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    El Basha Restaurant - Park Ave

    3.5 (104 reviews)
    ModerateMiddle Eastern
    Closed 4:30 pm - 8:00 PM

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    "Chicken shawarma" salad
    Amelia Z.

    The ambience is excellent for a large group or an intimate dinner experience. Spacious, comfortable seating. The dining room staff was excellent. Being Lebanese my standards are high when it comes to Middle Eastern food. The hummus was excellent! The baba ghanoush was good but I'm not certain if they use jarred grilled eggplant or fresh, personally I thought it may have been jarred. I ordered the chicken Shawarma salad. I was a little disappointed when I received it as it was not chicken Shawarma. Even people who aren't Lebanese know what Shawarma is, especially in Worcester, the competition is high! This was chicken kebab on salad. (I wish I read the reviews before ordering as someone else stated the same). I reminded myself that if Shawarma wasn't on the menu I would've ordered the chicken kebab anyways and looked past it, however if that was the only thing I had ordered I would've been highly disappointed. The excellent dining service made up for the rude bar staff and unfortunately I feel it needs to be mentioned. I approached the bar and was asking who I was with if they wanted a drink. The bartender (blonde older woman with glasses) said she was busy, and I could completely understand just wanted to make sure she came back to me - but then she told me I could wait until I was seated at my table and order with my waitress. We sat in the bar for another 15 minutes, and even after she wasn't busy she didn't offer to serve me a drink. She served other people drinks right next to me who were with us but she clearly couldn't swallow her pride and ask if I would like a drink. I was in the restaurant for 30 minutes before I finally got a drink as I followed the instructions and waited to be seated and ordered through the waitress. I'm not the type to speak up and make a scene, but the bartender clearly needs customer service training. I didn't let any of the negative things ruin my evening. Everyone loved their dinner, also pictured is the lamb chops and Shrimp. I wish them much success as their business grows, and hope that my feedback can be useful.

    Lentil soup and mixed grille
    Eunice I.

    I went to El Basha last night with a friend. It's Restaurant Week here in Worcester, so I wanted to check them out as I've never been before despite living in Worcester most of my life and driving by here frequently. My friend made a reservation for us for 7 pm. When we got to there, the hostess was using a piece of paper to check names of guests coming in which I thought was odd because most restaurants do that digitally. She said she couldn't find our name, but it was fine since we got a seat right away. I thought the service was just ok. Our waitress seemed like she was rushing us or just not attentive. I asked for a water, and she brought it out almost ten minutes after serving my friend her drink. She never mentioned that Restaurant Week was happening until we asked, and she barely checked in with us to see how the food was or if we needed anything else. To me, it seemed like she had bit of an attitude or maybe didn't want to be at work. The food was alright. There was a basket of pita bread to start, yet there was no hummus or oil to accompany it with, so that was a bit of a dry experience. I did the 3 course meal for Restaurant Week and I had lentil soup to start. It was a very hearty dish, almost akin to baked beans. I was expecting it to have more of a soupy consistency. I didn't like it all, so left it untouched after one bite. For the entree, I had the mixed grill which came with a shish, kafta, and chicken kabob with a side of rice and grilled vegetables. It was a platter of food and could have easily fed two people. Out of the three protein options, I enjoyed the chicken and shish (steak) the most. The steak was cooked at medium, and I was not asked what temperature I preferred but that was ok. The kafta was a ground beef mix that looked like a cut of beef. It was pretty good to me. I thought the rice and vegetables were just OK as well. Would have preferred a bit of seasoning. What I surprisingly enjoyed was the dessert. I had rice pudding. I've never eaten rice pudding before, so wasn't sure what to expect. It had a nice creamy texture and hints of sugar and cinnnamon in it. I would definitely order this again if I returned. I think the restaurant is intimate and nice for a date or just a meetup with a few friends. I would prefer Zorbas, though, if looking for Mediterranean type food in the future.

    David S.

    A quiet night with a light drizzle drew us to to El Basha to share a meal and an appetizer. I was told to give it a try by a coworker. The hostess was prompt and friendly inviting us to choose our seating as it was a slow night. We chose the bar. Bartender was impersonal but friendly enough. She was quite busy which was odd due to the low crowd. We went with the tuna tartare ($10) and the vegetarian port saiid ($16) with a beer and Mai Thai. They don't have a cocktail menu. Tuna tartare missed the mark. A much too hefty portion of tuna was cut unevenly thick and mushy atop a romaine leaf. Tuna was nervously not fresh, and it was dressed up with spices and chopped herbs to add some good flavor profiles, which sadly did not reconcile the tuna. Two bites and was over it. I would have liked a smaller portion and more attention to detail and quality. There were no crackers to accompany but we used complimentary pita bread for a starch base. The vegetarian port saiid was even more disappointing. It took far too long to come out, and it reminded me of a dish I would throw together with what's in my fridge forgetting to add seasoning. The dish was hot, but it was bland. Had to salt n pepper it. Finished half the dish and held my tongue while paying. Simply subpar. Overall the food disappointed me and my partner, and having been glad to check El Basha off the local restaurants list, I am not surprised I had never been and don't see much of a reason to return.

    Menu
    Shamir P.

    Been coming here for many years now. My wife and I drive over an hour just to dine here. If you are looking for authentic Lebanese/middle eastern food than this is the place for you. Normally I will order many small appetizers just to pick at. Then we will order one main plate to share. To be completely honest I love the appetizers here.

    Dimly lit dining room.
    Lynn R.

    It was another early Friday night dinner (5 p.m.) for my companion and me. This was my first time dining at El Basha, my companion's third. Upon our arrival, the dining room and bar areas were rather dimly lit by elaborate chandeliers and wall sconces. The bar had a handful of customers seated on stools; the dining room was completely empty but for the two of us. A little after five, however, a steady stream of people came in, more and more tables for four being filled. I found the dining room appealing despite the dim lighting, tables topped with crisp white cloths, each wisely covered with a sheet of white paper for easy cleanup. They were set with stemmed water and wine glasses, square white bread/appetizer plates, linen napkins and pristine silverware. The appetizer of vegetarian stuffed grape leaves we shared was served warm, came six to an order on a bed of iceberg lettuce, a fresh lemon slice on top of the rolls. While the filling of perfectly-cooked rice, chick peas, a few vegetables, herbs and a hint of lemon was quite nice, some of the grape leaves that encased the filling had very tough veins, making them hard for me to thoroughly enjoy. We did enjoy the complimentary basket of warm, fresh, gossamer-thin pita bread slices (I've never had pita this thin)---great with our dolmas. To be very truthful, I prefer the cold vegetarian dolmas I purchase from a local market. I felt El Basha's could have used more lemon and seasoning in the mixture, and would have been better served cold or at room temperature---that's just my taste. There was nothing really off-putting in these rolls, and my companion had no complaints. My companion chose for her entree the combination kabob plate, consisting of grilled steak, chicken and kefta (seasoned ground meat), served with a mound of tasty pilaf, and perfectly charred tomato, green bell pepper and onion wedges. She was ecstatic about her food and found her entrée totally satisfying. I snitched a small piece of her kefta and found it to be a tad bland and a little dried out; she disagreed. I opted for the marinated and grilled baby lamb chops, served with the same pilaf and charred vegetables. Oddly, I found the first chop I tasted a bit tough, but the rest were tender and succulent---how the heck did that happen?! On the whole, I found my meal delightful. El Basha does not currently have a dessert menu, but we were told by our server that the offerings that evening were baklava and rice pudding. We passed on the sweets, being too full after finishing most of our dinners (there were some of each of our entrees to take home to enjoy the next day, and we surely did scoop up the remaining slices of that delicious pita bread). I must mention that we were quite pleased with our server, Alda. She was efficient and extremely pleasant. Our tab came to $88, tax and tip included (we ordered one glass of Montepulciano and a bottle of San Pellegrino mineral water). We'll definitely be back when we get our next hankering for Middle Eastern food, nicely done.

    Tabuleh with feta

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    Great food large portions had Chicken Kabab Greek Salad Hummus everything was delicious!

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    They are not open for lunch Monday through Wednesday. We drove all the way there and was disappointed it was closed.

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    4 years ago

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