Bargain middle eastern food at this Saratoga market
Reviewer: Jason
Total Reviews: 1040
Reviewed: 12/4/2006
Rating: 8.5
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Rose International Market in Saratoga is operated by the same owners of the famed Mountain View location. The food is super good but the experience is quite different. For instance, in Saratoga you can order by number or point at the pictures. It's a far cry from the adventurous Mountain View ordering process where meeting in the back parking lot and saying the magic password through the hole in the wall to receive the grilled meats is the norm. Nothing like that in Saratoga, they operate like a normal restaurant.
The Saratoga restaurant is well kept and service is great. Just look at the picture menu and let the guys at the grill know what you want. Grab a drink, browse the market, take a seat, and wait patiently for the food. Today's lunch included rice, grilled tomatoes, and kubideh (seasoned ground beef) for a rock bottom $5.95. I also picked up some rice and chickpea cookies.
The kabab is cooked over a gas flame grill on this type of steel sword-like skewer. Takes less than 10 minutes to cook up and for 1st time middle eastern eaters, the kubideh (Image 9) is one of the easier things to eat. Just imagine a heavily seasoned burger that looks like a very long hot dog. The beef was juicy and charring mixed in well with the tantalizing spices. Cut a slice off the grilled tomatoes (Image 8) and combine with the golden basmati. Oilier than normal but also tastier than others.
Rice cookies had poppy seeds in a delicate packed-flour-sugary-powdery-mini-disc. They taste like packed ingredients with no baking? Interesting taste but I liked the chickpea cookies much better. The cookies have the texture of packed powder with a hint of chickpeas and 1/2 the sugar of American cookies. I gave them out to my co-workers with mixed results.
Rose International Market is a great place to grab a meal or even go grocery shopping. They have tons of imported foods which are nearly impossible to find in your local supermarket. The food is authentic and for $6, how can you complain? If you live between Saratoga and Mountain View, go visit the Mountain View location for the experience, then on your next visit, go to Saratoga and laugh up a storm on how ridiculous it is to order at Mountain View.
Reviewer: Terry
Total Reviews: 739
Reviewed: 12/5/2006
Rating: 8
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Rose Market was never a huge favorite of mine. I think the appeal here is the meats, which I just don't eat that much of to begin with. But I am always in the mood for middle eastern food, so was excited to try out Rose Market 2.
I went with the Falafel sandwich and an order of Hummus. You place your order at the counter and then wait for them to make it. Then you either eat it and goto the register to pay (after your meal) or you take it to the register immediately to go and pay.
We ate there, so it was nice sitting down and enjoying the meal before worrying about pulling out the wallets. My sandwich arrived fairly fast and it looked substantial. Its more of the long and skinny falafel sandwich (burrito style) than a pita type of deal. Both appeal to me so no problems here. Biting into it though, its problem became apparent. It was on the dry side. It was packed with lettuce and falafel but was just overall a bit on the dry side, without much flavor. A small container of tahini or hot sauce would have gone a long way to improve the flavoring. Something like House of Fafafel offers on the table (hot and tahini bottles) really do wonders to improve the experience. Even without the bottles, though, it filled me up ,wasn't overly pricey, and tasted pretty good. Just add more sauce.
The hummus arrived in a huge container, optimized for to-go use. I was a little confused when it arrived, and the guy quickly asked if I wanted some bread to go along with it, and dropped a big bag on the table. Nice. Overall though, I found the hummus not to be exactly my style. Decent lemon content, too runny, garlic non-existent. I know some people like this style, but I prefer the thicker paste of hummus that makes your mouth reek all afternoon with the garlic. This hummus really let you taste the olive fruitiness. I kept trying to pick out what flavor I was experiencing in this hummus. Did they put in some plum?? In the end, I think it was just the pronounced olive flavor that I was experiencing. It was fresh, but I probably wouldn't order it again.
Was working at the Starbucks across the street today when a friend and I got hungry. Remembering seeing Rose Int'l Market 2 on here I suggested that we go. Not sure where it was we walked around to see if it was within walking distance. I almost got on my bike when my friend said it looked like it was across the street. It was. We walked.
Walking in, it is bare and I became a bit lost in the vast emptyness & well kept shelves unlike the Mountain View location. There is a dimly lit butcher counter stacked full of meat on sticks ready for grilling. I ended up with a koobideh kabob plate and my friend the chicken. My friend told them sans tomatos, so I'm not sure if these plates normally come with tomatos or they just served both orders w/o tomatos.
The food was brought out and the koobideh seemed to be less in amount then most kabob joints. A bit on the oily side but cooked just right in my opinion. It was juicy, plump, and flavorful throughout. The rice is just meh. They did not have flat bread and aeromatics like the mountain view location, it's more of a sit down cafe/bistro. good quality disposable plates and utinsils.
Although this location lacks the adventure and charm of the mountain view location, the food, although less plentiful is better. I'm guessing this is because your food is not cooked until ordered, where as the mountain view location is always packed and busy. the kabobs are constantly grilling and therefore a over cooked kabob is not uncommon.
“For about $20 I can feed my family of 4 w/ 4 a la carte koubideh kebabs (point to them in the counter case) and 2 orders of rice. Depending on who cooks they might add the bag of mint and raw onion (or not) or toss in some crunchy rice. Comes w bread”
6/12/2009 7:15:45 AM
jeanclaude4 ate...
Koobideh and Chelo Kabab, Rice
“pretty expensive for what you get, not very impressed. Food was greasy and they gipped me on the grilled tomato (take out)Drive on by”
