Ali Baba Grill Cafe: Middle East on Mary Esther
550 Mary Esther Cutoff, Fort Walton Beach, 986-5555
2/3

By Bruce Collier November 16, 2006 Issue


There are relatively few straight-up Greek restaurants hereabouts, in comparison to the vast array of, say, Italian or barbecue establishments. Greek cooking, on its own, is a pretty simple affair, emphasizing grilled meats and fish, olive oil, garlic and herbs, and mild, fresh cheeses. What we call Middle Eastern cuisine actually overlaps among Greece, Turkey, and the many smaller cultures on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean. From there comes the chickpea and sesame dip called hummus, the wheat “salad” called tabbouleh, and an assortment of eggplant dishes, notably babaghannouj, a salad that doubles as a side dish and dip.

Ali Baba Grill Cafe covers most of these bases, offering a balanced assortment of Greek, Middle Eastern, and westernized food combinations, as well as a buffet of it. The latter seemed especially popular the night we visited. No alcohol was served, though the take-out menu mentions beer and wine. We contented ourselves with tea, water, and a cup of Turkish-style coffee, thick and sweet.

The menu offers sandwiches and wraps, including gyros, sliced roasted lamb wrapped in warm bread with onions, lettuce, and yogurt-based tzatziki sauce. Beef and chicken are also available, as are three vegetarian plates. If I were going to go vegetarian, I would probably lean heavily on Middle Eastern food, since it offers a variety of satisfying and nourishing meatless dishes.

Appetizers include cheese egg rolls, stuffed grape leaves, hummus, tabbouleh, babaghannouj, rice pilaf, and French fries, which I’d not have considered an appetizer. We got the egg rolls and babaghannouj, which came with warm pita bread for dipping. The rolls were stuffed with feta, the workhorse cheese of Greece, and were hot and crunchy, like a good bar snack. The babaghannouj was less garlicky than this dish often is, but that was fine with me.

The remainder of the menu lists grilled items, which makes sense, considering the name of the restaurant. One can choose from lamb, beef, chicken, salmon, mahi mahi, shrimp, and a combination called the Sultan’s Feast, offering a sampler of beef, ground beef, lamb and chicken. There’s even seafood Alfredo pasta and surf and turf, with filet mignon, shrimp and salmon.

My friend got shrimp kabobs and I had lamb chops. Three small lamb chops arrived, medium rare, which is what I like though I wasn’t asked. They were marinated with rosemary and served with bread, rice and an interesting little mound of tangy, crunchy “onion salad.” Eating lamb chops can be labor-intensive, trimming them of the fat you don’t want and leaving the fat you do want, but these yielded some tasty nuggets of pinkish meat.

The shrimp were a little overcooked, but had the right amount of oil and garlic seasoning, and came with a lot of rice and a Greek-style salad. Ali Baba doesn’t skimp on the salad, offering it both as a generous post-appetizer course, and on the entree plates. If you don’t eat your vegetables, it’s not this kitchen’s fault.

Only one dessert was available that night, so we chose it. Baklava, the flaky phyllo, nut and honey pastry must be the key lime pie of Greek and Middle Eastern joints. We split an order, and got four squares that were sweet, but not overly so. Nothing is sweeter than honey, but this was a lighter and milder kind, making the little pastries exactly the thing to follow a meal of grilled meat and vegetables.

Ali Baba Grill Cafe sits in a strip of shops and offices, and the management has done a nice job warming up the spare premises with homey Greek and Turkish decorations and artwork. There’s music, and it sounded Middle Eastern, but I’m no expert. Our server was polite, informed, and attentive. We went on a mid-week night, and the place was doing a pretty brisk business of families, couples, a large table of military personnel who looked like regulars, and a stream of take-out customers. Judging by that, it looks like Greek and Middle Eastern cooking is alive and well, and living in Fort Walton Beach.

(Top)