Bilal’s Kabab
4055 Carling Ave., Unit 3, Kanata, 613-270-8866, bilalskabab.com
Open: Monday to Wednesday 11 a.m to 8 p.m., Thursday and Friday 11 a.m to 9 p.m., Saturday 2 to 10 p.m., Sunday 2 to 9 p.m.
Prices: mains $12.99 to $24.99
Access: no steps to front door or washrooms
There’s a strip mall in Kanata, on Carling Avenue just east of March Road, that I think has some pretty good feng shui as far as small restaurants that offer cuisines from far-flung places are concerned.
At the cluster of eateries there, I’ve had good experiences eating Indian and Iranian, and I’ve heard good things about their Thai neighbours. Most recently, I’ve appreciated more than a few dishes at Bilal’s Kabab, the Afghan restaurant that last fall replaced the Silk Roads restaurant.
Like Ottawa’s other Afghan kebab houses, Bilal’s serves halal meats from animals killed and processed according to Muslim dietary laws. As per those laws, the family-run eatery also does not serve alcohol.
However, Bilal’s stands out from its peers in that it’s an offshoot business of Bilal Farms, a halal slaughterhouse in Clarence Creek, near Rockland, that has processed local lamb and beef for almost two decades. From the livestock brought for slaughter, the restaurant selects and buys the animals that yield the meat it serves.
That connection led me to have high hopes for the freshness and flavour of the lamb and beef dishes at the zero-frills, small-tabled 40-seater, and, indeed, two dinners left me with a lot of confidence in its well-seasoned, toothsome kebabs.
To start with a standout — three yogurt-marinated lamb loin chops (“choppan kabab” on the menu) were large and plump, exceptionally tender, clear-flavoured and juicy. They were also pleasingly priced at $16.99. The pieces of lamb leg in the tikka kebab ($16.99) sometimes required more forceful chewing, but still were very tasty.
Karayi kabab ($15.99), which featured bone-in pieces of lamb ribs and shoulder cooked in a rich onion-and-tomato-and-herb sauce, made for the most involved and least meaty eating. Even better than the lamb in that dish was the marinade-derived sauce. It was delicious, well spiced and savoury, and it prompted us to mop the bowl dry with slices of fresh, crusty Afghan naan bread.
The most expensive beef option, barg kabab, consisted of a skewer of marinated filet mignon ($19.99) and was an obvious, no-fuss winner. It and other kebabs were generously accompanied by fluffy rice and fresh, if ordinary, salad. The portion size was also more than sufficient with the diverse, four-skewer kebab platter for two ($36.99), which yielded leftovers after two of us had had our fill. The moist and sizeable chunks of chicken on that platter were the standouts.
“If you know how to prepare kebabs, you can win the hearts of your customers,” owner and chef Wakil Zazay told me when we spoke after my visits.
Beyond its meats and starches, the humble restaurant serves some interesting and commendable side dishes and appetizers. Aash, a heavily herbed soup made with house-made yogurt, packaged noodles and loose ground meat ($4.99), was hearty, homey and comforting. It’s also a dish that I haven’t seen at similar restaurants in Ottawa.
Bilal’s version of bolani, the Afghan stuffed flatbread ($4.99), was pan-fried to crunchiness and stuffed with a potato mixture that a bit of a spicy kick. Deep-fried beef samosas ($5.99) were hefty, lean and not at all oily.
There were also two appealing eggplant dishes here — one, bademjan laghatak ($4.99), a tomatoe-y stew and the other, borani badenjan ($5.99), a dip made with yoghurt.
Dessert choices at Bilal’s are limited. Firnee ($3.99), a floral-tasting milk pudding, dusted with cardamom and pistachios, was available at a lunch buffet last week, but I would have preferred sawaya, a sweet dish of milk-cooked vermicelli, had it been on offer.
During my lunch visit, I was also hoping for more of my meaty dinner-hour favourites at the steam table, and was disappointed with the selection. But I contented myself with succulent and flavourful tandoori chicken drumsticks, chickpea qorma, and a potato dish related to one of the eggplant preparations. Zazay told me that while the buffet suits the schedules of nearby tech workers, guests could order from the menu at lunch, although ideally before noon or after 1 p.m.
Each time I was there, Zazay and his son have provided attentive, friendly service. They were clearly eager to please, seeking feedback about which dishes pleased the most.
Zazay told me that May will bring a few additions to his menu, including a lamb shank qorma, mantu dumplings, and more vegetable dishes including spinach and okra preparations. To my mind, those should be four more reasons to give Bilal’s a try.
Peter Hum’s previous restaurant reviews
