Al-Hamra Halal Café

2515 Artesia Blvd
Redondo Beach, CA 90278
(310) 371-5919

www.alhamrahalalcafe.com

http://www.yelp.com/biz/al-hamra-halal-cafe-redondo-beach

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Rating: 4 stars

Typical cost for lunch: $$ ($6-9)

What was ordered: Chicken Shawerma, Kofta, Gyros, Beef Schawerma, Lentil Soup

Date of visit: 10 February 2011 (1^st visit)

Review: Yelp calls Al-Hamra a Greek place but it is actually Mediterranean with an emphasis on Middle Eastern and North African food. That puts Al-Hamra in direct competition with Chicken Dijon (literally next door). You might want to be sure you don’t accidently turn into Chicken Dijon as with 200 reviews and 4.5 stars on Yelp, Al-Hamra seems to be the more highly regarded of the two.

Our group of four all ordered pita sandwiches. At around $7 they are a pretty good deal considering you get fries or a garden salad on the side. The pitas themselves were expertly assembled with fresh ingredients and tasty meat. Someone in our group thought the pita in their sandwich was overly grilled, but mine tasted fine. The Beef Schawerma was slow roasted and thinly shaved, the Chicken Schawerma was lean and juicy, and the Kofta and Gyro meat were well seasoned. All of the sauces (tahini, garlic, tzatziki, and a spicy red pepper sauce) used in the various dishes were delicious. They don’t give you too many French fries on the side, but they were good. One person in our group asked for a cup of Lentil soup on the side instead of the normal options. The owner, Naseem, happily accommodated the request for an extra $2. It is very nice to see restaurateurs going the extra mile to make their guests happy. Unfortunately my friend reported the soup tasted stale and sour.

Al-Hamra uses top notch ingredients so the sandwiches were well worth what we paid for them, but the lunch did not fill me up. I didn’t see any real options to beef-up the offerings. Maybe next time I will order one of the dinner plates (approximately $10-12), but they don’t seem like standard lunch faire. I wish I could have ordered a bigger sandwich with a larger pile of fries for a couple bucks more. 4 stars.

-Ben