and yet it was dense inside. Wish the plate came with two of them. A little suggestion I would like to make to the restaurant (so I hope the restaurant owner read this!!) These two dishes lasted for three meal occasions until dinner time next day. The value for the total price of $23 (before tax) is pretty hard to beat in this high inflation time especially in a city like Boulder. To me, this is a solid 4-star experience. read more

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The service is amazing! It was a warm day today and the AC was cranking when I walked in, loved that! Everyone there is always so nice! The food is always incredible. The hummus is so smooth and creamy. Went with the chicken kebabs and they were cooked perfectly! Very delicious, tender, and always on point. I love everything about this place each time I've gone to visit either dining in or picking up always excellent! read more

Ali Baba Grill - Chicken Kabob comes with hummus, salad, rice - Lebanese Near Me - Boulder, Colorado

Yes yes yes!! Really good Arabic food! I think we ordered almost everything on the menu lol So first off it's a small small building w maybe 10 tables but that's okay. Our server was perfect! First we ordered hummus, baba ghanoush, Kibbeh and falafel and it all came with fresh hot bread. The hummus and baba ghanoush was perfect. I loved the Smokeyness with the baba. The kibbeh and falafel not so much. It tasted like it was prepared a while ago and then freezed. It wasn't that great for me. For my main dish I ordered the mix platter which came with lamb, chicken and beef. The chicken and beef was phenomenal and so tasty, juicy and tender. The lamb was not good at all. It was tough and had no flavor. I didn't eat it. It also came with rice that was so yum and fluffy. Overall I loved this place and will be back read more

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Ordered takeout from here after a very long day - took a little longer than expected to get my order but I was delighted to find an extra treat waiting in the bag for me (a nice slab of baklava)! Very considerate service and the falafel wrap and fattoush were both fresh and yummy. Next time I want to try the hummus :) read more

I have eaten here over the past 5 years. Through the years it has gotten considerably worse. I will not be back. Service was ok. Ambiance was good. read more

The food was okay, it wasn't to die for. The restaurant itself is cute and cozy. The person who took my order and took care of me was very nice, attentive, and even asked me if I spoke Arabic instead of assuming. I would come back. read more

Staff was so amazing and gave great recommendations, the place was super clean & food came out super fast! The grapes and hummus are a perfect appetizer to split for two! My boyfriend and I are both Lebanese and we think that the grape leaf beat our sitto's! Highly recommend!!!!! read more

Ali Baba Grill - Grape leave & hummus appetizer!!!!! Perfect amount for 2 people. Im Lebanese and these may beat my Sittos grape leaves!! So amazing 10/10 - Lebanese Near Me - Boulder, Colorado

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Tiny place with extensive menu, lunch specials M-F and excellent service. My companions recommended both the lamb and chicken kebabs. The pita was fresh and the hummus delicious. Outdoor seating also, for when the weather is fine. read more

Ali Baba Grill - Lentil Soup - Lebanese Near Me - Boulder, Colorado

Had the lamb skewer lunch special. Lamb was quite tender, and the skewer was mostly meat. Excellent value! Service was friendly and efficient, hardly anyone in the dining room. read more

Nice spot for lunch if you're in this part of Boulder and want Mediterranean food. I had a gyros sandwich and my friend had a chicken shawarma sandwich, each of which came with a copious amount of fries. My gyros was tasty, but not very different from this type of sandwich at other places. The interior of the restaurant is nice enough to sit and have a conversation. Service was friendly and prompt. read more

Wanted some Mediterranean food for dinner around Boulder and Yelped it. Ali Baba was close and had super solid reviews. It did not disappoint. We decided to eat in rather than take out. The restaurant is super basic, but all you need for a quick good meal. They definitely do a ton of take-out - probably 5+ people came to pick up take out during the hour we were there. Great service, Great Food. We got 2 Chicken Kebab plates and extra hummus. The prices were generally in line ($21 per plate), (also came with a salad and hummus - so not just a basic plate). The portions were huge!! We took 2 to-go boxes home. The Chicken was super moist with a great marinade. The rice had a really nice and unique flavor. Definitely recommend. read more

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Customer service is not good. I ordered my order and when I went to pick it up and arrived home, I found that the order was not the one I ordered. The person who answers the phone does not speak English well. read more

Delicious & Authentic! Best lamb cabob I've had in Colorado. Smiling faces and warm hearts in here. read more

Ali Baba Grill - Lamb! - Lebanese Near Me - Boulder, Colorado

The service was quick! The food is of course super delicious. Perfect Mediterranean cuisine! If you are craving perfectly grilled kabobs, this is the place to go to! read more

Was craving middle eastern food, and this spot did not disappoint! I got the meat lovers combo (because I do indeed love meat), and the lamb and beef were both excellent; the chicken was good but not quite the flavor profile I expected. We had hummus, tzatziki, and labneh as sides, and I wasn't sold on the tzatziki but the hummus was fantastic and I don't even like hummus. The restaurant itself was very busy and seemed a bit understaffed, but the hosts and servers were very nice and were definitely trying their best. I think if I'd ordered this as take-out, I would have given it another star. read more

Ali Baba Grill - Meat Lovers Combo - Lebanese Near Me - Boulder, Colorado

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I ate dinner there tonight. I ordered the falafel plate. It comes with a choice of salad, hummus, pita bread , rice , and 6 large falafel pieces. I ordered the Greek salad with my order. It was quite good. Chock full of cucumber, tomato, olives, and romaine lettuce. I ate every bite. The hummus was good. Smooth and very creamy . It went well with the pita bread. The falafel balls were very large, hot , and crispy. The basmati rice was cooked perfectly. The nice lady running the dining room was friendly and efficient! read more

The food here is amazing. I am not an expert on Mediterranean/Middle Eastern food as far as authenticity, but I can with full confidence say that all of the components of a meal for this restaurant are done extremely well. The sauces, the meats, the portions, everything is top shelf with this restaurant. I would recommend it to anyone that likes these kind of foods. In my opinion, the Baba Ghanoush is the best around by far. Great texture and flavors. Even though it's a small place physically, it is well worth the trip. The staff is wonderful, and the food is always consistent. read more

Respectable Lebanese food. The chicken kabobs and lamb kofta were particularly good, though the garlic paste was a little bland. We also enjoyed the tabouleh and baba ganoush. Hummus was a bit bland as well. We arrived just before 8pm and the restaurant was closing on a Saturday night, which was weird. The decor inside was very classic Middle East dive restaurant. Prices a little high especially for the kabobs. 5* = incredible (rare) 4* = very good/ strong desire to return 3* = generally good experience 2* = poor/ no desire to return 1* = a particularly awful experience read more

Nasty food will never go back.. Beef kebab test like rotten meat..will call health department

Great shawarma wrap. My new regular spot. Across the street from rayback which is a bonus.

Today my husband and I decided to try this place as we really like Lebanese/Mediterranean food. The lentil soup was really good! The rest of the food was ok, but I was really disappointed to have cilantro in the sauce (and I don't eat cilantro). My bad, I forgot to ask not to put cilantro in any of my my food. The service was ok, but not the best. Restaurant was almost empty but we didn't get the best service as in other same level restaurants. From good: for check-in you can get free baklava. But when I asked for it, I was told that I can get only if I'll right the review. Don't think I wanna eat at this place any more. read more

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Coming out of Yelp review hibernation, I decided to review the first place I went to, Ali Baba Grill turned out to be the one. The restaurant overall pleasantly made this task more enjoyable, one rather write about a positive experience than the opposite. Janet D and I came here for lunch, reminiscing about driving by every time we backpacked in the Rocky Mountain National Park. This place definitely has deliberate decor that complements the food with authenticity. The staff was very pleasant and family members that invariably care about their livelihood. As far as the food, we tried many things including: Grape Leaves, Falafel Plate, Hummus and Chicken Shawarma. The flavors were perfect in each dish, with the Bernies Rice being the star, it was well spiced and moist, cooked by the owner herself. Probably the best I've had in the area. Great family restaurant to dine at, tasty food served with a smile. read more

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I've eaten here twice now, and both times the food quality and taste were below average. My most recent experience, I ordered the Gyro and the Fattoush salad. The gyro meat was dry, the sandwich didn't have much flavor (and what I could taste was off), and the fattoush salad didn't have any flavor because there was no dressing. They also didn't use Persian cucumbers, which is necessary- the regular cucumbers don't work well in this salad. Lots of money out and a big disappointment. I decided to give it another go hoping the first bad experience was just an off day, but nope! That's how they roll. Do not recommend. read more

We came here on a whim while driving in the area, and it's not too bad of a place to get some yummy Mediterranean food! We got salad and hummus (I think they came with our dish) and we ordered the falafel as our appetizer. The salad was really fresh and surprisingly huge in portions, and the hummus with pita was so good. I've never had pita bread that fresh before! The falafel was the best falafel I've ever had. Not dry, goes super well with the sauce, and it's just something I can snack on for days. Then, I ordered the gyro meat platter as recommended by the server, while my boyfriend ordered the meat lovers platter. Some Yelpers have touched on this topic, but I agree that the beef meat was as dry as the desert for both of our dishes. If it wasn't for the sauce that came with my dish, I don't think I would have been able to eat it. The taste itself wasn't too bad, but the dryness really impacted the texture and the overall dish. Loved the rice that came with it though. I can eat that on it's own. My boyfriend's dish was pretty good if you ignore the dry beef. The lamb skewer was so juicy and tender. The chicken was decent. We both ended up bringing home leftovers, so I'm glad the portions are huge enough for that. I asked for extra sauce for my leftover dish, and I kind of wished the server warned me that it would cost an extra 50 cent. Also love the lunch menu price! read more

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Well, here we go again. I left a review for this Ali Baba location in the past, and thought the food was just okay, and not even close to the quality of the Golden restaurant. I had a friend in town a few weeks ago and we were in Boulder, so I thought let's give this location another try. Boy were we disappointed. 2 of us order Gyros, and the other ordered a falafel sandwich. The pitas were terrible and appeared to be from the local grocery store. They were cold and had a tough tug just to get a bite. The gyros meat was not the thinly sliced version that I have always had on a gyros, but rather a slab of meat...well that's a first! With the slab of meat and terrible pita there was one small leaf of lettuce and 2 tiny pieces of chopped tomato. The falafel sandwich was just as bad as the gyros, but the falafel was nearly invisible and dry. We shared an order of fries that were crispy and hot, but tasteless, no salt, and bland. For desert we ordered 2 pieces of baklava as the lady running the restaurant said she had made it that morning. We could barley get a fork through the bottom layer and the taste was far less than average and a bit pasty. Sorry Ali Baba Boulder location...we tried twice, but we will not be back. I really regret not taking photos of the food...it was just weird and a waste of $50.00. The best thing from that lunch was the company we shared, defiantly not the food! read more

The singular thing that has me coming back over and over is their delicious Muhamara!!! I had *never* tried this until this year, and I feel cheated out of years of deliciousness. This item is listed in two places, they have it as side in appetizers and further in the menu as a pizza topping offer. I cannot stress enough, if you love SPICY and SAVORY things, how much you will adore this sauce. It is a blend of red peppers, walnuts, peppers, a citrus for sourness and a few other special ingredients. They give you a very generous portion with some pita bread. Personally, I love to add it to their falafel sammy. Also, their falafel balls have been very good. Crunchy on the outside, soft and the inside and not very dry. Just a smidge dry. Their falafel sandwich lacks pizzazz, but I add it in with the Muhamara. I wish they offered more pickled flavors with their falafel sammy. My husband orders their mixed platter and is very happy with all the flavors and quality of food. He has visited Mediterranean countries and such, so he has a flavor profile to compare against. He gives Ali Baba Grill a thumbs up! read more

Super yum, amazing portions, very kind staff every time. I love the chicken shawarma platter with the rice hummus and chicken, so tasty. I love the hummus as well, every time I get it I have to bring it home and just eat it with everything lol. This place is is small but very nice and I love the vibe of it; its very calm and I love the windows so the light gets in and you're not in a dungeon! read more

Forget El Five!!!!!!! Real food, real people. The fava beans, the hummus ....EVERYTHING we ate here was delicious. We had the nicest server ever. Pleasant atmosphere, clean. If you like Middle Eastern food, you must come here!!! BTW I always have awful experiences in restaurants. This is an anomaly!!!! read more

My meal (delivery) was so good that I called them to tell them so. I'm sure it's challenging to make a hot and fresh beautiful meal, package it, and rely on someone else to deliver it while keeping it hot and fresh and beautiful. I got the King Combo, a flavorful mix of meat and veggies. The rice was cooked to perfection, the veggies were crisp and succulent, the meat was tender and juicy. Next time I'll take a photo for you. It really is beautiful. read more

Hungry midday on Christmas Day, so happy it was open, and was pleased with the overall experience with this restaurant, whose menu is Lebanese and Mediterranean themed. On-site parking made it easy. Ate inside in their large dining room on a cooler Winter day, but noticed their outdoor patio and file it in my food memory bank for a Spring visit. Open for lunch and dinner seven days a week. Delivery and takeout available. Had a terrific server in Caroline, making the whole visit a positive time. Liked the pita and hummus appetizer, and really enjoyed the good-sized gyro plate with fries, which was tasty and served at the right temperature. read more

Ali Baba Grill - Lebanese Near Me - Boulder, Colorado

When quality of food, atmosphere, beautiful decoration and great service are there there is no need to explain more...They were super great I wish Yelp had 100 stars instead of 5 stars for this location...It's real meditaranean food that now days its hard to find...They are following all traditions and spices to give you the flavor of back home. I wished they had a branch in Los Angeles or even California. I do recommend this place if you want eat a real food...Their restroom were super clean and super gorgeous with the beautiful decoration. I was inside for so long just tale videos of beautiful arts. The guy who was helping us was super friendly and welcoming. We most likely give 20-25% for great bueno service but this time we went for 30%...Go for this place...They were super clean no flies or anything that I can consider it...Even we didn't smell any food...They were super welcoming by giving free salad and super delicious hummus...I dont believe any bad surveys about this restaurant while im super picky about my food and the quality... read more

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This sister restaurant to the one in Golden has the same ambiance as the front of that one, strip mall eatery. All that is put aside when the friendly server brings you water and menus right away. We split a gyro sandwich and the vegetarian plate (falafel, hummus, one dolma, tabbouleh, baba gannouj) served with rice and pita. The tabbouleh was beautifully fresh with plenty of lemon, the rice was fluffy & tasty-go figure, the falafel were crisp but not oily . To me the star was the baba gannouj, my husband loved the gyro. All left happy and sated ! read more

We've eaten here a few times pre-Covid and ordered takeout twice in the past couple of months. They are the best in town of this food genre. This time, this one dish fell short to say the least. "Vegetable Plate" that was a small handful of cucumber salad and even smaller handful of carrots/other, some rice and good amount of their excellent hummus and two pieces of falafel for $13.95? Maybe $5.95 would be more appropriate. Pic below. I'll certainly still eat there but that item is a miss. read more

Ali Baba Grill - $13.95 Vegetarian Plate...huh? - Lebanese Near Me - Boulder, Colorado

I love everything I've eaten here, but the gyro meat is especially divine. Perfectly cooked and seasoned. The service is exactly what you would dream about in a small family restaurant. Yesterday I ate lunch at their outdoor tables. Try them! read more

Great place too take the family. Food is delicious. Our family of had the fatoush salad, grape leaves, chicken and steak kabobs for dinner. All of it was very good with plentiful servings. We enjoyed our visit and will return. read more

Food is outstanding and really good service and staff. I don't see how this place is not getting rave reviews every day. The gyro is amazing the salads are great. Outdoor seating. What's not to love about this place. read more

If there is a way to give it 0 star I would have done that Place was dirty the picture on line are not even true or current Service was ok not to professional when the one and only person handles everything cleaning handling money and food with the same unsanitary hands Food was not even close to authentic The rice was cold the meats was overcooked and dry couldn't even chew it When asked how we liked it i voiced my opinion and the waiter replied "sorry may be it would have been better if I had cooked it" read more

I ordered catering for a group of 11. The manager took my order the night before and delivered on time above expectations food. I thought it was a very affordable way to have people over without having to do a ton of work as well... Lots of food for not a big price. Customer service was excellent and friendly. Eating leftovers now..... read more

I ordered from them through GrubHub. First for the good news - the baba ganoush is very good. It goes down hill from there. The pita that accompanied the baba ganoush tasted like day old pita from King Soopers. They didn't even attempt to heat it. The tabouleh that I ordered did not come. Instead they sent dry dolmas - worst I've had. The fattoush salad included iceberg lettuce, formerly frozen cucumber and the saddest looking tomatoes I've seen. On a positive note, there was crunchy pita on top. The dressing tasted like watered down lemon juice. And for all of this, I paid $39.40 with tip. Insanity! I love Mediterranean food and have had some of the best. Outside of the baba ganoush, this was one of the worst I've had. I don't recommend it. Now I'm off to research how to get a refund from GrubHub. read more